BOOMER FUTURE, WITH BELLS

Paolo Soleri Sets The Stage With A Desert Vision Of Boomer Future.

It might be a Star Wars set, a home on a distant planet, but it’s not.

Instead you see the cement/earthen buildings of Cosanti in Arizona.

Some of you might mistake Arizona for a distant planet, and you wouldn’t be far off.

With a low tech approach it’s hard telling the difference between innovative architecture and huge cement ducts customized for human use.

Architecture is funny like that.

Like all honest artists and their work you see how it’s done from one stage to the next.

The buildings feel and look like something devolved in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Are they dwellings, studios, or bomb shelters?

And why so many bells? This is the boomer future?

Bells hang everywhere in every condition of finish.

Some are metal, some are ceramic.

If you get caught up in ‘why the bells’ you miss the art.

Metal bells start as molten material.

These students melt stuff wearing good protective gear in the Arizona desert.

Is it hot? Not as hot as a drop of bronze on your arm.

You can almost feel the heat if you lean in toward the image.

The hot pour goes into bell molds.

This image is not enhanced with boosted color; the stuff really looks like magma.

It’s not a steel mill, but they’re working with the same fear factor.

Melted metal deserves all the respect you can give it and so do the bells.

Recurring design themes stand in relief on cast bells.

Why are they gray? Because they’re not finished.

Even the chains they hang from are cast pieces.

Viewing at the bells from top to bottom show nothing overlooked.

The shot below looks like an artist’s studio. Everything sits ready for the next step.

Cast bells cleaned up, a work table set for a session of finish work, the next stop is hanging with a price tag.

The process from start to finish in a futuristic setting shows artistic vision focused on results.

The bells get a treatment like other works of art.

Color and texture add the sort of feeling you’d expect from a desert compound.

What is that feeling?

Driving out of Phoenix, past residential developments, things start looking a little country.

You could easily drive past Cosanti and miss the whole thing.

But that would be your loss. Turn around and look harder.

The sign looks like this:

If thoughts of the future disturb you, Cosanti is a comfort.

Like Boomer past, Boomer future will be what you make of it.

Just be sure you get there with the right bells to announce your arrival.