Drop City – Drop Art
The first rural ‘commune’ (perhaps). It thrived, grew too unwieldy and withered. Links to many tales, pics and video. On the site, it says:
“In 1962, Gene Bernofsky, Jo Ann Bernofsky and Clark Richert were students at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Gene and Clark developed a concept they called “Drop Art” (coining the term well before the era-branding slogan, “Turn on, tune in, drop out”). “Dropping” artworks from the rooftop of a loft space in Lawrence, they were making art a spontaneous part of everyday life in the face of a society they saw as increasingly materialistic and war-mongering.
In 1965, they bought a small piece of land near Trinidad, Colorado andcalled their settlement Drop City. They were soon joined by other artists, writers and inventors, and they started building a community that celebrated creative work.”
Drop City’s dazzling structures were based on Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes and the crystalline designs of Steve Baer, a pioneer in geometric structure and solar energy.