Ok. Hi, Katie, uh, Billy, uh, Sydney and Mark. We enjoyed, uh, seeing you
and, uh, on the tape, we headed in the library at Ar Casati with, um, a
little grape juice and wine and carrots. And so we're all a little sleepy
and maybe a little, uh, slow to begin with. Uh, I'm here as the envelope
as you know. And, uh, so I'm gonna take this tape back to you. Uh, I, I,
what I want to do is sort of introduce some folks here who, who will be
talking with you. Well, first is, uh, there's Randy Hunt here to, to my
left and he is li librarian and, and, and, and Welder and Tony Brown who
is,
and Josephine Crawford. Yeah. Um, I'm working on a first, yeah, a little
festival they're having next weekend, uh, for, uh, 10,000 people. Uh, oh,
my
uh, director. You can say that
her mother, she's her mother.
I thank you for that. You a member here for wood chopper or what?
Ok. I'm Michelle and I'm a workshop,
Jack and re
I'm a resident too. My name's Jason Brown and that's my dad over there.
Tony.
Well, uh folks, you, you, you showed us a little bit around uh another
place and uh and perhaps that's what, what uh Randy could do and, and
others just uh as we pan around the panorama here. Can you do that, Randy
? Just sort of give people an idea of what's going on? Give it a try. Um
This place is a Kani, it's been under construction as an experimental city
since 1970.
Um You're probably looking at the vaults right now. We have a north vault
, a south vault. Uh This first vault was the first structure completed
here at Arcosanti. Um Panning into the back, you'll see the lab building,
which is under construction, a building
basically for uh small uh well, perhaps woodworking, something like that,
small crafts um located uh in the vaults are the metal shop, uh the tool
shop,
the uh well, first of all, you have to excuse me because I'm not used to
all this. Let's see. Uh what's that big bird over there? Uh The big bird.
Uh We as, as Peter said, we're having a uh a festival here next week, uh
festival of health and healing. Um And we're constructing a number of uh
OK, items and, and floats really for uh um yeah, for a, for a good time
and, and Bob over there has been uh coming out here, I believe he lives in
Phoenix. He's been coming out for the last three weekends and just
donating his time putting that thing together doing a magnificent job. All
the feathers are going,
um, you also pass to my along very well. Ok. Ok. Uh, let's see the camera
right now, I guess, is panning back from the vaults and the, uh, going
over towards the west side of the building. And that's where the library
is located where Randy, uh has the library with, uh, all the books that,
uh have been donated and sent to us. And the building in the background is
the uh restaurant with a pyramid uh skylight. This again is one of Randy's
projects uh to put the glass in the skylight. And we're planning to
enclose this building by the festival because we're going to have a whole
series of health and healing seminars that happened inside that building
uh during the festival because we have a theme for the festival, which is
one of health and healing, which uh will happen in conjunction with the
idea of the arts as a uh as a healing process for the community, as well
as uh a process for uh celebration. Um I don't know if you can see, but
back behind is a sort of a landscape. Uh We have a valley that's uh on the
south side of the, the masa here. And we're in process of constructing a
stage and uh amphitheater that will house part of the festival
performances. We actually have, I think it's five stages for the festival
, uh one that we're sitting on up here, the one that you're looking at
down in the valley there. Uh We have uh one over to the east side in a
large area that will have uh crafts and food concession stands. And uh
we'll have also a whole series of smaller stages that step down the mazer
on the, the other side of the valley, which will be used for part of the
performance during the, the evening light show. You can just see the tip
of the, one of the cranes that we have here at a Kanti. That's uh the
smaller one that we really started out with, which is a 20 ton browning
and uh that's located by the swimming pool that we're in process of
constructing, which is something we can't wait for. Uh It's a 25 m
swimming pool which uh sounds like a luxury. But in the middle of the
Arizona Desert, a swimming pool is a, is a real necessity. So we're
looking forward to having that finish this year and probably swimming uh
early next year. Uh Maybe I'll pass it on to somebody else who can give
you a little bit more on, on what the camera is looking at now. Ok. Let's
see. Are you looking, are you looking at me? You know? Oh, yes. Ok. I live
um above a building which is called the Foundry and that's because we cast
the bells down there. And the apartment that I have is next door to
Pyramid. And, um, it's sort of, it's in the shell of the foundry. The
foundry is an app which is a quarter sphere shape and apartments are sort
of in the shell of the foundry. It's very hard to describe. Um, unless you
could see it, we, there's no way we could take the camera over there is
there. But, ok, some of the time we do that because they're really
wonderful spaces and they're very, they're very different. They don't have
um very many 90 degree angles. They're all different shapes and, and
they're really, quite interesting. Um I'd like to talk a little bit.
