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

This may be helpful for the trash transformation topic. Sorry if it goes to the wrong page, I dont know how to use this.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0221,carr,34956,1.html

This is technically illegal, but the guy seems to have been making a good buck for a few years. A holiday gift idea, perhaps?

Here's a great Anderson Cooper story regarding dumpster diving and freeganism. The video is fuzzy, but one of the freegans makes a great point about the taboo of trash. I found it really interesting. Plus, here is the link to the freegans' website:

http://www.freegan.info

Download file

I wanted to draw your attention to the work of contemporary artist, Mark Dion, who works like an archaeologist, salvaging the unlikely and representing it. Check out his installation for the opening of the new MOMA which salvaged parts of the building as it was being demolished and exhibited these odd cornices and fragments:

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2004/Projects82_MarkDion.html

Relics From the Rubble is a 2006 fdocumentary film about the collecting processes that museums and archives were engaged in around Ground Zero, Fresh Kills, and beyond, after September 11.
Here is a link to the review in the NYT:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E6DD153AF934A15752C0A9649C8B63
Some of the members of the Columbian Association, as soon as the making of a museum was mentioned, told us that they had collected objects from the site and had kept them (secretly) and that we should contact particular individuals within the DSNY to make these objects part of our collection. Objects mentioned were crosses similar to the large cross-like iron formation that was one of the emblematic images of the Twin Tower attacks. Transforming debris (is this trash?) into museum treasures or "relics" both by museums and institututions, and by the sanitation workers themselves might be something to ask about in our interviews.

Talking about garbage reduction, this is an alternative for all those plastic bags you may have crumpled in the cabinet under the sink. I am not sure it works, but I may try it if any of you has a sewing machine we can use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB1mE8e35UY

Check out:

Joseph Beuys's Tate modern vitrine called "Sweeping Up" made from trash swept up from Berlin's Alexander Platz: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/beuys/room9.shtm

Edward Burtynsky's "manufactured landscapes" and "urban mines":
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/

Felipe Ehrenberg's 1970 film about trash in London in the 1970s "La Poubelle":
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/researchservices/archive/audiofilmhighlights/player_ehrenberg.shtm

Johan Sundgren's "Pepenadores" series of photographs of the scavangers living in a dump outside of Mexico City:http://www.johansundgren.se/photo_r_mex_en.htm

Also, an exhibition on recycled stuff from Africa, the Americas and Asia curated by the Museum of International Folk Art called Recycled, Reseen:http://www.internationalfolkart.org/exhibitions/past/recycledreseen/rrindex.html

On a positive recycling note, Seattle appears to be kicking butt. While I love General Waring's idea for the Sanitation Department to pay for itself by re-selling mongo, that's clearly not in the 5-year plan. But if cities like Seoul and Seattle can compost waste, why not New York City?

See the article below about recycling on the West Coast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/us/10recycle.html?ei=5070&en=c28defbfe57c8668&ex=1192680000&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1192133002-OFXc2+p5iPT1/4wS9hLOig

For you mongoers out there, keep this in mind...

One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Lost Masterpiece.

It’s hardly a place you would expect to find a $1 million painting.

But one March morning four years ago, Elizabeth Gibson was on her way to get coffee, as usual, when she spotted a large and colorful abstract canvas nestled between two big garbage bags in front of the Alexandria, an apartment building on the northwest corner of Broadway and 72nd Street in Manhattan.

“I had a real debate with myself,” said Ms. Gibson, a writer and self-professed Dumpster diver. “I almost left it there because it was so big, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Why are you taking this back to your crammed apartment?’”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/arts/design/23pain.html

I was thinking about how when the museum eventually comes to fruition, how important it would be to have a children's section. Then, I remembered this clip I'd seen on Sesame Street that I adored as a kid and was truly my first introduction of what happens to our garbage. I was pleased that it was so easy to find! Take a gander! I bet many of you have seen it. But I thought I'd share it to show you how cool it is when things that are made to educate kids are entertaining and successful. I was surprised by how much it moved me- I think it's the nostalgia of seeing all those shots of NYC in the 80s. By the way, I'm pretty sure that's good old Fresh Kills in the video.

Check it out!

I thought that I'd just take a moment to comment on last Wednesday's seminar and our guest speaker, Mierle Laderman Ukeles. First of all, I found her to be extremely delightful to listen to as she explained her role within the DSNY as their artist-in-residence for 30 years and the work that she had done/has done for them. Like the Gablik article suggested ("Deconstructing Aesthetics"), her work is very different from the typical "dominator model" of modern art which is impersonal, egocentric, and authoritative (recall the Richard Serra example). Mierle's work on the other hand is more closely related to the "partnership model," or art that is connective to others and is based on relationships. This notion can clearly be seen in one of her project's titled, "Touch Sanitation," which moved and impressed me because it was such a huge task that required a certain amount of dedication and determination to complete. To go around the entire DSNY, sending TelEx letters saying she would stop by to meet every San Man and shake their hand is just simply incredible to me. Her effort produced such an effect on these men because someone was showing that they cared about them and appreciated them for their service to the city. However, my favorite project that Mierle did was "Cleansing the Bad Names" at the Robert Feldman Gallery. I would have loved to have seen people of all different backgrounds and positions grab a sponge and a bucket of water and just scrub away all the bad names sanitation workers get called. What a sight that must have been, to see the community working together to bring this issue into light. And I believe that the other Gablik article ("Making Art as if the World Mattered") was right too, that even though modern art may sometimes show the cruelness of today's society and at times does not seem to offer any solutions to help certain situations, it essentially can be powerful. The artist can be a positive force and art may even be able to save a life. I'm sure the San Men who experienced Mierle's project's first hand would agree that her work has done this and it just goes to show that we need more artists like her around, people who make a difference and touch the lives of others.

The New York Department of Sanitation has transformed their relationship with the community through art and popular representation. They have used these techniques to enlist cooperation from the citizens of New York and create a more positive image of sanitation workers and the Department as a whole.

Recycling campaigns serve as an example of the Department’s goals to transform citizens’ sense of responsibility and enlist their cooperation. Several images in the archive depict images of these campaigns. For the panel, “Department of Sanitation Parade Float, Clean-Up Coney Island” and “Sweep Magazine Articles, Summer, 1966, Volume 8, Number 2” will be used as examples of popular representation.

Trash, so often taken for granted, is an incredibly powerful, vast collection of the remnants of everyday human life. But because such a large percentage of it will never simply disappear, both individuals and municipal entities must collectively develop resourceful new ways of transforming into something else. The very definition of garbage-that it is unwanted, often toxic and no longer useful-makes it difficult to conceptualize that it can and often does have a second life cycle. Recycling is one of the more obvious ways that we deal with trash, but there is much more to recycling than simply sorting paper, plastics and metals. The slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” means many things to many people, and necessitates creative practical application on in order to positively impact the way the public thinks about trash and the way it is managed.