Never heard a thing about this until reading your Substack. My first reaction is that the hope here is apparent - this could be a way to make a blended reality that is sufficiently compelling to keep our minds engaged while re-rooting us in the analog world to an extent. The fear is apparent too - it will end with blended realities that are skewed by our cognitive biases and profit incentives to make both digital and analog realities equally unhealthy. Except now our limited capacity to “touch grass” will be further warped by our newfound wish that the grass be composed of a chorus of blades singing Lana Del Rey to us or whatever. Again having just heard of this, I have no clue if the hopeful or fearful take is closer to the mark but thank you for writing about something that is actually interesting and not Trump.
Another thing though, do you think that this movement could maybe help siphon off some of the neoreactionary ardor to experiment with Cathedral-destruction on the nation-state scale? From the second half of your piece it feels like this provides a practical way for people to occupy the same physical space while living in different cities with different rules. If this is a way to allow people to express all their different preferences for organizational models, while still sharing a physical community, and without having to fight over a single organizational model to rule them all, that could be quite hopeful indeed.
> Even a virtual place that exists only as a wandering hologram drifting about the surface of the planet. The purpose of places is to simply exist, and to do their best to continue existing. Not to go accomplish something in particular. And the task of placemaking is to figure out what that takes.
This section immediately brought The WELL to mind. That's gotta be an interesting digital place case study? Still kicking, since 1985.
I may be an outlier as a 50-something man who left the bay area several decades ago and has not even stepped foot in the U.S in over a decade...but I had never heard of a popup city until reading this post.
Edge Esmeralnda popup in Healdsburg is over but will be back next spring. It was fun enough the week I was there. The city of Esmeralda I believe is supposed to take shape iteratively with gravity assists from annual Edge popups and is on property near Healdsburg. I know Devon slightly but otherwise know nothing about the permanent city project. She seems like an energetic and thoughtful placemaker. Have mostly heard good things about it, though it sounds a bit too trad-coded for my personal tastes.
Thanks for this great post, Venkat! I love the idea of layering a new mission on top of an existing city. It is similar/adjacent to my artistic research project New New Babylon NNB https://petervanstudios.com/new-new-babylon-city-of-play/ My intention with NNB is more artistic in nature, but when I get to the economic and governance aspects of this layered city (district), I think very much in similar terms as Edge Lana etc. Its one of the reasons I am so interested in Summer of Protocols. Maybe there are some synergies possible? Warmest, Petervan
Never heard a thing about this until reading your Substack. My first reaction is that the hope here is apparent - this could be a way to make a blended reality that is sufficiently compelling to keep our minds engaged while re-rooting us in the analog world to an extent. The fear is apparent too - it will end with blended realities that are skewed by our cognitive biases and profit incentives to make both digital and analog realities equally unhealthy. Except now our limited capacity to “touch grass” will be further warped by our newfound wish that the grass be composed of a chorus of blades singing Lana Del Rey to us or whatever. Again having just heard of this, I have no clue if the hopeful or fearful take is closer to the mark but thank you for writing about something that is actually interesting and not Trump.
Another thing though, do you think that this movement could maybe help siphon off some of the neoreactionary ardor to experiment with Cathedral-destruction on the nation-state scale? From the second half of your piece it feels like this provides a practical way for people to occupy the same physical space while living in different cities with different rules. If this is a way to allow people to express all their different preferences for organizational models, while still sharing a physical community, and without having to fight over a single organizational model to rule them all, that could be quite hopeful indeed.
> Even a virtual place that exists only as a wandering hologram drifting about the surface of the planet. The purpose of places is to simply exist, and to do their best to continue existing. Not to go accomplish something in particular. And the task of placemaking is to figure out what that takes.
This section immediately brought The WELL to mind. That's gotta be an interesting digital place case study? Still kicking, since 1985.
I may be an outlier as a 50-something man who left the bay area several decades ago and has not even stepped foot in the U.S in over a decade...but I had never heard of a popup city until reading this post.
What do you think of Edge Esmerelda?
Edge Esmeralnda popup in Healdsburg is over but will be back next spring. It was fun enough the week I was there. The city of Esmeralda I believe is supposed to take shape iteratively with gravity assists from annual Edge popups and is on property near Healdsburg. I know Devon slightly but otherwise know nothing about the permanent city project. She seems like an energetic and thoughtful placemaker. Have mostly heard good things about it, though it sounds a bit too trad-coded for my personal tastes.
Thanks for this great post, Venkat! I love the idea of layering a new mission on top of an existing city. It is similar/adjacent to my artistic research project New New Babylon NNB https://petervanstudios.com/new-new-babylon-city-of-play/ My intention with NNB is more artistic in nature, but when I get to the economic and governance aspects of this layered city (district), I think very much in similar terms as Edge Lana etc. Its one of the reasons I am so interested in Summer of Protocols. Maybe there are some synergies possible? Warmest, Petervan