HighWaterLine

Get the behind the scenes stories!

You can find out how hard it was to peddle the bike over Brooklyn Bridge, what were the best neighborhoods for chalking, how many city agencies I talked to and all the stories I heard along the way.*

I will be screening the rough cut documentary and talking more in depth about the HighWaterLine project, upcoming projects and what it means to be an artist in the public realm at a couple of great events upcoming:

• Tuesday, November 27th, Solar One:
  The ongoing Tuesday night series hosted by the inimitable Chris Neidl is featuring artists working in/with the environment. I will be showing some of the new maps that I have been working on in regards to HWL and reviewing the new projects. I am also hoping to have a discussion about the power of art as intervention.
  Solar One, East 23rd Street at the East River
  directions
  Tuesday, November 27th, 7:00pm
• Tuesday, December 4th, Pratt Institute’s Urban Artists and Social Change Speaker Series:
  I will be talking about HWL and upcoming projects and discussing the merits of artists taking on social action roles.
  Alumni Reading Room (third floor of the Library), Pratt Brooklyn
  directions
  Tuesday, December 4th, 12:00pm-2:00pm

Please come out and join me for what I hope will be interesting conversations about the HWL and the greater world of art as issue and intervention.

*For the really juicy stuff you will have to catch me “off the record.

A never ending story

Today is Sunday, October 7. It’s the last day of the HighWaterLine project (in the chalking stage at least). I drew the line from the edge of the largest oil spill in US History and then on to the Queens border on Onderdonk Avenue. I was joined by a young man named Jay who we met in East Williamsburg. He enjoyed exploring his neighborhood, learning about the flood zones, the oil spill and most importantly, getting up close to his local waterway. (Which he pointed out, was coated with oil, filled with trash and smelled something awful).

So how did it feel to be finished? I think it was a little anti-climatic. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I just felt, well done with the chalking. I guess because there are some spin-off projects going on, and because its not like I stopped climate change or anything, that I just felt, okay done with that, let’s get other things going. Don’t get me wrong, it felt great and it has inspired me to want to share the stories through the map I mentioned yesterday, but I am through with the chalking.

So that evening we hosted a wrap party at the Can Factory in Gowanus (a half a block from the line). A big thanks to everyone who came out to support the project, it felt really good to have all your support and interest. We hung the 119 maps that I used for drawing the project, and it was pretty stunning to think, yes I covered that much ground. Again I think the online map is important because even though the maps are impressive, its the people and places along the way that really tell the story. We also aired the fantastic short film that Justin at Cicala Filmworks has put together from the footage on the project. It was really wonderful to see that and to condense the story of the project down to 7 minutes! We are still working on the film and are adding in the more recent footage so if you want to know when thats done sign up on the mailing list.

Like I mentioned before, I am working on some projects around the HighWaterLine, including the online map with images and stories, some collaborative maps with Deborah Balk, a demographer at CUNY who has been studying data around the world of people living on the coast - trying to get a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on coastal communities. I also hope to work with Center for Urban Padagogy on some youth mapping projects, and anything else that might come up!

That and I have already started work on the green roof project!

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it–

Today was the first day that I didn’t speak to any one at all. I was drawing through Williamsburg by myself and even though I passed many people, no one asked what I was doing. This might have been because people are pretty jaded about all of the truly massive construction going on down at the waterfront (I hope they are building in flood protection). So I had a lot of time to consider what the project means if no one asks me what I am doing. There is the outside chance that someone will see the blue chalk line and google it, coming across my site that way, or maybe someone who knows about the project will cross the line and tell their friends about it. But since I cannot rely on that happening I considered more my actions in the street. I covered quite a lot of ground on Saturday, traveling from South 5th up around Manhattan Avenue, then down through the North Brooklyn Industrial Zone to Greenpoint Avenue where it meets Newtown Creek (near the huge egg-shaped digesters and the new Newtown Creek Nature Walk).

And here’s what I realized, I may be the only person in New York who has walked the entire 10′ above sea level line - that crucial flood zone line - at least through Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. I wrote earlier about bearing witness. Well its true, now it is up to me to find ways to get out and talk about what I have seen. The places where the line passes through the scrap metal yards, where the line divides a neighborhood or submerges a park. I have lots and lots of pictures from the line, so what I thought would be useful would be to put together an online map of the line that has images from along the way. I have pretty good visual memory, so I am fairly certain I can map pretty close to exactly where all the images were taken. I can also include the stories I heard from the people I talked to along the way. That way I am sharing this wealth of knowledge that has built up in my head. Maybe I can even have other chances of sharing the information, of getting it out to as many people (particularly community groups, city agencies) as I can. A great thing about the project was that I really had *conversations* with people. I didn’t just hand over information and walk away, I stopped and talked and listened. And I heard some interesting stories along the way.

