HighWaterLine

The difference between visualizing and seeing…

Since the inception of this project, I have been visualizing drawing the line. I have spent countless hours pouring over maps, and mapping and remapping the line. I have a huge topo map on my wall, lots of different maps on my computer…

This weekend I went out and biked the Brooklyn line. And that makes the project feel different. Really different. It is all of the things that I have thought about and talked about - but hitting home, hard.

On the one hand it is this fascinating journey through these incredibly diverse neighborhoods. (Remember Brooklyn is a whole lot bigger than it looks on the subway map. On the other hand there is an incredibly powerful sense of understanding  what makes a community and a neighborhood. Whether it is the man standing in his yard in his pj’s at 2 in the afternoon, or the stretch of empty factory buildings under the BQE, or even the little shack with a million flavors of Italian ice on the banks of a boat basin. All of these intricacies are what make a neighborhood, and I am going to be walking through them, slicing a line in blue down one street and up another.

My hope though is not to be marking “this is last” “this will not” - I think of the trees marked in a forest to be cut down - but to bring together these communities to ensure that everything will last. To let each person understand the value of their own actions and their own commitment to ensuring a future that doesn’t look like the line.

I am more and more ready to take on the project, it’s intricacies and implications. I will arm myself with a hope for the future and thoughts and ideas to inspire. I hope you will join me in this…

Sea of People

As you may know if you have read through the site. I have been working closely with the people at Solar One on this project. I also have been helping them (as much as I can) to make some other actions and projects happen. One of which is happening this weekend.

You may have heard about the national day of action, Step It Up, launched by a small group of Bill McKibbon’s students up in Vermont. They have rallied groups around the US to organize over 1300 events on April 14th. This will be a day when we can all come together and take to the streets to get some media attention to a call for an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.

There are number of different actions here in New York. I helped map the 10-foot line in the Wall Street area for the Sea of People campaign. We will meet at Battery Park for a rally at noon and then walk along the lines on the east and west sides of lower manhattan to create a human blue line marking the future inundation area. Please, wear a blue shirt and come out to join us. Its the least you can do.

Here’s a promo vid on youtube about the rally: http://youtube.com/watch?v=p0DfSCfdfBA

Welcome to OUR world…

I was going to say “welcome to my world” since my whole world is really consumed with this project right now, but I realized that really the HighWaterLine project is about OUR world.

I first conceived of this project in August of 2006. Over the course of the next 8 months (up to now) I have done extensive research, writing, outreach and MEETINGS! I have learned so much about the science of climate change, the politics of environmentalism, and all the details regarding public art projects in New York City. It has been a fascinating and exciting journey so far. (I have blogged more about it at my artsite: mudandsticks.blogspot.com).

Even more exciting though is the prospect of actually launching the project, which is going to happen on May 17th (the last day of the C40 - Large Cities Climate Change Summit in NYC). I am sending information on the project to all of the mayors participating in the Summit - maybe I can get someone to come out and walk with me.

I am really looking forward to getting out onto the street and talking to people. I want to hear their stories about their own experiences about climate change, their thoughts on the future and things they want to do. In fact, we could start the stories right here. I would love for people to start a conversation right here on the website talking about unique ways to to approach climate change - both how to get the word out and what we as a community of people can do…

Stick with me, lets see where this thing goes!