This Is Art, Not Industrial Plans / 2015
This piece is an iteration of an ongoing project. I inherited this microfilm from my father. He was a civil engineer for Swindell Dressler Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA (for 27 years). That firm no longer exists but some project plans and notes were stored away by meticulous minded engineers- such as my dad.
In the 1970’s he was the project manager when Swindell built a sponge iron plant in Iraq. At the same time the company also built an identical plant in Iran. These are the plans for those projects, along with the plans for the spare parts.
When I discovered these plans my first thought was to give them to responsible parties to help the People of Iraq rebuild their country after years of war.
I spent five years, trying on and off, to get these plans into the appropriate hands. I have contacted people in the US Government, American private industry and the American media. I thought it would be easy. I thought someone would recognize the value of such a resource for a people rebuilding their nation. I thought, at the very least, I would get a knock on the door and a couple of suits with IDs would show up. But nothing.
And so it is my acceptance of those results that now lets me see this microfilm as art.
I would like to thank Steve Krantz of Venture Engineering in Pittsburgh, PA for his help with this project.