Slab City Infrastructure

Sam Kronick

Slab City Infrastructure is a schematic model of a transient desert community east of the Salton Sea built on the site of a defunct WWII-era military base. The inhabitants of "The Slabs" have squatted and congregated on this land for half a century in spite of the lack of electricity, water, sewage, or waste services. This piece focuses on the little infrastructure that is present on site-- the concrete slabs that used to serve as foundations for the military buildings, the desert sands, and the RVs and other vehicles imported as temporary architecture. The slabs in particular are of interest for their formal and material properties-- rigid rectilinear shapes, aligned within a rational grid, and providing firm foundation amidst a shifting sea of sand. This is the only feature that sets this bit of desert apart from the rest of its sprawl, and it somehow has signaled that this land is fit for human inhabitation against the odds. This piece is a part of ongoing interactions with this site and the infrastructure and community that has catalyzed around it.

Sam Kronick investigates the intersection of software, infrastructure, and space through a practice of research and speculative tool-making. He is an MFA candidate in the Department of Visual Arts at UCSD.