Silver (Ag) and Water (H2O) are the two resources mined from the mountains around the Owens Dry Lake that are responsible for the shape of the city of Los Angeles as we now know it today.

Silver mined out of the Inyo Ranges was key to the evolution of film and photography. Water mined out of the Owens Valley was transported to Los Angeles to create the San Fernando Valley nearly one hundred years ago.

In an act of reconciliation Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio are making a film out of silver and water mined here. As a means to that end our Studio has so far constructed a dozen scenes over a four-year period. The completed film will be shown on the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of the LA Aqueduct: November 5, 2013.

Currently in our fourth year, we are now filming the "Emerald City Scene", an adaptation from L. Frank Baum’s "Wizard of Oz". In this scene the Emerald City is constructed through the production and distribution of soil. Produced at a pristine ranch that gets its water directly from Mount Whitney, the new soil is then distributed in the town center by Dorothy.

This film scene is a collaboration between De La Cour Ranch and the Master Gardeners of Bishop and Lone Pine, California. Visit the Emerald City when you are in town. Stop by the Espresso Parlor at 123 Main Street and ask for the Emerald City.

Special thanks to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for donating the Main Street Community Garden Resource Center to the Metabolic Studio. We will utilize it to facilitate a transitional identity for Lone Pine, a town that has been so significantly transformed by the removal of water to feed the City of Los Angeles.