Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 8:27 PM
sent by Rena Kosnett




Hello friends,

--one idea for a site project. A stampede, according to one source, is 'an act of mass impulse in which the herd (or crowd) collectively begins running with no clear direction or purpose. Stampedes are believed to originate from biological responses in the brains and endocrine systems of herd animals. The response is believed to have evolved to help animals escape predators.'

The stampede can be used as a metonymy for the loss of control by the cowboy (literally, and historically, as it relates to the LAT article), as a metaphor for the gold rush (can relate to Brica's point about the artifact, human desire's affect on nature), and as an unpredictable act of force that is referential to countless climactic scenes from movies further romanticizing the Old West .

So one idea would be to use this classic, heavily loaded idea of the stampede, which is traditionally attributed to Texas Longhorne cattle in classic movies, but bring in the historical fantasy or UNreality of the Deep End Ranch, by using zebras, giraffes, and apes, in place of cattle, in honor of Safari West originator Peter Lang-- perhaps 3 looping stampede videos, to project on screens at a few different locations on the property. This would work well if we had the end of the year party at the ranch in the evening, and people could stroll around to look at the videos.
Any collaboration, interjections, or extended ideas on these videos are highly welcomed-- I would love to do this with others

Another couple ideas:

--update the iron cattle brand insignia of the previous ranch owner, the one that hangs on the walls of the library, to include a design that reflects Ellen's, David's, and Gerardo's historical ties to the property

--erect a memorial to the now felled orange trees :)

--take an existing blueprint or aerial shot of the ranch property and create overlays for it based on the historical fantasies of the ranch-- one representation of the safari, one representation of the English tea garden, etc.