Road to Ruscha (2012) Collaborative, Multidisciplinary, Researched-Based Art Project
Road to Ruscha was inspired by Edward Ruscha’s painting, No Man’s Land, and the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations. The central element of the project is a road trip, from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles following Ruscha’s original trips of 1962. Primary participants include students and faculty from the University of Oklahoma representing diverse fields of study such as art, art history, architecture, and geography. Along the journey participants engaged in a variety of collaborative projects and site visits derived from the works of Edward Ruscha and specifically from the original twenty-six gasoline stations pictured in the book. The project exists in both physical and virtual space with real time collaboration between those on “the road” and visitors to the Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art in Norman, Oklahoma. Media and technology was heavily used to facilitate this collaboration and emphasize the nature of contemporary experiences of land, of place, and of culture.