So if you want to sit down with me sometime and hear about all the people that I met, let me know, I am happy to share.

Brace yourself

Wow, can’t believe its Tuesday already and I haven’t yet posted for the past weekend. Granted it was quite a crazy weekend and having been knocked out with a cold the week before I still have some recovery time. That and things are still kinda crazy this week. So here’s how it rolled:

Thursday I installed the beacons in Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Dumbo Art Center’s Arts Under the Bridge Festival. Came home to clean up, then jetted back to the park to illuminate the beacons. I have to say that I really love that park. If you haven’t been there before, you should really go. It lies under the Manhattan Bridge, and is connected to the Empire Fulton Ferry Park which runs along the water almost to the Brooklyn Bridge. Both of the parks provide a beautiful greenway that has stunning views of Manhattan. At night it is particularly lovely. You can look at all the lights of the city (and on the bridges) - let’s hope they are all low energy bulbs using alternative energy. Usually  its is quite a peaceful park, but this weekend it was not. It was pretty much all crazy and crowded all the time.

After illuminating the beacons, I jumped on the B61 to ride over to Williamsburg where I had been so graciously invited to speak about the project as part of a 100-mile dinner at Like the Spice gallery. It was great, I spent a lot of the time talking with Gordon, co-owner of Urban Spring, who prepared the great meal.

Saturday was going to be a long day of drawing, making up for the Red Hook chalking that I didn’t get to finish and then doing the first pass in Dumbo. The water in Red Hook goes pretty far inland. Not as much as Spring Creek and Canarsie, but it is a much more densely populated area, with a lot of high rise NYCHA buildings down there. I also chalked past the working waterfront that still exists out on the west side of Carroll Gardens (I think they call it Columbia Waterfront). Then we rolled into Dumbo. There was quite a crowd down there. And I should have thought of this, but with all of the activity down there, most people just looked at me and didn’t think twice about my chalking activities. Having said that a few people did ask, and even more impressive I heard a number of times as I passed by someone explaining the project to their friends. “Oh, yes, she’s marking the flood zone from climate change - she’s done it all around Brooklyn.” Perfect! Let’s talk to each other (not just me) about the issues. Hurray!

My friend Tara DePorte from Lower East Side Ecology Center had come out to give away t-shirts on which she was asking people to write sustainable promises. That way, she reckons, every time they wear the shirt, if they haven’t done their promise, they will feel guilty and may be more likely to do it. I also think they will want to brag that they have in fact done it.

I popped into Nelson Hancock Gallery to drop off some more action packets and Rives (who works in the gallery) said they had a constant stream of people interested in and asking about the project. So the word is getting out!

And in order to help do that, I am working with Cicala Filmworks to create a documentary of the project. We will be airing a *very* rough cut at the HWL closing party next Sunday. Come on out and help celebrate!

The details are:

SUNDAY 7 OCTOBER 2007 6:00-8:00 PM

THE OLD AMERICAN CAN FACTORY
232 Third Street at Third Avenue Gowanus Brooklyn

Presented by The Canary Project + XØ Projects Inc; the evening’s events include: An exhibition of the project’s maps, drawings, images and tools; an installation of the Beacons; re-marking of the HighWaterLine at the Gowanus Canal on Third Street; a screening of a preliminary rough-cut of a documentary film by Cicala Filmworks; Q&A with the artist and filmmakers hosted by CUP: Center for Urban Pedagogy, and beer from Ommegang Brewery!

Please also keep in mind that this project is still seeking financial support - so donate here!

Contemplating climate change

Sunday was another beautiful day in NYC. The sun was shining brightly in the crisp cool air. I always think things look sharper and more in focus in the crisp fall and winter air. I am one of those weird people who loves cool and cold weather. So I was pretty happy to be out chalking even if it started at about 9:30 on a Sunday morning. (I think my future projects will happen only on weekdays).

I started the day finishing up the line through the streets of Gowanus. I was accompanied again by my friend Margo, who biked from Washington Heights to Gowanus. Quite a ride, but on such a gorgeous day she said it was fabulous (I believe her!) We were headed to Red Hook soccer fields for installation of beacons AND some great food! We finished the chalking, noting all of the scrap metal and industrial sites along the Gowanus Canal that lay below the line. This means that a storm would sweep all of these toxins farther inland, as well as washing them back out to sea when the water recedes. Of course the toxins are also leaching into the groundwater and through that process washing into the Gowanus already.

