Rethink LA

What is 50 years? Los Angeles is the personification of our suburban nation, and this archetype is both celebrated and condemned for how it has shaped our society. It is now 55 years after the Federal Highway Act changed our national landscape, and 50 years after the dismantling of Pacific Electric Railway changed our metropolis. Once deemed the city of the future, LA is on the precipice of a new epoch. A sea of change in demographics, cultural allegiances, and lifestyles are beginning to shift our collective decisions in terms of the way we will live, work, play and travel. Like our predecessors, what grand decisions can we make right now to construct our shared future? RETHINK/LA presented a series of visions based on both the stark environmental realities of the present and the optimistic possibilities for the future. This exhibit explored the effects on our city by framing the questions: What does our future look like? Where are we going and how will we get there? Will we choose the status quo or seek a better more sustainable Los Angeles? Rethink/LA: Perspectives on a Future City fast-forwarded 50 years to illustrate a new American dream. A Note on the Collaborative Process Indicative of a team-oriented design process, examples of a partnership cultivated between the contributors and the curatorial team throughout the exhibit, resulting in installations ranging from visionary collages, videos on the present city, and sound installations of local decision makers. These works represented a unification of expert voice and creative vision — two necessary viewpoints in the future city.