{{Short description|American artist (1943–2003)}} '''Douglas Donald Michels''' known as '''Doug Michels''' (June 29, 1943 - June 12, 2003) was an American architect, artist, and designer. He was a co-founder of the Ant Farm collective.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Michels |first=Patrick |date=2024-08-27 |title=The Unbelievably True Story of One of the Artists Behind Cadillac Ranch |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/doug-michels-cadillac-ranch/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=Texas Monthly |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Michels, Doug |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Doug_Michels/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Congress |first=The Library of |title=Michels, Doug - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies {{!}} Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress) |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n96118589.html |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=id.loc.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Designer Doug Michels, At 59 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/06/20/designer-doug-michels-at-59/39d747a5-3a25-4b71-8e87-a428817248f8/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2003-06-23 |title=DOUG MICHELS, ARTIST AND DESIGNER, DIES AT FIFTY-NINE |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/doug-michels-artist-and-designer-dies-at-fifty-nine-166946/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=McLellan |first=Dennis |date=2003-06-23 |title=Doug Michels, 59; Avant-Garde Architect Co-Designed Cadillac Monument in Texas |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-23-me-michels23-story.html |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>{{excessive citations inline|date=October 2024}}
== Early life == Born in Seattle, Washington, Michels studied at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and at Oxford University in England before graduating with a degree in architecture from Yale University in 1967.<ref name=":3" /> Michels also studied architecture at Harvard.<ref name=":3" />
== Career ==
=== Ant Farm ===
Michels met Chip Lord in 1968, when Michels gave a guest lecture at Tulane University, where Lord was attending school. The two met again in August 1968 at an architecture workshop directed by Lawrence Halprin in San Francisco. Michels and Lord founded ''Ant Farm'' at this workshop.<ref name=":1">Mellencamp, Patricia. "Ant Farm Redux: Pyrotechnics and Emergence." Journal of Film and Video 57.1/2 (2005): 40-56.</ref>{{blockquote|text=We wanted to be an architecture group that was more like a rock band. We were telling Sharon [a friend] that we would be doing underground architecture, like underground newspapers and underground movies, and she said, 'Oh, you mean like an Ant Farm?' and that's all it took. It was very Ant Farm. The founding of the name was indicative of how Ant Farm worked: the right idea comes, everybody acknowledges it is the right idea and instantly adopts it.|author=Doug Michels}}
The group's initial goal was to reform education, but with little funding, Michels and Lord relocated to Houston, Texas, where they took posts as visiting professors at the University of Houston.The group first began putting on performances there, including their "inflatables."<ref name=":1" /> Eventually, Lord and Michels were joined by Hudson Marquez and Curtis Schreier.<ref name=":1" />
The group was a self-described "art agency that promotes ideas that have no commercial potential, but which we think are important vehicles of cultural introspection." In addition to their architecture works, the collective was well known for counter-cultural performances and media events, such as ''Media Burn''. Ant Farm's installation, ''Cadillac Ranch'', remains an iconic sculpture in American popular culture.<ref>{{cite web |author=Melissa E. Feldman |date=January 2005 |title=Unearthing Ant Farm |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_1_93/ai_n8590989/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070219230523/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_1_93/ai_n8590989 |archive-date=2007-02-19 |access-date=2010-05-09 |publisher=Art in America |pages=42–45}} [http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/davega/FILMST_113/Filmst113_ExFilm_Groups/ArtinAmerica_Unearthing%20Ant%20Farm.pdf Alt URL]</ref>
In 1972, Michels and Lord collaborated with Houston architect Richard Jost on the ''House Of The Century'', a futuristic concept of a home.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Architecture |first=Hidden |date=2016-05-15 |title=House of the Century |url=https://hiddenarchitecture.net/house-of-century/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=Hidden Architecture |language=en-US}}</ref> Ant Farm disbanded in 1978 when a fire destroyed their San Francisco studio.<ref name=":0" />
=== Post-Ant Farm === In 1979, Michels presented ''the Teleport media room'' in Houston, an artwork created with Jost and Alex Morphett, which consisted of futuristic communications devices, foreshadowing many telecom innovations.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Reed |first=Christopher |date=2003-07-31 |title=Doug Michels |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jul/31/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries |access-date=2024-10-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Doug Michels Architectural Papers {{!}} University of Houston Libraries |url=https://findingaids.lib.uh.edu/repositories/2/resources/28 |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=findingaids.lib.uh.edu}}</ref> Michels proposed and designed the unbuilt statue The Spirit of Houston.<ref name=":0" /> Michels worked extensively on plans for ''Bluestar'', a space station to be co-occupied by humans and dolphins.<ref name=":3" /> Michels operated an art and design studio in Washington, D.C from 1986 to 1999.<ref name=":3" />
== Death == Michels died while climbing to a whale observation point in Eden Bay, Australia.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Trying to understand Doug Michels. |url=https://www.westsidespirit.com/news/trying-to-understand-doug-michels-GGNP1320030819308199995 |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=www.westsidespirit.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Michels, Doug}} Category:1943 births Category:2003 deaths Category:American video artists