We met up with Peter at the soccer fields and treated ourselves to some Salvadorean pupusas before starting the install. Hose also came out to shoot some more for me.

This was the most fascinating installation yet! For those who are not familiar with the Red Hook soccer fields, it is a soccer field that is used from dawn to dusk on the weekends from May to October. It is always packed - soccer teams, their entire families, lots of kids, the food vendors, loads of people visiting for the food and a lot of other people just out to enjoy the day. So the installation was intertwined with many other goings on.

As I started the installation, I was swamped by a bunch of kids who were fascinated by what I was doing. They all wanted to help and were fighting over trying to help me install everything. They then took ownership of the project, telling people not to touch them and keeping the beacons well guarded. I had one young man who helped me install everything, carry water to fill them and put on the caps. This was a great installation - I talked to so many people of all ages and from all areas of Brooklyn, what a great place to meet many people.

Unfortunately I ended up a little short handed in the afternoon and needed to do some more chalking. So I uninstalled the beacons later in the day (but before nightfall) in order to do more chalking. I still wanted to have the beacons up after dark, so I returned to install a small grouping of them. A group of the girls who were watching the daytime installation were still there and they loved the beacons at night. They were looking at all of the beacons with the lights in them and told me they looked beautiful. At the end of the evening, they were huddled around one of the beacons, lost in contemplation. So from a hectic day came a peaceful and contemplative evening.

Thanks to all the kids out at the ball fields for their energy, fascination and interest in learning about art and climate change!

Apologies for the delay in posting this I was trying to get all of the images uploaded and edited.

From cobbled back streets and scrap metal yards, to quiet back streets and flower strewn homes

Yesterday (9/15) and today were quite a whirlwind. If you remember, I said on Thursday that I was pretty knackered, well the business continues and I am really kooky tired this evening which means I may ramble worse in this post than I did at the Conflux Festival Panel.

I started Friday morning with a flat tire on my bike, but did make it out to 58th Street in Sunset Park industrial area to draw the chalk line in front of semi trucks, down cobbled streets and past abandoned industrial sites. I really enjoyed walking around the industrial area - with the tall hulking buildings, the sound of the machinery echoing from inside. There is even a building that is creating some sticky sweet smelling product. Friday evening I attended the preview of Susannah Sayler’s striking photographs of our environment in transition. She photographs the effects of climate change as well as the solutions. I am a big fan of adding the solutions into the project. Her images are the catalyst for the Canary Project.

This morning was an early start. I had to finish getting the images together for the panel and get out to do some chalking before heading to the Festival. I drew the line around the Gowanus Canal and had the sheer joy of walking around the area bounded by Sackett, Union, Bond and Nevins. The area has still an old charm to it sprinkled with beautiful old buildings that seem to have been carefully cared for. The Canal itself is certainly still smelly and dirty looking (there’s still a lot of industry around it) but there is a lot of wildlife thriving there as well.

The line cuts through a lot of industrial and quite toxic areas - including a massive scrap yard. It also cuts right through the Whole Foods site (also a toxic clean up site), so I hope they are considering flood planning, especially if they really are going to put in a huge amount of parking spaces instead of a porous green space with lots of bike parking. (Is my bias showing?)

In the early afternoon I biked (in quite strong wind) over to the Conflux Festival to join a panel put together by Eyebeam regarding their Eco-visualization Challenge. I was really honored to be asked to be a part of the panel and had put together some great things to talk about in relation to the challenge and public intervention projects: simple graphic statement, soundbite scientific information, action oriented, the power of community building etc. etc. I was pretty tired and spoke after Amanda McDonald Crowley, Tiffany Holmes, Michael Mandiberg and Brooke Singer, all who do amazing things and had really great presentations, so my talk was a little distracted and rambling. I promise to have myself better put together for the Conference on Social Theory Politics and the Arts (I do much better with Q&A!), it is October 11-13.

So now I am back home blogging about it all and hopefully resting up for a great day in Red Hook tomorrow - if you can, come out and have a taco and a walk around!

