[Andrea Zittel: "Wagon Station Encampment"]
[WOMAN #1] I've only been here for about a week,
but I would like to spend two.
I think that would be a really good amount of time.
A lot of my own work kind of corresponds with landscapes.
This is kind of a research activity for me.
Everybody comes out to the desert for different reasons.
Historically, that's always been true.
There's situations where the group will all go on a hike or something,
or cook dinner together.
But then, people kind of hang out in their pods,
which is what is so cool about the way that the wagon stations have been designed.
You can have that private time
without it seeming like you're defecting from the group or something.
[LAUGHING]
[WOMAN #2] Somebody please enjoy that!
[WOMAN #1] I would love to eat that.
[WOMAN #2] Do you want to just claim it?
[WOMAN #1] Sure.
[WOMAN #2] I also have an onion and apples.
[WOMAN #3] And I'm totally jealous... [LAUGHS]
I think it's such a brilliant idea in the way she's used the space.
I also think it's a really interesting model.
It's a private residence--
it's not an official residency, per se.
But she opens it up twice a year to let people come.
And it's a, I think, a really progressive way of having
artists and creative people work together and meet--
with a no-pressure environment, too.
[WOMAN #1] I did a lot of hiking,
and I did some filming,
and some reading.
Yeah, and then I'm working on a journal, as well.
So, Andrea was very generous in talking to me about that.
[WOMAN #2] Generosity doesn't happen that often
with regard to land these days,
so I think that's really radical.
[ZITTEL] Okay, so the new problem
is that the paper gets stuck under the letters.
I'm so drawn to the frontier mentality
and that idea of having to figure everything out from scratch.
There have been two generations of wagon stations.
In the first generation, I essentially gave to friends
and people who I collaborated with
who would come out here and stay for periods of time.
But, it was always the same person visiting each wagon station,
and they would customize them.
In those instances, each wagon station was autonomous
and it would have its own camp stove within it.
Then, at a point, we extracted those
because they were starting to fall apart in the elements.
And they've sort of traveled to exhibitions since then.
And with these, we've made them all...
Like, they're all sort of the standard version,
like, the way I designed them.
[WOMAN #3] There's locks on either side for this to open up.
And, there's like little strings up there to put your clothes on.
There's also a door in the back that locks,
so if you need any extra air, it's just a quick way out.
And you can leave it open when you sleep.
It gets a little cold, though, so I usually close it.
And, there's a shelf for everything that you need.
And that's pretty much it!
[WOMAN #2] I watched the full moon arc across the entire sky
over the course of the evening.
You're inside, and you can see the environment
framed by Andrea's designs,
really consciously and intentionally.
[ZITTEL] Now, we have the communal kitchen,
and the outdoor showers,
and the composting toilets.
This is a sort of communal living situation
that only works because it's a certain amount of time
and we send people all of these protocol sheets out before they come.
Okay, so if you want to follow Dean and do that on every one--
the double layer.
And, if you want, you could take that, too,
and then just put a like little edge four inches in.
I think that the Wagon Station Encampment was sort of
slowly walking into a situation of inviting other people to come be here.
We always say it's sort of a cross between a retreat and a residency
and a normal campground.
It would be redundant to create, like,
another art residency when there's so many of them.
Everybody has their desert fantasy.
And so my particular fantasy was probably living on an alien landscape.
When NASA tests habitation on Mars,
they have a station in the Mojave Desert,
and I always thought that was so interesting,
that this is the landscape that was chosen
to be most representative of another planet.
I think the aesthetic of these was, sort of,
a sci-fi pioneer aesthetic.
And I don't know if that's my aesthetic now,
because it's constantly changing.
My great grandparents were pioneers just south of here,
and they settled in the Imperial Valley.
The temperatures in the Imperial Valley are about ten degrees hotter than here--
and this gets pretty hot.
When I feel like complaining, I keep thinking about them.
They would live in a tent,
and I guess they poured water over the tent
to cool things off.
It's so funny, I get upset when people say there's nothing here.
[ZITTEL] Okay!
[WOMAN #2] Thank you so much!
[ZITTEL] Sure.
[WOMAN #2] It was really magical and inspiring and awesome.
[ZITTEL] It was good to meet you.
[WOMAN #2] You too, and what an honor.
[ZITTEL] Bye!
[WOMAN #3] It was really nice to meet you.
Thank you so much.
It was awesome.
[ZITTEL] Have a good trip! Bye!
[ZITTEL] But, there's something about the space
that I think really calls to people who want to try
and invent their own structures for living.