Well, I've been here a year and um I was the cook for a while and then the
festival came up as it does every year. We've done three. This is the
third of, of um the festivals and it's the beginning of a series of
festivals that we hope to be doing here, the sort of prototype thing. And
uh uh when I heard about the festival, I was very excited because my
background is in theater. And um so I jumped to that and so I'm working on
that now for a while until we get it on, which is next, next week. So
we're all in full swing preparing for this festival. And um the drums you
can hear back there, some kids playing on the thing we've been rehearsing
and actually, we are in the process of rehearsing and maybe later on in
the tape, you're gonna catch some people doing some odd things. You're
gonna have a light show as part of the festival. It's a two day thing and
there's, oh, there's just a bunch of things going on. Um, one of them is a
light show on Saturday night and in the light show we're trying to use as
much. Um, let me see, how can I put it rather than theatrical lighting,
organic lighting. And also we're trying to integrate what a little bit
somehow of what we do here at our sane. Uh, we're having what is called
work vignettes, which is sort of half dance and half showing like people
carrying stuff and laboring and just carrying on. We're just trying to
make the light show a little bit of what of what we do here in the way of
building and play and whatnot and a little bit later on also, maybe, um,
if you go up on the roof, for instance, I'm doing a hanging out my washing
type dance because I do hang out my wash on the, on the roof. So I'm gonna
do a dance. That's saying that and you know, there's gonna be a welder
because that's a lot of, oh, and then Tony Brown's gonna do this, poor,
this concrete pour that's gonna be all. Um Oh yeah. What? OK. I'm not sure
myself yet, but uh, what we have is uh is part of the light show. We're
doing a work sequence and uh we have a transit mixer and I'm sure you're
familiar with what a transit mixer is. It's a, it's a truck mounted uh
drum that rotates to mix the concrete. And so the plan is to, to put
mirrors all over the uh drum of the concrete and shine lights on it during
the light show and do it and rotate the drum. So it looks like a giant
ballroom ball reflecting lights all over the mazer. So we don't know how
it's gonna work out. We're gonna try it Monday night actually see how it
works. But uh I think that the light show is gonna be really good because
it's gonna have a lot of energy from the people here at Arca Santi. Um
Both in terms of the, the, the sort of several parts to the sequence of
the light show. The first is lighting the geology of the landscape and
then the exteriors of the building. And then as Josephine said, everybody
waking up and going to work and doing all the things that they do during
the day. Um And then there's a, there's a firework display as well, uh
which sort of culminates the, the play section of the, of the light show.
And then we have uh a whole lantern procession that goes down to the
stages and then ends up as a, in a big celebration down in the field at
the bottom of the sw, um, this is probably the biggest, uh, festival that
we've done so far of the three. And, uh, I think it's gonna be really
exciting when it gets, uh, gets going. Let's see. May, maybe I should pass
it on to somebody else. Heidi is in the process of dying right now because
she has a terrible cold. But, uh, New York.
Oh,
that's good. Yeah, I do. Ok. Go ahead. If you wanna show it a ta, I gotta
look at myself.
Yeah, because I can't see that. Well,
well,
wait till he goes down there. You're looking at like camp right now where
most of the people who come on a workshop here live and what it is is
there's three main living areas. There's Cube City, there's Plywood City
and I guess tent city. Yeah, the garden is located down there. We, we're
eating out of our garden now. Um, there's,
there's a big building with a, it's like an octagon shape. That's kind of
a community space. We show movies in there. We filled up the center with
water and just swam in it and gotten caught in a storm in there. And it's
a nice space that's inside that everybody can share our kitchens down
there, which is also a really warm place. Uh, and on the other side of the
river, the Cottonwoods, that's where some people set up different kind of
spaces like there's tee down there and tents. I know whatever anybody
chooses, I suppose. But that's where most people live because most of the
spaces up the hill now are not living spaces. They're working spaces.
Well, I think something should be said to, uh, appreciate the
communication attempt that's being, that's going on here because I think
it's very valuable and I think everybody that's here thinks it's very
valuable to try to establish some kind of communication because that's
what a lot of us are in it for. That's a lot our Kani exists in a lot of
ways as an attempt to provide people with information about another way
that they might be able to live rather than living in a city. Although I
guess you guys are pretty lucky because you get to live out in the country.
Uh
So as far as communication goes, I think this is really good. I think what
you're seeing like in the vault around you is it's kind of rare. Don't get
the idea that there's always as much activity going on around here because
a lot of times it's pretty desolate. But I think a lot of people here
really enjoy that desolation too. Uh
Give me a second.
