Post-Pepsi
The Pepsi sign on I-83 in Baltimore once glowed red, white, and blue with a digital clock and thermometer as I drove by on my daily expressway commute. But a two-cent bottle tax to support Baltimore City’s ailing schools led Pepsi to abandon the area.
Pepsi brought to mind memories of high school, walking into town with friends at the end of the school day for cold sodas and chips. I assumed that exploring the 16-acre site would generate nostalgia for "coming alive, feeling free with Pepsi...”. Instead, I was a voyeur from a disconnected, hyperreal present in the space of abandoned fantasy.