I also should mention that I have been speaking with my friend Nathan about the closing party (he’s hosting it at the Old American Can Factory) and he has had some great ideas to make it more of an event - so definitely put the date on your calendar: October 7!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Yesterday I did another very long line out on the shore parkway. This time I was on the more pristine north side of the Verazzano Bridge, heading up to Owl’s Head point (a pier, park and sewage treatment plant). It was a crisp brightly sunny day with a nice breeze blowing off the water. As I was chalking along, a mother and daughter rode up to me on their bikes, the mother asked what I was doing and I explained the project. Then she asked how long the line was going to be there and I told her that it would only be a day or two depending on the weather. “Oh,” she said, sounding relieved, “because it’s ugly.” I have to admit I was quite taken aback. I had yet to hear this kind of comment on the project, I was also very tired.* Usually I would respond very nicely and say that I was sorry that she felt that way and that it is indeed very temporary, but it is an important way to get people thinking about climate change. Instead I blurted out (while laughing) “You think the line is ugly, you should see the devastation that climate change will bring!” The mother looked at me sweetly and said something along the lines of understanding climate change but she was still glad it would be gone soon. Hmmmm.

I did have a number of other great conversations. One gentleman was able to share with me his first hand experience of the devastation wrought by the tornado that touched down in his neighborhood of Bay Ridge. I had two different guys who said that they just couldn’t stand it any longer they were so curious they just had to know what was going on on - YAY! I also made friends with a lovely woman named Eileen who was interested in the project and even took the time to read through the packet (I hope she went home and told some friends and neighbors about it). Another interesting comment was “We don’t get much of this kind of thing around here.” “What kind of thing?” I asked. “Art.” Oh.

In the evening I went to a lovely opening at Nelson Hancock Gallery in Dumbo. He put together a group photo show called Topos : Brooklyn. It featured: Tim Connor, Rebekah Farley, Michael Iacovoni, Michael Itkoff, Michael Piazza, Michael Simon, and Torrance York. Michael Iacovone had a piece which investigate the “edge of Brooklyn” in which he photographed the border of Brooklyn. He and I had a great time talking about all of the odd things along the coast (since we have seen some of the same neighborhoods - some which few people who don’t live there ever see). The show was a really interesting group of people interested in looking at Brooklyn and investigating it to find the pieces or parts that appealed to them. It will be open until mid-October, so make sure you stop by to check it out. I am showing a long strip (3″x170″) of images and will add images as the project continues to progress. A huge thanks to all of my photographers, Ed Morris, Susannah Sayler, Megan Baker and Curtis Hamilton (all from Canary Project) and of course Hose Cedeno.
*I’m tired since I forgot that the opening was this week (in my head it was next week) so I spent the week leaping hurdles to get the long print made for the opening. Which I absolutely would not have been able to do without the unbelievable assistance of Taylor, and of course the infamous Ed. Plus I am ultra tired now, I will add in links later!

I highly recommend it

If given a chance to get out and speak to people somewhat randomly on the street, I highly recommend it.

I don’t mean going out and soliciting funds or votes or anything like that, but just having the conversation with people about something which you can share. It is highly unlikely that if it weren’t for this project, I would ever meet the people I have met. We might ride on the same train, or be in line somewhere, or shop at the same store, without ever talking - simply because we would have no reason to speak. By putting myself out in public and doing something which raises people’s curiosity, I have the chance to have conversations with people. Sometimes it is a passing curiosity that they have and the engagement is quite short, but more often than not I am able to have a relaxed and engaged conversation with people. I tell them what I am doing, they tell me about their own experiences - whether it is loosing flood insurance on their home, cleaning up bags and bags of plastic washed up on the shore, experiencing severe weather themselves or by way of family members. It is an entirely different experience from merely informing people about climate change. It is a chance to connect on a very personal level, and maybe (just maybe) have a greater impact because of that. I treasure every experience, and have been able to play the role of storyteller, passing on one story that I heard to another person with whom I speak, thereby sharing all of our experiences.

Yesterday I installed the beacons in Calvert Vaux/Dreier Offerman Park, which is (as many are in NY) a park built on landfill. It is quite a large stretch of recreational and open space. It is well used by baseball and soccer teams, a group of remote controlled helicopter fliers and lesser used by dog walkers, fishers and recreation seekers. It overlooks an inlet that separates Sea Gate from the mainland. You will notice some of the sea life captured in the beacons, I filled them with the water from the inlet - with the help of some of the people fishing off the rocks. In addition to that assistance, I had the help of another park visitor in the de-installation of the piece - it was a nice community effort!