Ok. Um I'm at a workshop the second time I was here a year ago and it's
kind of, I think I'm becoming one of the reoccurring people. Once you
start here, you kind of get you, you get used to this place and it's
something special and it makes you come back and talking about this place
is a different place to live. It's an incredibly peaceful place and that's
why I keep coming back in terms of finding out that I don't like to live
in a city and maybe this kind of city will be different and just
evaluating it in terms of my life. And uh there's so much going on here
and right now you're looking at the people who are, um, practicing for a
dance and there's space here to do pretty much what you want. It's one of
the places where a lot goes and if you want to do something you can create
it and that's what these people are doing now. Um, let's talk to Jack.
Ok.
What's next?
I don't really have anything to add to that at all. I haven't seen the
tape that uh was sent here. So maybe I'll get a chance to look at it later.
Uh
It's a good place.
Ok. Hi there. I don't really know anything to say, but just living here is
just great. It's just a good experience. I've lived lots of other places
but, um, living here is different because it's just such a great place and
there's no arguments most of the time.
Some of the time we'll see. No, no good joke.
I just think it's a great place to be.
Sneak,
make you live there. In your house because you're right out. Of course, I
got to tell you what.
No,
I just, I just feel great about this place because it's,
it's different and it's a new idea.
How about the other kids? Well, over there in the vault
three are the two are the kids. No. What?
Get the work. I'm gonna be here for
much more. Maybe
boy named Jonas
who is just so.
And, um, in East housing there's a young three year old named Ken who is
um smaller.
OK.
Nice drink. You do a little, I get along with sometimes. Oh he's around
be OK. Yeah.
How, how much we have this, finish this table up here?
How much time left wondering how much time we have left in this paper we
could move over there.
I think it would be helpful for, for, for and why you're here since I got
the microphone. What's your name? Peter just said that we should try to
talk about why we're here. So I'll start since I got the microphone in my
hand. Uh
As soon as you say that you have to stop and think because there's a lot
of reasons and a lot of them aren't very verbal, they're very intuitive.
I'm here because I don't like to live in the intensity of urban society,
but I enjoy interacting with people. I've been there and know things about
it. I know about the city because it's a very intense place, but it can be
a very oppressive place too. I'm here because I wanna be able to build our
designing and to be able to live in it.
I'm also here to try to learn about Carlo's ideas, the philosophy that
goes behind Margo Sani, which is I've been doing that for two years and
I'm beginning to get a feel for it and it's very deeply involved.
I think it's too complex a question. Um, it's very much involved in just
living as far as I'm concerned. Um, having said it's too complex a
question, I'll now go ahead and answer.
Try to anyway, there are many, many reasons why one's here and I'll just
ramble on a little bit. Um, just before I came here, I was living
in the suburbs, um, because of circumstances and I found that it was the
most alienating thing that's ever happened to me. Um, I think it, it
probably started with quite a good idea a long time ago. The idea of
everybody with their little piece of garden and privacy and all that stuff.
But I, it's some, something went wrong. Um, as far as I was concerned, it
was very wrong for me. And so I'd known about this case for a long time
and it seems to me a kind of radical move and I like radical things. So,
um I thought I'd give it a try. I have absolutely nothing to lose. Believe
me. It's to me living in the suburbs. Just, just nothing. And, um, when I
say alienation, it just seemed like everybody's front windows were closed
and yes, they've got their little piece of garden and everything. But I
wanted to talk to people sometimes I didn't want to get in my car and
drive for three hours and talk to them. So I'm, I'm, I'm looking for an
alternative and as I say, Aa Sandy certainly offers one. Um,
I'm getting hypnotized by the drums. Excuse me.
Uh It's, as I say, I think that like living, I've lived here for a year
and, and the positive thing that I found about it and of course, like
everything, there is a great deal of positive and negative. But the
positive thing I find is that it's life, I'm living it. It's not, um, it's
not a six week course or an instant utopia or any of those things. I'm
just living here in this emerging thing and the way I feel about it is
that, that it's the future and the future is unspeakable because it's the
future. How can you tell what it is? You can't analyze it or any of those
things. So it starts getting awfully difficult to talk about it as a sort
of formed thing because it, it's the future. Um I can go on rambling on
and I do ramble on an awful lot. So I'm gonna pass it a little bit to
David. I don't think David spoke out saying David, oh, you want to do
yours in the ceramic, right?
Um Yeah. Yeah. I like giving tours.
Um, it's just such an immense project. I, I'm sure I do like the people
that we're all talking to know what we talk, what, what it is that we're
trying to do here because, um, do do that. Does everybody know that what
we're doing here? Do you think that we're talking to, do? Most people
understand that we're trying to build a, a three dimensional one
structured city? That's an urban experiment though.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're trying to build a new, a new and it's an
urban experiment and it's a one structured um city and it's a very small
experiment um of our colleges. And
in essence, the building is going to be as I see it, a solar, a solar
machine pretty much the building itself. It's not just a bunch of
buildings with a bunch of little solar things stuck on them, that it's
going to be one great big structure. That is many things and one of the
things is a solar collector. Um It's also an urban center, it's going to
be a concentrated urban center with agriculture growing all the way around
it. And then, and then nature just being nature all the way around it,
you'll be able to get out into that very quickly. Um
I really can't go on talking. I I am getting terrible tour by the drums. I
really would like to come.
