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JustBob has been thinking of urban artifacts, like the lights at 1901 Hover St. and similar artifacts around Longmont. He is searching for any that can be found in Longmont and will publish photos of them in this column. He welcomes any reader suggestions and asks that you please send a written description or photos along with the location of the artifact to [email protected]. In addition to posting the photos to see if readers can help find the story behind the artifacts, JustBob will do research of his own to find the answer.
JustBob is especially interested in a special class of artifact called a Thomasson. A Thomasson or Hyperart Thomasson is a special urban artifact, which is a useless relic that is part of a structure, building or any built environment, which has been preserved and maintained. They have to be completely useless and regularly maintained. Below is an example of a Thomasson.
Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei named this type of urban artifact in the 1980s and considered these as a type of conceptual art. The artifacts were named by Akasegawa Genpei after Gary Thomasson, who was “useless” and also “maintained.” Thomasson was an American baseball player who was traded to the Yomiuri Giants, a team in Tokyo, Japan. Thomasson had an exorbitant salary when he joined the Yomiuri Giants in 1981. He promptly hit an end of career slump and set an all-time strikeout record which caused him to be benched until his contract ended.
