Rachel Monroe challenges American preconceptions of the wild, wide-open West by addressing issues of surveillance; the series’ first fictional piece, by China Miéville, covers an under-examined area of public space under the guise of detective fiction; a study of public art by Ben Davis sheds light on the myths and stigmas that have accrued to public art, also asking what it can become; Christopher DeWolf shares a sensory navigation trip through a directionless Hong Kong; at a tea ceremony in Nevada's Red Rock Desert, Terry Tempest Williams and a group of neighbors reflect on the plight of public lands when their politics of place is shaken. Simultaneously, Jaron Lanier meditates on the idea of public space online, linking the prevailing, free-for-all model of the internet with a characteristically American yearning for freedom and repudiation of rules structure.