Ok. Well, I guess the question was why are we here? And I guess the reason
I'm here is really because I, I love cities and it sounds kind of crazy
sitting here out in the middle of the boonies, uh, with nothing going on
around us. Um, but the problems of the city are really, uh, I think
immense and they're getting worse. The city is really showing signs of
breakdown in all facets and the city to me is the real solution to modern
life. Um I am very much opposed to the idea of taking a cabin and moving
off into the countryside and living a rural life because I think that that
might suffice for a few people. But uh 90% of the world's population does
live in cities. And unless we address the problems of the cities, we're
really not uh solving any of the real dilemmas of modern life. So I'm uh
I'm here because uh I wanna build a new form of city. And I think the the
design that pa has proposed is a, is a very rational form that will uh not
only house the people within a city structure but will promote the
interaction between people in that structure. So besides serving as a
shelter, it also serves as an intensifier of, of urban life. And I think
uh the intensity that uh exists in an urban atmosphere is very important
to the ongoing evolution of the human race. And Palo is a very um intense
evolutionary thinker and the city is a very important part of his thought
processes. Um So, basically, I'm here to build a structure that will house
a function that will maybe um enhance the future uh living situation of
people that live in urban environments. Brandy.
Well, Tony is uh very eloquent in his uh in his description. Uh I, I could
say I'm here for just about exactly the same reason. Um Having lived in uh
city situations and country situations, uh I know that uh I, I need to
have open spaces uh on occasion to, to be able to wander out into and, and
sort of be by myself. Uh But having lived in a uh total rural area for
about three years, I noticed that I, I'd go crazy just several times a
week not having enough people around to, to, to generate,
oh, in urban excitement. So, Arcos. So he seems like a uh
a very real and viable alternative uh for me. Uh That's why I'm here.
Um As for this video, uh I think it's a really interesting experiment,
what we're doing here. Uh Video has got uh tremendous
potentials uh apart from commercialized television, um
I felt a little bit funny watching you on television. Um
and, and slightly uncomfortable for being behind it video, youtube here.
And
I think it's, it's important that uh situations
that are developing in, in the world today like Arco,
OK.
And what you're doing at another place in, in networking, uh A Fin Horn
Laville or any number of other places which I may not be aware of is uh an
initial step in uh in a, in a tremendously long line of, of
uh well, a long sequence of things which will bring about a uh community,
uh a world community.
Of course, it's coming to the point where we can't do otherwise.
So, an interesting experiment and hello. And uh I enjoyed seeing all of
you.
Um
Does anyone else have anything you want to say?
OK, my name is Susan and I'm a works hopper. That means I'm here for six
weeks. I first heard about solar last year. And the thing that interested
me primarily was the fact that very radical concept is actually being
built. Basically, what I've been doing is construction, which has been
everything from helping to pour cement through the pool, to pounding the
stakes for flagpole holders in the field. For the festival.
Being here has been very important to me because it's been much more than
a construction experience or learning about ecologies. It's been being
able to combine both living with the same people that I work with and
playing with the same people. And I think that's a very important thing.
Um I, I hope to come back. That's all I have to say.
Pen
Oh, hello. This is, this is Tam
Jack. Uh, why, why are you here? But everybody knew. Well, I know, but not
, not everybody know because I'm crazy. Well, everybody knows that. But
why are you?
Well, let's see. I thought of two reasons, uh, that people there might
identify with.
It's the optimum environment for personal growth for people who like to do
things that are fairly physical in nature
because it, it forces one to think about hows and think about why's
together at the same time. And that's what we're about here at a Kani.
Ultimately, I'm here because this is the uh the most profound affirmation
of existence that I know of. And that's not what's here now, particularly
, although it has, it has a great deal to offer. But what we stand for
ultimately and eventually,
I don't find it appearing anywhere else in, in quite the same terms,
challenges
is great and therefore the the response called for is great and that,
that's what makes for growth and transformation of individuals.
And it also forces us to collect here.
The whole synopsis of, of the uh the positive energies are available at
this point in history.
I hope the uh the media
experience, the experiment so contributory to that. So thanks for doing it.
You.
Oh OK. My name names Benji Cohen. And uh reason I came here is because I
wanted to get the scenery. It's my first time out in the West wanted to
see what it really looked like. So I came here can see all across the
canyons and see the mountains. It's beautiful scenery and you almost never
have a.