Last month, the online magazine Narratively organized a trash week. Check out these pieces on New Yorkers who supplement their income by collecting and redeeming cans, freegans, and the adventures of a Freshkills junkie.
Photo by Michael Premo via Narratively
Fresh Kills. First it was an estuary. Then it was a landfill. Now it’s a park with an active blog and a brand new app.
Freshkills Park +
Freshkills Park Blog announced today that smartphone users visiting the park may now enhance their visits with an augmented reality app.
The experience, which is available to users of iPhone 4, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices, was constructed using theLayar browser, which makes use of a phone’s camera, GPS, compass and accelerometer to enhance what is seen with a layer of digital information. Users are able to view the landscape through their phone, and Freshkills Park+provides relevant information, audio, video, links and downloads in real time.
Pretty snazzy. Can’t wait to try it out!
On Wednesday, December 8th, Dr. Robin Nagle, New York’s Department of Sanitation anthropologist in residence, is giving a talk entitled “The Twist-Ties that Bind” as part of an ongoing series of Freshkills Park talks. Here’s the description:
Join Dr. Robin Nagle to learn (almost) everything you ever wanted to know about garbage in New York. Discover how profoundly it connects us to each other, to history, to politics, to infrastructure and technology. Hear stories and reflections from people who shoulder its burdens. Glimpse some of its surprising secrets. Consider why we need to ignore it, and ponder the consequences of its invisibility. The insights you glean migh…t just change forever the way you see your city.
Dr. Nagle is the anthropologist-in-residence for the Department of Sanitation. She is also director of the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University, where she teaches anthropology and urban studies. Her book Picking Up, about what it is to be a sanitation worker in New York and why you should care, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the New York City Department of Sanitation and the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University.
I highly recommend checking out this event if you’re in or near NYC. Freshkills Park has created a Facebook event so you don’t forget. And even if you can’t make it, check out Dr. Nagle’s garblog, Discard Studies. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s rad.
Mark your calendars, NYC trashies. Freshkills Park is sponsoring a series of talks this summer. Here are details on the next one. And you don’t even have to go to Staten Island to hear it.
Freshkills Park
The Design of South Park, Phase One at Freshkills Park
Tatiana Choulika, Senior Associate at landscape architecture and urban design firm James Corner Field Operations, will present the first phase of design for South Park, one of the five sections of Freshkills Park. At 425 acres, South Park comprises some of the most varied and scenic landscape within the extraordinary Freshkills Park site. It is envisioned as a connected series of overlooks, meadows and recreational facilities including walking and biking paths, softball fields, play areas and event spaces. This phase of South Park will also be the first project allowing public access to the top of one of the mounds, with expansive views of Staten Island and beyond.
Wednesday, May 26th, 6:30 p.m.
@ The Arsenal, 4th floor
830 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
Free. No RSVP necessary.
The second annual Freshkills Park haiku contest is over. Check out the winners of the adult and student categories over at their blog.
Randy Ludacer is a Staten Islander who writes songs about packaging. From 12 noon to 2pm on Saturday, September 26th, you can hear him perform these songs at the Freshkills Park site. The event is free and everyone who attends will get a free CD. Click here for more details. Though out of date, this is my favorite of the photos on Ludacer’s website. Kind of makes you want to head to Staten Island, doesn’t it?
Portrait photo by Deborah Davis for the album Hot Water, 1981
If you prefer bird calls to obscure songs written by people, the very next day Freshkills hosts a birding tour led by local naturalists. More info here.
Robin Nagle, anthropologist in residence for New York City’s Department of Sanitation, is giving a talk on the Freshkills landfill as a sacred space. This extraspecial event will take place on the North mound at said landfill on Saturday, June 20th, starts at noon. New Yorkers, follow the link to RSVP.
…has a blog!
via Frehskills2030 on Flickr
everydaytrash 