What is the project about? The project is about the contamination of Onondaga Lake
Describe what FORM the project will take. The project will be in the form of a mock website about Lights on the Lake, which is currently a holiday light show. Our website would be about a different Lights on the Lake, one that shows the pollution and its effects.
Why do you want to work in the location you have chosen? My group was able to come up with more ideas pertaining to Onondaga Lake rather than Armory Square.
What is the history of the site? It has a long history of industrialization along the shorelines of the lake, which dumped harmful chemicals into the lake and polluted it. In recent decades, people have made it a priority to clean up the lake, and efforts are underway.
Why is this site particularly appropriate for the project? The Lake is polluted, and the website will advertise a mock Lights on the Lake show about pollution.
Is this project an integration or an intervention, and why? Perhaps more of an intervention because the website is a way to acknowledge the pollution still in the lake and that more needs to be done.
Will you get permission to work in the site? I have no idea.
How does the piece disrupt OR fit in with the surroundings? It is outside of the surroundings of the lake, and should not have any effects on its surroundings.
Name at least one artist project that we have looked at this semester that inspired your project and explain why your project is related. The Yes Men's mock website of the WTO is the basic idea of our project. They mocked the WTO, and we are going to mock Lights on the Lake.
What are the goals & objectives of the project? To increase awareness of the pollution in Onondaga Lake and that more needs to be done to restore it to its former glory.
How will you measure success for your project? If people were to visit the site and show an interest in seeing the mock light show, the project is a success.
Profile the target audience. Who are they? What do they care about? What are their expected reactions? The target audience would be people that attend the current Lights on the Lake, and for them to see about the mock one. Most of them would be families with children. They care about their family and doing things together as a family. Upon seeing this, they could hopefully care more about the pollution of the lake and would want to clean it so it can be a place for families to go and enjoy a day outdoors. They might be shocked seeing a light show about pollution, as Lights on the Lake is normally pictures of the holidays.
How do you want your audience to interact with your project? We want the audience to view the website and consider attending, and hopefully become more active in the lake's cleanup process.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Analysis of Panhandling for Reparations
Cristina Posilovic
November 4, 2007
Analysis of an Art Project
Damali Ayo is an artist who creates public artwork such as Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations. Her work is intended to bring light to social and racial issues between blacks and whites, such as slavery and cultural differences. However, her approaches to gaining discussion about racism are flawed, as they are offensive to many and are controversial. The offensiveness of the projects and the controversies surrounding them have a negative impact on many and devalue the projects.
Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations was a street performance by Damali Ayo in 2003, which was recorded and put onto the web. Damali sat on the streets of Portland, Oregon, wearing a sign that said “200+ years of slavery”, holding a sign that said “reparations accepted here” and had a tin can with “reparations” written on it (Ayo, “Living Flag”). For hours she sat, asking people, “Would you like to make a reparations payment today?” (Ayo, “Living Flag”). She received varied responses, such as “Black power!”, “This is a great idea”, and “Oh, I’m totally, you know, sorry that people were enslaved. I can’t, no, I’m enslaved by the IRS” (Ayo, “Living Flag”). Damali would then give the money she got from donations to black people she saw walking around (Ayo, “Living Flag”). While most accepted their “first reparations payment”, others refused it (Ayo, “Living Flag”).
For this project, the participants were the ones asked if they would like to pay reparations, or those that received the reparation money. The audience for the project was everyone who saw it, from those that saw her on the streets to those that saw the taped performance on YouTube. Damali intended for the project to start dialogue about slavery, race, and reparations, and to hopefully get the government to do something about reparations (Ayo, Nat’l Day). It is a satire of how blacks have begged the government for reparations for years, and it seems that the only way to get it done is through panhandling (Ayo, Nat’l Day).
