Um, what’s the deal with the Denver Airport? I’m not saying that I buy the conspiracy theory on offer here, but man, that’s some weird damn art to put in an airport. I trust Charles Cosimano will tell us what’s going on.
The New World Order Airport
32 Responses to The New World Order Airport
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Another Matt says:
I grew up in Denver. The airport was controversial when it went in, and it’s really damn far from town (45-minute drive). It became even more controversial when it became clear that the automated baggage system was not going to work, but since the initial hiccups it’s been a very good airport.
Most of the art at DIA is kitchy “Western” fare that basically goes unnoticed because of the weirder stuff.
I’m rather glad it’s way out there, though – my middle school was very near the old airport, Stapleton, and we had to stop class every so often when an airplane flew over. The old airport was just too small for the growing city, and Denver did very well in the 1990s boom. Stapleton has been converted to a thriving shopping center.
Your posts lately have made me miss home.
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I don’t follow the tinfoil memes very closely, but apparently various conspiracy theory theories about DIA have been kicking around for a few years. A couple of responses to some of the theories:
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/articles/nwo/denver-international-airport/
and
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4194
I haven’t bothered to investigate either the claims or the counterclaims closely. But I generally tend to discount theories positing a conspiracy that manages to build all kinds of advanced, super-secret, expensive and powerful things, yet at the same time can’t resist planting all kinds of coded public messages about what they did, instead of being, you know, quiet about it. Do the people who come up with these things think that Churchill and Eisenhower, say, would have tolerated any sort of “wink wink, nudge nudge” about, say, Bletchley Park or Omaha Beach?
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AnotherBeliever says:
LOL @ Engineer Scotty.
But seriously I doubt some shadowy compactof illuminati built the airport or a huge bunker underneath. There are apparently huge bunkers underground bunkers built by the government during the Cold War, but that’s not terribly mysterious. I have to admit that the artwork is a touch unhinged though. I think I may have passed through the Denver airport once when I was stationed in California, but I don’t remember seeing it.
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In the 1980s, the San Francisco airport had some truly wierd sculptures hanging all over the place, which inspired me to write several unpublished parodies of the Cthulhu mythos, including, of course, one set in the airport. (My favorite, however, remains “The Horror in the Old Laundromat.”)
Perhaps Lloigor is haunting the Denver airport.
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bmj says:
I perused a few of the theories, and counter-theories. Whether I believe it or not, I find it fascinating. Having been through DIA at least once, it is rather curious that the airport is so far outside the city.
I also find the some of the counter-arguments interesting, if only for the verve the authors have in proving the conspiracy theorists wrong. It reminds me of this:
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Bar Bill says:
I don’t claim to understand the artwork but I assume the artist didn’t create the art as a message to me. Perhaps when the time capsule is opened in 2094 the people of Colorado will know exactly what it means.
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TTT says:
Comet Elenin was 22 MILLION miles from Earth. No biggie, author is only off by 6 orders of magnitude.
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baconboy says:
It looks like a conspiracy of ugliness to me.
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Lulu says:
How restful and reassuring. That art, and a bipolar flight http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203961204577271863671605358.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
attendant’s being hauled off the airplane would make the stuff that dreams are made of. -
Angela says:
I lived in Denver when DIA was built. Just flew through there last week. Good restaurant in Concourse A on the upper level with great Bloody Mary’s. Can’t speak to the rest of it, although it was my impression that a lot of people got rich(er) from land speculation before and after the airport was being built. Next time I fly through though, I will take my demon repellent spray with me.
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John M. says:
Gosh, I must be out of touch. I actually loved all of these pieces when I passed by them in DIA. I also loved the Zimbabwean sculpture collection in ATL (I think that’s where it was.) Challenging art, with a message that I may or may not agree with, but makes me think is a good thing. Maybe I’m just weird. I know most traveling families probably don’t want to be challenged but comforted and soothed. But I usually travel alone and the ennui can be overwhelming and airports can be excruciating. Not a clue as what the conspiracy might be.
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Chris Floyd says:
As another Denver-area native, I can tell you that there’s nothing about DIA that can’t be explained by bureaucratic incompetence and the commission of bad ethnic artwork. (Although I do rather like the giant blue mustang.)
