Critical Infrastructures: Center for Land Use Interpretation

Matthew Coolidge, Center for Land Use Interpretation (Los Angeles), in conversation. Chaired by Owen Hatherley, writer and journalist; author, A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain.

Doors and drinks 6.30pm
Presentations 7.00pm

The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) is a research and education organization based in Los Angeles, interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth's surface, and in finding new meanings in the intentional and incidental forms that we individually and collectively create. We believe that the manmade landscape is a cultural inscription, that can be read to better understand who we are, and what we are doing. The organization was founded in 1994, and since that time it has produced dozens of exhibits on land use themes and regions, for public institutions all over the United States, as well as overseas.

The Center publishes books, conducts public tours, and offers information and research resources through its library, archive, and web site. The CLUI exists to stimulate discussion, thought, and general interest in the contemporary landscape. Neither an environmental group nor an industry affiliated organization, the work of the Center integrates the many approaches to land use - the many perspectives of the landscape - into a single vision that illustrates the common ground in "land use" debates. At the very least, the Center attempts to emphasize the multiplicity of points of view regarding the utilization of terrestrial and geographic resources.

Matthew Coolidge is Founder and Director of CLUI. Coolidge has written several books published by CLUI, including Back to the Bay: Exploring the Margins of the San Francisco Bay Region (2001), and The Nevada Test Site: A Guide to America's Nuclear Proving Ground (1996). He lectures widely and received a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2004.

Image: Image from CLUI Exhibit Subterranean Renovations: The Unique Architectural Spaces of Show Caves. Credit: CLUI Archive photo Photo Date: 1998.

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