Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Profile: 105/110

Traffic; the ubiquitous medium of life for the Angeleno, what better stage for a protest, a greeting to the city, an academic discussion point, an afternoon’s entertainment, or perhaps your own death.


As reports indicate, on April 30th 1998 at approximately 3pm a hotel worker by the name Daniel Jones staged a protest at on one of the overpasses at the 105 and 110 freeway interchange. The protest was reportedly a result of recent diagnoses of cancer and HIV and the subsequent refusal for services by his HMO. The fifty minute protest, which included the unfurling of a banner reading the words, "HMO's are in it for the money!! Live free, love safe or die," and an attempt to self-immolate, stopped traffic in four directions for nearly four hours during the early rush hour. Ultimately, the protest ended when Jones, half naked and pick up truck on fire stood a shotgun against the median and ended his life.

On September 12th 2007 at approximately 3pm ten students from the SCI_Arc, mediaScapes program followed a brief geo-tagging exorcise which lead them to one of the overpasses at the 105 and 110 freeway interchange. The trip was arranged as a quick response to some of the initial conversations carried out during the group’s first meetings and an afternoon in exile. The group was initially given a set of coordinates and a time. The three hour meeting began atop one of the over passes when the first six arrivals pulled on to one of the interchange medians. There the group discussed the implications of layering multiple information sets and ideas of profiling. Ultimately, the meeting ended after meeting in the parking lot of a Valero gas station and a snack at McDonalds.

























































http://www.gawow.com/lastories/1998/980501_side.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Jones
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/logout.php?Cat=0

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