California Story Fund
Invisible Trajectories:
Passing Through the Inland Empire
Wignall Museum/Gallery
Rancho Cucamonga
Project Director: Claude Willey
Insights gained from Traveling Through the Inland Empire
The Inland Empire is home to nine major freeways and functions as a distribution hub for an ever-expanding transportation web, but questions are beginning to emerge. How long can the region’s vision of increased flows continue into the future? What will happen to the region when cheap energy disappears? What does it mean to live in a region of unchecked growth?
“Invisible Trajectories” is a story archive about the experience of traveling through the Inland Empire.
Project Director Claude Willey, a professor in the Urban Studies and Planning Department at California State University, Northridge, used a “walking laboratory” approach to collecting the stories, visiting various Inland Empire town and inviting resident to guide him through the local terrain. At the end of each journey, the guest guides recorded their experiences and posted them on an “Invisible Trajectories” blog.
“This project is about making and writing stories that will allow us to better understand the Inland Empire as a region in flux, or, better yet, as a region proceeding down a precarious path, Willey said. “ The stories will show how the way the area is today was determined by the methods of transportation adopted at each phase of the area’s evolution.”
The stories, accompanied by maps and photographs, will be presented to the public at an exhibit at the Wignall Museum at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga and at the “Invisible Trajectories” space in Alta Loma.