MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

Behold! Images from the Kimmel Exhibition, which ran
from late March to early May, 2008.

Elaine and Sandra set up a window on LaGuardia Place.

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Brian Scanlan from the DSNY's Central Repair Shop
hangs the image of Mierle Ukeles' work "Social Mirror."

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Behind the scenes the day we loaded in

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Bob Dunn, retired New York City sanitation worker, and Elaine
building the "Trash and Transformation" window

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The Glossary of DSNY terms, phrases, slang. Class member
Casey Lynn designed this poster. It drew much comment
from passersby.

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Trash & Transformation window

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On the Job window

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September 11th window, honoring the DSNY's role in the clean-up
and recovery effort

http://www.recirca.com/artnews/596.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/outlook/2008/01/080108_trailpage08_outlook.shtml

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=79915&search_result=1&stid=8

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/arts/31conn.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=f8d9bc606123b629&ex=1207627200&emc=eta1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/25/AR2008032503463.html?hpid=moreheadlines

With more great coverage...

We got a Times piece today!! Robin - this is a fabulous picture of you! Congrats everyone!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/nyregion/15nyc.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Robin Nagle, an anthropologist at New York University, among the trucks she likes to praise.

Continue reading "We got in the Times, Baby!!" »

One of the most often questions that has arisen since starting this project has been the origins of the term Mongo. Check out this latest:

MONGO

An object retrieved from rubbish; a scavenger.

A Talk of the Town piece in the issue of the New Yorker for 13 November 2006 reported on an anthropologist-in-residence programme in the city’s Department of Sanitation. An aside mentioned mongo, a word used by sanitation workers for the act of creatively recycling refuse,
Also good
on slang reclaiming and putting back to useful purpose items that had been thrown out. The magazine has featured the word before — its first recorded appearance was in the New Yorker in September 1984.
It’s one of that large group of terms which is almost impossible to research and about whose origin nobody seems to know anything at all. But we may with some confidence assume that it’s not the same word as the US slang term mongo meaning “huge” (which is a short form of humongous, perhaps influenced by mondo) or “idiot” (which is an abbreviation of Mongol or mongoloid, in the now deeply deprecated sense of a sufferer from Down syndrome), nor that it refers to the Flash Gordon planet.
It matches least badly to mungo, another name for shoddy, an inferior cloth made from recycled fibres taken from old woven or felted material. The Oxford English Dictionary points in turn, very cautiously, to the origin of that in mung for “a mingling, a mixture, a confusion, or a mess” (a definition that ought to be set to music, it has such rhythm); in turn this may be from ymong, a company of people, which is a precursor of among. The OED retells an old tale that tried to explain mungo: when the first sample of the cloth was made, a Yorkshire foreman said “It won’t go” (it’s inadequate, it won’t fill the need), to which the master replied “But it mun go” (it must go).

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mon1.htm

In which Robin is a man:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/01/14/watercooler_stories/9381/

and in the NY Post: 'HAUL' OF AN IDEA: PROFS PUSH FOR SANIT MUSEUM
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01132008/news/regionalnews/haul_of_an_idea__profs_push_for_sanit_mu_761732.htm#

And a blow-by-blow account of the lecture:
http://thelmagazine.com/lmag_blog/blog/post__01140803.cfm

and here:
http://everydaytrash.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/trashtastic-tuesday-with-professor-robin-nagle/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7185068.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7182979.stm

I was going to post this as a comment on Haidy's post, but decided to post it as its own entry:

Sounds like they could really use some organizational help managing their recycling programs. It's a shame that people would take their disatisfaction with policy out on the "Bin Men."

This makes me think of two things:

1) Although we discussed in class how tipping San Men is forbidden here in NYC, in talking with my co-workers, it sounds like it's not uncommon, especially around this time of year. It's possibly practiced more in boroughs such as Brooklyn and Queens.

2) I've just bought a book about the British graffiti artist Banksy. If you're not aware of his work, check out the link below. You've probably seen it and not even known it was his.

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

I'm a big fan of his work aesthetically as well as (with reservations) his anti-consumer politics (although the irony that he has a book for sale is not entirely lost on me). Just by looking at photos of his work, one gets the sense that he's influenced by urban decay and trash itself, especially in his series on rats. The placement of his various pieces also seem to somehow be a commentary on the abundance of trash in public spaces (trash ethnography topic anyone?). In any case, it would be an interesting topic to study further for someone with a real interest in his work.

check out this story about tipping "bin men" in the UK:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7158247.stm

Idaho is opening a museum dedicated to cleanliness. Thought it was interesting and semi-related to our museum.

http://www.usatoday.com:80/travel/news/2007-12-17-new-cleaning-museum_N.htm

I probably shouldn't still be posting here now our class is over but"
http://everydaytrash.com/

Been trying to link to flikr slideshow for ages...

http://www.flickr.com/gp/69461739@N00/y1eQ9J

Hopefully this will work!