EWAN TELFORD.

The Ecology of Dreams 

Image/ text study of Los Angeles: last outpost of the West; the culmination of U.S. cultural history. Less the Tinseltown of sun and surf, rather a 21st Century megalopolis forty years into neoliberal capitalism: a city of corporate empires and militarised police forces, gated communities and environmental catastrophe. L.A. is also a city of deep mystery and strange beauty, where wild animals roam the night and forked histories lead down occult corridors. Combines documentary, history, fiction: in L.A. reality and fantasy are in a terminal feedback loop. 

The title is inspired by Reyner Banham’s book The Architecture of Four Ecologies, which found the meaning of Los Angeles in its four 'ecologies': the beaches, freeways, flatlands and hills. The city’s fifth ecology, I propose, is that of dreams, which are famously central to the city and the national identity.