Atlas of Remoteness: Midwest USA stems from the Institute for Linear Research’s extensive exploration along a unique path known as the LINE. The LINE originated from a connection between Liechtenstein and Venice, where it was exhibited in 2018. THE LINE now continues all around the world. The latest volume traces the LINE through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. The authors documented those experiences through photographs, maps, sketches, and essays.
The journey through the Midwest along the LINE is an attempt to understand not just the physical surroundings, but also the concept of ‘remoteness’ as it is constructed in the built environment. The LINE is a tool to link diverse regions and invite a fresh perspective on local areas. Due to the arbitrary angle of the LINE, intersections and adjacencies come into sharp focus through linear research. The LINE intersects at odd angles with spiderwebbed systems of pipelines, private property lines in stark Jeffersonian grid, violently breached and reconstructed treaty lines, interstate highways, rivers and watersheds, and complex networks of historic and contemporary space.
In the Midwest USA, the LINE brings questions of remoteness into conversation with ideas of settler colonialism, anthropogenic climate change, and territorial conventions. Each point of intersection becomes an opportunity to bring focus to things outside of the usual gaze — anywhere the LINE touches is a connection to a planetary gesture, larger than the sum of its segments.