While Damali Ayo has good intentions of wanting to raise issues of race and slavery, she goes about it in a negative way. One of the reasons why Panhandling for Reparations is offensive is that it supposedly combats racism when in fact it creates it. In Panhandling for Reparations, Ayo says, "I'm collecting reparations for slavery right. And I'm collecting it from white people and I'm handing it out to black people”. Right from the start she divides people into black and white, by only asking people who appear white to pay reparations and giving them to people who appear black. She automatically assumes that all white people created slavery and that all black people were slaves and should be rewarded for their labor. This viewpoint makes white people the enemy, that because of the color of their skin they should pay reparations. As everyone would agree, judging people by the color of their skin is one of the bases of racism. Therefore, by asking only white people to pay reparations just because they are white is racist, which is the very concept that Ayo is trying to destroy.
Ayo also doesn’t realize that just because someone is white, they are not automatically a part of the slavery of African Americans. Also, just because someone is black, doesn’t mean that his or her ancestors were slaves. By asking only white people for money and handing them out to any black person she sees, she makes judgments based on one’s skin color. Personally, I would be highly offended if she demanded that I paid reparations for her ancestor’s slavery. My parents both came here from Europe, my mom in 1972 and my dad in 1980. In no way, shape, or form is my family related to any slave owners involved in African American slavery. My ancestors lived nowhere near America. Amy Alkon, a white writer, is also in a similar situation as I. She states,
“As for my family, when black people were being enslaved over here, we
were being chased around Russia by the Cossacks. My relatives came
over on boats from Eastern Europe, so if you're looking to place blame
for slavery simply because I have the complexion of Wite-Out, well, you
really shouldn't be looking at me” (Alkon).
However, if we passed her on the street, she would ask us to make a payment only because our skin tone is white. Regarding white people that are descendants of recent immigrants not involved in slavery, Ayo tell us to make a payment because blacks should receive a rectification for slavery as they were wronged by our entire race, and that we are a member of a country and a race that enslaved people and we should take responsibility for that (Ayo, Nat’l Day). According to Ayo, just because my skin tone has less melanin than hers, because I happened to be born white and her black, that I should pay her for the work her ancestors did because other people who shared my skin color enslaved them. Her reasoning for whom should pay reparations is completely racist. If one is going to use racist reasons for a cause that is supposed to resolve racism, it will never happen.
Ayo believes this because she doesn’t think that racism can occur to whites. She once said that, “reverse racism is an impossibility” (Alkon). In response, Alkon writes,
“So…if, according to Ayo, there is no reverse racism, what was it I
encountered at the University of Michigan when I happily sat down at
the end of a table of black girls in the beginning of my freshman year,
and they all went silent…and looked down at the table at me as if I
were a giant turd with legs?”.
Alkon also brought up the minority fellowships in journalism, sometimes offered to wealthy black people and completely unavailable to a poor white person who’s only option to further their education was community college because they could not afford better (Alkon). If the fellowship situation were reversed, it would be an outrage. Few notice that anyone can feel prejudice based on his or her skin color, not just blacks. If Ayo can realize that blacks are prejudiced because of their skin color, she should also realize that whites and anyone else can go through the same thing, but based on her project, she doesn’t.
Looking even further into Panhandling for Reparations, why do blacks deserve reparations for the slavery of their ancestors? Slavery has been around since ancient times, and has been implemented in numerous cultures in nearly every continent (Hellie). It is likely that most people, if not everyone, has a distant ancestor that was a slave. For everyone in the world to demand reparations because they had a distant ancestor who wasn’t paid for their labor is ludicrous. The only fair way of reparations is for the slave owner to directly pay a person they enslaved. Since it has been many years since slavery existed, we can only pay the descendants. However, how are we to find out who is a descendant of a slave and who isn’t? How are we to find out who is a descendant of a slave owner? Even this approach isn’t fair, because the unlucky people who are the descendant of a slave owner would be forced to pay money to others because of what an ancestor did, even if they agree that slavery is wrong. Also, if this approach went through despite the unfairness, what would it solve? One of the reasons why African Americans want reparations is because their ancestors were held back socially and economically (Brophy). However, it has been over 140 years since slavery has been abolished, and since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, blacks have been given advantages in society such as affirmative action. Many consider affirmative action to be a form of reparations, as we are giving blacks and other minorities a higher chance of getting a job than a white person of equal ability (Brophy). If we were to add reparations to that, it could create more hatred and racism, as whites will now be the ones repressed. If we want to achieve racial equality, reparations are not the way to go. Focusing on the wrongdoings of the past, placing blame on others, and demanding justification will bring us nowhere toward equality. We should look back upon the days of slavery, realize how wrong it was, make sure that it will never happen again, and promote equality for people of all races, which is something Panhandling for Reparations fails to do.
