Documenting The American Landscape

Landfills and prisons and dams, oh my! Visitors to the Land Use Database (ludb.clui.org) will find these and a lot more—bombing ranges, nuclear test sites, UFO sighting spots, the World’s Largest Thermometer—all cataloged with location information, links, and brief, often pithy descriptions. The database is a creation of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), a Los Angeles–based research and education organization that since 1994 has been documenting the reshaping of the natural landscape in the United States...Part sober documentation of the man-made environment, part slyly humorous conceptual-art project, it’s an enterprise that can take a while to wrap one’s head around...Ultimately the emphasis—despite CLUI’s name—is on documentation, not interpretation.