fbpx

75 Reasons to Live: Rick Prelinger on Willard E. Worden’s Observatory in Ruins, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Rick Prelinger is an archivist, writer, and media maker, and founder of the Prelinger Archives. Here he's talking about Willard E. Worden's Observatory in Ruins, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (1906), imagining the observatory's history — its contested construction and subsequent collapse by earthquake — as a prophecy of the present digital panopticon and the disruptions to come.Remember the end of Manhattan, when Woody Allen asks himself what makes life worth living? In January 2010, during SFMOMA's three-day 75th anniversary celebration, 75 people from the Bay Area creative community gave extremely short talks — 7.5 minutes or less! — on a single collection work of their choosing. Someone called it “manic splendor“ — and it was. You can view all of the talks on The Anniversary Show exhibition page. Or look for them here, on Open Space.

75 Reasons to Live
See All