Jon HorvathThis Is Bliss

This Is Bliss is a transmedia narrative project that examines the geography and disappearing road culture of a rural Idaho town called Bliss. The project examines how the mythologies of place and happiness collide, and are frequently conflated, in a place whose complex narrative of rise and fall reflects the complicated history of American idealism and manifest destiny. All that remains in Bliss are two gas stations, a school, a church, a restaurant, and two saloons to serve its 300 current residents.

Through an in-depth examination of the contemporary landscape and its inhabitants, This Is Bliss contrasts romantic visions of the American West with its contemporary reality and examines how the heights of idealism are viewed on both a personal and cultural level.