This tape features a proposal for the Official Convention City, created by Ant Farm. In the mid-seventies, members of Ant Farm embarked on a journey to create a domed city in Texas with the sole purpose of using it to broadcast American political conventions. The proposal was meant to raise questions about the scripted and electronic aspects of political coverage. There is also footage of numerous news reports about Ant Farm's various projects and other Ant Farm pieces including NASA moon walk, joy ride excerpts, and a time capsule news report.
00:00Copy video clip URL This tape begins with a blue screen.
00:12Copy video clip URL Cut to footage of a man standing in front of a television store. He quietly watches several televisions from behind the glass.
00:44Copy video clip URL Cut to a shot of news anchor Ron Kershaw reporting on Ant Farm’s Convention City Project. Kernshaw explains Ant Farm’s intentions in creating the environmentally and electronically friendly city, which will essentially serve as a gigantic TV studio. Ant Farm representative Doug Michels says a few words about the proposed project. Due to the growing popularity of scripting contemporary politics for television broadcasts and the rise of electronic communications, Ant Farm has proposed to build Convention City. Michels goes on to talk about the more detailed aspects of the self-contained community. “We feel that Convention City could herald a whole new consciousness in urban design wherein how people live determines their environmental politics, rather than their politics determining how they live.
05:21Copy video clip URL Cut back to another news report on Convention City. Doug Michels speaks with a person about Ant Farm’s choice to build the city in Texas.
06:31Copy video clip URL Cut to another news report on Convention City.
07:38Copy video clip URL Cut to a shot of Ant Farm Representative Curtis Schreier as he eats a Greek salad. We then follow him as he ventures over to a soda machine to grab a drink.
09:44Copy video clip URL Cut to a shot of three men walking with one another. They talk about various network videotaping methods. This lasts for several minutes.
13:44Copy video clip URL Cut to footage of a group of young people at a Hardees. The group eat a little bit of food before presumably attending some type of sporting event. This lasts for several minutes.
17:09Copy video clip URL Cut to a shot of Doug Michels wrapped in a blanket.
17:28Copy video clip URL We watch as a pickup truck helps remove a car from a ditch on the side of a road. This lasts for several minutes.
18:59Copy video clip URL Cut to a news report on Ant Farm’s Time Capsule Project. The group stocks a refrigerator with a slew of different items. The group will not open the refrigerator until 1984. Marilyn Lusetkin of the Houston Museum of Contemporary Arts comments on the project. Other Ant Farm members talk about some of the items they are placing in the refrigerator.
22:19Copy video clip URL Ant Farm members talk about the news report on the time capsule project.
23:07Copy video clip URL We watch as a college student goes through the process of dropping a class. It is followed by a brief conversation with another individual on another part of the college campus.
26:53Copy video clip URL Cut to a sketch of Convention City. The videomakers state that the coverage will continue.
27:09Copy video clip URL Tape ends.
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