I was joined for the day by my friend Cecile, who is back in New York (from France) for an installation at FIAF, and to work on a project regarding stories about public places. She has done a number of public works that also allow her to have similar interactions with people that this project has allowed. We were both discussing the unique experience and value that these conversations have in both creating work and connecting art with people.

The project, while there are some pretty big weekends ahead, does seem to be winding down. At this point I am working on putting together some kind of closing party (Oct. 7 - save the date!) as well as organizing a show for the spring (if you know of a good space let me know) and working on the proposals for upcoming projects. If you haven’t had a chance to come out for the day, I highly recommend that you make time in your schedule to join me. It is a fascinating journey.

You got gold in there?

My favorite quote of the day: “You got gold in there? — Who needs gold when you have love?!”

That was the first interaction on this very, let’s call it “sultry” day.* Lucky for me, I was out on the water for most of it, and that fabulous statement kicked off another day out on the High Water Line.

As most of you know, I try to do most of the project by way of the fabulous yellow trike. Sometimes though, there is a whole lot of chalk to put down - 6 buckets or so (at 50 pounds a bucket…) - those days I usually get a Zip Car (because you STILL don’t need to own a car in this city, even if you do have to move a lot of stuff around). Today was one of those days. I was covering 2 contiguous miles of the High Water Line along the promenade along Shore Road Parkway.

Even though in the project description, I mention that I am marking 70 miles of coastline, that number isn’t entirely exact. Brooklyn has 70 miles of coastline, but the 10-foot above sea level line follows its own very twisty path which may be more than 70 miles, or may be less. I promise to figure it out sometime soon. Regardless of that, the actual amount that I walk is far far more than that. I park the trike or Zip Car in one location and go back and forth with the chalker to refill it. For example, today, today even though I was chalking two miles, I figured out that I walked about 15 miles in the four hours I spent chalking. Each bucket covers about 1/3 of a mile. (Check my math :))

I also was reminded of the part of my project description that says, “I will be drawing” - so even if there isn’t anybody out to document it or walk with me, I am still out there, loading up the chalker every 1/3 mile and laying out that ephemeral blue line of chalk (which also explains why some days there are no pictures of me). Good thing there were a lot of people out on the promenade today to talk to, many of them there to enjoy some free time, which meant that frequently they had the time to ask what I was doing and then have a conversation about climate change. Today I spoke with one gentleman about the loss of flood insurance in the coastal communities. I also spoke with a few different people who were quick to point out the rather crazy weather we are experiencing in New York, and certainly the weather and its affects around the world.

One person even asked, “So you are giving up all your free time to do this?” “Um, yeh, pretty much.” Although I don’t really think of it as giving up free time. If you love what you do and therefore spend all your time doing it, is it really giving up free time? This is basically the second or third time that I have been asked why I would take on this project. I don’t have a really good answer for that. I guess its because I felt like something needed to be done, someone needed to say something, and instead of waiting for someone else to do it…

*I am pretty sure what we were experiencing wasn’t fog but rather the sea water turning to steam in the heat.

Welcome back to Brooklyn…

Amidst a small amount of fanfare (well, actually none at all), the High Water Line project returned to Brooklyn today. After some the busy days that were the Manhattan drawing days, I was looking forward to a return to the quiet of Brooklyn. I definitely got that today.

I returned to Ocean Parkway, picking up where I left off at the beginning of July. I drew the line through the mostly industrial parts of Gravesend, and ended at the edge of the compilation of city parks known as Calvert Vaux/Dreier Offerman Park (which is where I will be installing the beacons on Sunday).

I traveled through areas where a few homes were sprinkled in amongst the heavy industry of auto shops (think buses with engines idling), speeding cars coming on and off the Belt Parkway, a concrete plant, and a Home Depot which managed to completely segregate a small grouping of homes from being part of any larger neighborhood. The area has a few waterways and canals cutting through it, guaranteeing flooding along the heavy industrial zones. And it is home to the very huge Coney Island rail yards (also known as the “Coney Island Complex” - the largest in the world), where the B, D, F & Q all converge.

It was a short day, in expectation of the long day (over 2 miles) of chalking that I will do tomorrow along the promenade on the water side of the Shore Road Parkway. As I drew the line up to the baseball fields in the park I wondered if people might think I was an errant parks employee. Speaking of both the parks department and the promenade, I received another last minute okay on chalking in a city park - whew! - thanks to another great regional park manager. (Spoke to him at about 4pm this afternoon - about tomorrow’s drawing! This happened with both Manhattan parks too!)

I am still looking for people to join me this weekend, so be sure to drop me a line if you are interested in coming out!