[All images courtesy Doug Johnston. Click for larger version.]

Stuck on the Wes Coast but Intrigued by a press release for Spacebuster, a mobile, inflatable structure designed to “transform public spaces of all kinds into points for community gathering,” Life Without Buildings enlisted the help of Doug Johnston to cover the Manhattan opening of the latest exhibition by Storefront for Art and Architecture. Spacebuster, the work of Berlin-based interdisciplinary group Raumlabor, is essentially a giant bubble that expands from the back of the van. Inflatable architecture at its simplest and most mobile (compared to…oh say, a lunar base). As is the nature of such structures, the shape and form of the translucent inflatable will adjusts to its surroundings, creating a different pavilion-like condition wherever it is parked – from open field to a narrow lot beneath the High Line.

During the preview, Raumlabor affirmed that anyone could build their own Spacebuster, as the materials used are incredibly simple: a fan, some plastic sheeting or visqueen, double-sided tape, and some weights to shape the bubble and hold it down. Such an egalitarian architecture seems like an appropriate concept for the current economy. What better time than a increasingly global recession/depression to reclaim public space, bring people together, and create a new sense of community? All this through a quasi-utopian, nomadic architecture. Of course, most readers probably know that, like social utopias, inflatable architecture isn’t a new idea. Well known for their inflatables, Ant Farm espoused similar designs, even going so far as to publish an “INFLATOCOOKBOOK” (pdf download via Let’s Re-Make) in 1971 that gathered their collective knowledge as “inflatoexperts.” For Ant Farm, the inflatable was a vision of “what environment can mean when a person takes it in his own hands, feeling it and molding new forms.” It was also an unfortunately unrealized means of creating “moment villages” around the nomadic rock concert lifestyle.

[All images courtesy Doug Johnston. Click for larger version.]

The original Spacebuster, then known as the Küchenmonument was installed in Germany and used as a community kitchen. Neighbors were invited out into public spaces to cook for one another (Here, I defer to Doug, who cites similar undetakings by WochenKlausur and Rirkrit Tiravanija). Raumlabor are interested relational aesthetics; in how people can interact with the architecture and the space. The inflatable is not only a practical, quick ‘n dirty piece of architecture – it also a spectacle. And when you’re trying to attract people to new ideas, a little spectacle never hurts. This new iteration will be used for hosting lectures, exhibitions, and screenings. A total of 10 Spacebuster events are planned as the roving piece of architecture travels throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. More info at Storefront for Art and Architecture.


· Spacebuster by Raumlabor [Storefront for Art & Architecture]
· The Collected Ant Farm posts [Life Without Buildings]

Life Without Buildings

The second issue of the “online architectural production,” Floater, is now online. The theme of the issue, System False, is defined by editor Yannis Arvanitis as “the concept of exception in the critical context of a production mechanism. Systems of performing practice and theory are challenged through the negotiation with the possibility of an error.” Contributors, collaborators and co-conspirators include Atelier Van Lieshout, jodi.org, alva noto, Miltos Manetas, Harm van den Dorpel, Eleni Axioti, Telemachos Telemachou, Yaron Lapid, and myself. Topics range from sociopolitical dystopias to high-resolution digital ambiance to the “architectural accidents” of Gordon Matta-Clark. And I contributed an interview with Ant Farm accompanied by photos, drawings, and a video, documenting the retroactive discovery and restoration of the Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule). Each article (also available in downloadable pdfs) is complemented with a unique combination of video, imagery, and audio (double click!), that floats over the page, creating a mixed-media publication uniquely suited to the web. At a time when newspapers and magazines have literally stopped the presses and moved to online-only publication, it’s encouraging to see an intelligent journal designed specifically for viewing online that does more than just use the digital medium as a low-overhead forum to publish articles and essays. Check out Floater #02: System False!

· Floater #02: System False
· Ant Farm Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule) Update: LWB Interviews Ant Farm [LWB]

Life Without Buildings

[The Ant Farm Media Van v.08 in situ at SFMOMA[

For the past few months, Life WIthout Buildings has been following the retrofitting of the Ant Farm Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule), on view as part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now. Life Without Buildings recently sat down with original Ant Farm Members Chip Lord and Curtis Schreier and San Francisco based architect Bruce Tomb to discuss the Media Van, the Counterculture of the 70's, modern social networking, and mobile utopias. The full article and interview is now available online as a preview of Floater Magazine Issue 2: System False. Continue reading for an excerpt from that article.




Missing since 1972, The ANT FARM Media Van was recently unearthed in Sausalito, California in the historic NIKE Missile Site SF-88. In response to rumors and inquiries, Golden Gate National Recreation Area Ranger John Porter, led original members of Ant Farm, the seminal 1970s art / architecture / performance collective, Chip Lord & Curtis Schreier, along with San Francisco architect Bruce Tomb, down into the bomb-proof vault doors of the nuclear capable base where they discovered the Media Van, a nomadic documentation node in their utopian "Truckstop Network," covered in tar and an estimated 36 years worth of dust. Delighted by the strange and mysterious condition of arguably their most iconic work, the trio speculated that the van was intended as a Time Capsule, abeit an empty one, and claimed that it "embodies the legacy of Ant Farm." They proudly dubbed it ANT FARM Media Van v.08 [Time Capsule], and retrofitted the interior with a technological update that enables it to record digital media.

Jimmy Stamp: So it’s 2008 and The Media Van has undergone yet another transformation.

Chip Lord: One thing we noticed is that when people enter the van at the museum, often their first question is, if they know about the history, “is this the real van? Is this the same van?”

Bruce Tomb: You know, it’s not so much questioning its…actuality, but it’s one of those leading questions. They’ve already answered it themselves. They think it is and they just want the affirmation back that it is.

Curtis Schreier: But you could say no — it’s a year later. It could just be a time question. We found it covered in tar in the NIKE site and reworked the interior.

You don’t know what happend to it? Why it was covered it tar?

BT: It disappeared. And the reason, well…we don’t know.

What was the original intent of the Media Van and its different iterations? I know that it was a node in a greater network — the Truck Stop Network. And there was this idea of informational currency and idea exchange…

CS: Well there’s a history even before that. We were doing alternate architecture and that kind of architecture had to be spread around and still had to communicate with itself. And the fact that we added to the architecture tools — video as an extension of photography — um, The Media Van happened at the right time. It’s a standard commercial issue that we were able to use to our own ends.

CL: But it was also within the context of a countercultural subset of people who were living in vehicles and living nomadically. Some of those were like wooden gingerbread houses on the back of pickup trucks and some were VW vans and what not. I think it was endemic of our age, being in the mid 20′s you want to go out on the road.

Read the whole interview at Floater Magazine.

The Media Van closing ceremonies happen tonight, Thursday January 29th, at 7:00 pm (you should come!).

· Ant Farm Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule) [LWB]
· Ant Farm Media Van v.08 Update 1 [LWB]
· Ant Farm Media Van v.08 Update 2 [LWB]
· Ant Farm Media Van v.08 Update 3 [LWB]

Life Without Buildings

Life Without Buildings

Life Without Buildings

Life Without Buildings

Life Without Buildings