monorail

This project is about my involvement with the nowhere 2 nowhere monorail, a project being brought to black rock city for 2010. The development of the monorail is partially funded by a grant from the Burning Man LLC. It’s an interesting project and a fun team that I’m working on (and we’re looking for more volunteers.)

I’m going to put more thoughts about the monorail later, but this is the ‘philosophical statement’ that I wrote for the grant and I think it serves to introduce why I want to do the project nicely:

All public transit systems are situated in a particular context, made for a particular way of living and generally planned haphazardly as places develop and change. A public transit system partakes of and changes the environment around it, encouraging growth as well as providing functions.

Monorails are and possibly always will be the future. Artifacts like Seattle’s monorail and the Disneyland peoplemovers show you how monorails cause monomania in people. It’s part and parcel of the shape of things to come that there will be monorails, and looking at science fiction shows show that monorails extend even into space.

Placed in a context of constant change, our monorail encourages people to think about public transit with less of a one track mind. By removing the constraints of practicality from the system, people are free to engage with the travel in a new space, and hopefully go back to their own homes with a heightened appreciation of the possibilities of mass transit.

Monorails are the present, people today are taking mass transit systems around the country and turning them into performance venues like the no pants subway ride which has spread across the country. We do not present a method of increasing civic engagement with anything, we do not present a means for people to learn important messages about the world. We present fun, we take you down the rail, and then you can ride it back. We have a schedule, but you aren’t wearing a watch and we promise not to tell you what it is.

You’re on a rail to nowhere, get on board.

Monorails are and possibly always will be the past. The past sees the future primarily as a reflection of itself, and living in the future of long ago is funny. In New York, London, and Paris (as well as other cities) utopian dreams mix with plans and portents in the tilework on subway walls. We live in a world made of the chaotic outcomes of these plans of orderly transit and smooth functioning dreamworlds, and that is both terrible and awesome.

Stand clear of the opening doors.

Anyway, that’s my opinion on why we’re doing it and why it’s important. I am a mass transit afficianado generally. However, no discussion of monorails would be complete without a link to the monorail song from the Simpsons.