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The piece Fringes of Utopia. Observations on West Coast Urbanism was photographed in December 2001/January 2002
in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego. These cities of the American westcoast are often mentioned as good examples
for future city development. In their lavish dealing with natural resources such as land, water and energy, the dependence
on private transportation, the disappearance of public space and the unsolved questions of security, they mark an urban
prototype of the sprawl that has been thoroughly described by various authors of science fiction. The piece considers various aspects of urban development in this area and emphasizes the vastness and emptyness of the urban space which cannot be found in Europe. It shows a rather critical view of the urban and suburban areas. The reading of City of Quartz by Mike Davis and the events of September 11th 2001 have greatly influenced the piece. Thus it marks a clear contrast to images of these cities represented by the media (as seen in TV and the movies). Fringes is a continuation of the observation of the city at the beginning of the 21st century as was started with dockland. |