February 18 Center for Land Use Interpetation Talk

The Center for Land Use Interpretation could have only emerged in our West. Here human changes in the landscape are often dwarfed by the grand scale of our mountains, canyons, deserts and coastlines. The changes are recent too. The Center hosts very smart people to research, classify, extrapolate our use and abuse of the landscape. They publish the results and put on documentary exhibits. Ever seeking new insight, they operate an artists residency at a partially abandoned military base in remote Utah, where pilots trained to drop the first atomic bomb on Japan. It is adjacent to an active bombing range, filled with uncountable unexploded bombs. They have an outpost in the Mojave for researchers and occasional exhibitions and a new East Coast outpost in Troy. The Center's Culver City office hosts exhibitions, a library and geographic databases. Their varied projects have included the Greenland, Antarctic stations, wireless towers, atmospheric nuclear tests, mining, sewer pipes, videos made by cameras attached to livestock and a myriad of other fascinating and obscure meditations. The Center for Land Use Interpretation's founder Matthew Coolidge speaks at the PSU art lecture series tonight, 5th Ave Cinemas 510 SW Hall Room 92 7:30PM (The earlier you arrive the less chance to sit on he floor) Free