Do Utility Boxes Dream of Electric Sheep?

Author Philip K. Dick's last home was a Santa Ana condo at 408 E. Civic Center Dr. (between St. Joseph Church and the Ebell Club). As of this month, there's now an odd but colorful tribute to him just a couple blocks away at the corner of Civic Center Dr. and Main Street. The tribute comes in the form of a utility box, decorated as part of the city Arts & Culture Office's Utility Box Art Program. 

This piece of public art was created by Brennan Roach, who is a co-founder of the Santa Ana Literary Association.

Philip K. Dick's last home, at the French Park Plaza condos.

It features a portrait of Dick and is covered in reproductions of pages from his books. It also includes the words, "If you think this universe is bad, you should see some of the others," based on Dick's 1977 lecture, "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others.”

The obverse of the utility box reads, "In 1972, Philip K Dick moved to Santa Ana where he spent the last 10 years of his life. During this time he wrote some of his most important works, 'A Scanner Darkly,' 'VALIS,' and 'The Transmigration of Timothy Archer."

The author died in 1982, just months away from the release of the film Blade Runner (and adaptation of one of his stories), which would eventually make his name known by the masses.

Dick's papers are held at CSU Fullerton's Special Collections. Click here to learn more. 

I would have liked to shoot a few more photos of the utility box, but my attempts were sidelined by a character who waked up and started agressively annoying me with nonsensical questions. She was probably just operating in one of those alternate universes.