8/10/2023 0 Comments Old macdonald sing along farm pig![]() The funny thing about it, though, is it's constantly changing. In your talk at Machine you discussed the concept of the "contemporary past." What is that, and how does that relate to both the artifacts and ideologies of the 1960s?ĭanis: The contemporary past is a flexible thing - you might say it's loosely the past of the current generation and a generation or two preceding it. With a trowel in her bag, she came conspicuously dressed in a paisley patterned mini-dress.Īnnie, what did you think of our hike today?ĭanis: Nothing like some hippie hunting to start your weekend off right! I found it fascinating I love experiences that make the layered history of places, especially places as crazy as Los Angeles, really apparent. With this in mind, I invited Annie on a trip to try and locate the site of the old Hog Farm in Sunland. I'm drawn to hippie culture and particularly interested in the remnants of hippiedom in our culture today. The article captures the rituals, characters, battles, and architecture of their happening in the hills. At Woodstock, they provided free food and security for the famous rock festival. Gravy and the commune were here in L.A., before decamping for New York. It was headed by Hugh Romney (née Wavy Gravy). The Hog Farm was a commune located in the hills above Sunland, a town in the far north of the San Fernando Valley. Inside I was surprised when I found an article called "High On the Hog Farm." Current day "New Yorker" art critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote it. In 2004, digging in a used bookstore, I came across issue 5 of "Avante Garde Magazine," from 1968. | Photo: Julian Wasser, Caption: Peter Schjeldahl. Spread from Avante Garde issue 5, page 44, 1968. Cheap, strong geodesic domes draped with parachute silk, like the one at right, are the favored Hog Farm architectural motif. Here its citizens assemble for a town meeting en plein air. The Hog Farm, maybe the grooviest hippe kibbutz in existence, sits surrounded by a stupendous mountain landscape in Southern California. At New Buffalo part of the excavation involved unearthing stories from the community of New Buffalo around Taos, about the stuff found. Two of the more well-known examples of this form of archaeology puts it into perspective: one involved a "dig" in a Ford Transit van the other involved the study of a somebody's living room mantel. You get folks from a certain generation to tell stories by looking at older stuff. She explained how her métier, like ballet, is an activity you "do." And particularly in regards to archeology of the contemporary past, what you're really doing, according to Danis is a form of social practice art (appropriately she also participates in a site specific performance collective called Alamo LAbs). Playing off the two A's in archaeology it spelled out ARCHAEOLOGY AS ART. In her presentation she focused on stories and speculations around unearthed condoms, birth control pills, and lotion for the treatment the "hippie bug" - scabies.ĭanis also shared a slide picturing an acrostic. Danis' area of study on the dig was medical waste. They did however find a potsherd with the word "love" inscribed in it. It was also the inspiration for the commune represented in the film "Easy Rider." According to Danis, the artifact they all secretly hoped to find was a stale dirt-laden joint. That commune was relatively well known for its "goin' native" take on the back-to-the-earth movement. The dig, directed by Kaet Heupel of Columbia University, is on the lands of New Buffalo. ![]() Danis discussed hippie trash, literally stuff she and her peers had dug up from a late 60s early 1970s midden, collapsed pit house, and hippie-teepee on a commune site in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico (just north of Taos). Last week, Machine Project hosted a presentation by twenty-something archaeologist Annie Danis one in a series of talks she's coordinating about archeology from the contemporary past. ![]() Spread from Avante Garde issue 5, page 45, 1968. Founding Father Hugh Romney, 32, who in his capacity of Commissioner of Talk speaks for the whole hog, frolics with the commune's Prime Minister, Pigasis.
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