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The artwork looks like someone got Diego Rivera and Salvador Dalí together, fed them hallucinogen-spiked iced tea, and turned them loose.
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John E says:
Careful – you probably don’t have enough free time to start looking at all the creepy conspiracy things out there.
Like the Georgia Guidestones, for example…
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cp says:
Clearly the New World Order anticipated this:
and so chose to communicate with its minions via murals in the Denver airport.
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Dave D says:
I like them, but I love kitsch and weirdness.
You want to freak conspiracy theorists out though, meet Theo Jansen, kinetic sculptor.
Or in honor of Rod’s francophile tendencies, youtube La Machine. Random 50 foot tall giant spiders on the side of buildings.
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Darwin's S-list says:
Thomas Hart Benton’s vision of an Orwellian nightmare.
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Anglican says:
I like those murals, I’d like them for my house, if I had a larger one.
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who knew says:
I gave up conspiracy theories and high-strangeness for Lent. No, seriously, I did, along with the show “Ghost Hunters” and reading ghost stories.
But, I seem to recall many, oh, so many, years ago reading a book that I never can remember the title of where there had been some kind of disaster and the government was being run from underground bunkers in Denver by an Amish resistance group using great big computers. Maybe it wasn’t the “older teen” story I remember, maybe it was actually an instruction book. Which only goes to prove Scholastic Books really is part of the NWO! I always knew it.
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Tmatt says:
What Angela said. Mucho money spread around — Democrats and GOP.
The late great Gene Amole of the Rocky Mountain News covered it all, sin after sin.
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I’m conflicted about this:
On the one hand, we’re a sick culture, and sick cultures make sick art in general, and sick public art in particular.
On the other hand, this seems perhaps to be a bit too macabre to be inadvertent. I’m reminded of a passage in the third book of CS Lewis’ Space Trilogy, where Ransom gets taken into the headquarters of N.I.C.E, and he sees the ghastly room designs, falls in with a bunch of tedious but sinister people who view themselves as an inner circle of sorts, and gets pressured to engage in a blasphemous act to prove how open-minded he is.
Obviously, the story is a pretty cartoonish nightmare-vision, rather than an account of anything real, but it still makes me uneasy in a way that I can’t quite figure out, and the art in the picture strikes a similar note.
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catherine says:
Thirdeaglebooks is a YouTube channel that has a video entitled Denver Airport Murals, dated 1/26/10. It is a very coherent and very scary explanation of the demonic symbols in those murals.
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who knew: But, I seem to recall many, oh, so many, years ago reading a book that I never can remember the title of where there had been some kind of disaster and the government was being run from underground bunkers in Denver by an Amish resistance group using great big computers.
“An Amish resistance group using great big computers.” Hmmm. Well, if anyone would survive the collapse of civilization, it would be the Amish; but “Amish using great big computers”–I may be in paralysis for days just thinking about that….
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Alex Y says:
The article’s author is apparently wildly unfamiliar with Masonic symbolism. In the dedicatory panel–the one that claims the airport was financed by the “New World Airport Commission,” which does not exist–lies a square and compass with G, which is perhaps the most basic and exoteric symbol of Freemasons.
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Also, “Most Worshipful Grand Lodge” (on the same panel, either side of the square + compass) can only refer to a Masonic lodge.
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Charles Cosimano says:
I didn’t do it!
It is weird, no question about that and what the hell they were thinking is beyond me. Maybe we should consult the Scientologists.
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Tim A says:
Colbert covered this nicely a few months back:
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Maybe the only symbols are…phallic symbols. (Thanks, Stephen Colbert)
Actually, I find it interesting that there’s a massive expansion project going on at Denver International Airport right now and officials are wanting to restrict access to part of the terminal. I wonder if the art will be just as weird?
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TWylite says:
Only been there once. If I’m there again, I’ll look around more closely. These murals looks like a public art project straight out of “Fight Club”.
Selvar 
Maybe that’s why the luggage handling system doesn’t work–people’s bags are being randomly stolen by the guts of the machine to stock the great labyrinth below with business suits, cameras, and souvenirs.