Adrian Piper, another black artists, also creates public art that shows people the wrongness of racism. One of her projects, Funk Lessons, introduced white people to a popular form of black music called funk (Piper). In these, she teaches white people the history of funk, how to appreciate the music, and how to dance to it (Piper). While many were offended by the music upon first hearing it, they gradually began to appreciate the music through these lessons (Piper). The reason for their distaste when first hearing it is simple, just that they were not accustomed to this type of music (Piper). Through these lessons, white people were introduced to some of black culture, and it was a positive experience for all involved (Piper). This is an example of public art against racism that made positive impacts, much unlike Panhandling for Reparations. No one was segregated by race, but only introduced to music of other cultures that they would never have heard or appreciated otherwise. The project brought people together and got people to see beyond their prejudices of funk music and to appreciate its value, which will hopefully one day occur between blacks and whites. By introducing whites to music of black culture, it blends the line between the two cultures and allows people to appreciate a culture they don’t know much about.
Perhaps we look beyond the racism and offensiveness of Panhandling for Reparations and look at it as a new genre public art project. Arlene Raven says that public art “forges direct intersections with social issues” (Kwon, 105). While public art was once more about the aesthetic appeal, lately it has been changing to art with a social function (Kwon, 111). Panhandling for Reparations is not about aesthetics, but about creating intersections with the social issues of slavery, racism, and justice. Ayo uses the project as a tool to promote dialogue about reparations and race (Ayo, Nat’l Day). Kwon also poses many questions about new genre public art on page 117 in her book One Place After Another. One of her questions is, “What criteria of success and failure are posed…in this major reconfiguration of public art that moves aesthetic practice closer to social services?” How are we to define what is successful and what is not? If one defined it by the statement it made about the social issue it brings up, one could consider it as a success because, despite its wrongs, it does get people to talk about race and reparations.
Even though in the world of new genre public art, Panhandling for Reparations would be a success, in the real world it is a failure. It attempts to address the problems of race and slavery and resolve issues, but it only adds to the pot. Addressing the issue of blacks and whites does not need to involve demanding that people with lighter skin pay for what people of lighter skin did in the past to people of darker skin. We should rather introduce public art projects such as Funk Lessons whose goal is to bring people of different races together and introduce each other to their unique cultures. Reparations for slavery will never solve the issues of racism in the world. Rather, we can achieve equality by bringing people of different so called races together to show that we are not made up of Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or any other race people can come up with, but that we are all a part of the human race.
November 4, 2007
Analysis of an Art Project
Damali Ayo is an artist who creates public artwork such as Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations. Her work is intended to bring light to social and racial issues between blacks and whites, such as slavery and cultural differences. However, her approaches to gaining discussion about racism are flawed, as they are offensive to many and are controversial. The offensiveness of the projects and the controversies surrounding them have a negative impact on many and devalue the projects.
Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations was a street performance by Damali Ayo in 2003, which was recorded and put onto the web. Damali sat on the streets of Portland, Oregon, wearing a sign that said “200+ years of slavery”, holding a sign that said “reparations accepted here” and had a tin can with “reparations” written on it (Ayo, “Living Flag”). For hours she sat, asking people, “Would you like to make a reparations payment today?” (Ayo, “Living Flag”). She received varied responses, such as “Black power!”, “This is a great idea”, and “Oh, I’m totally, you know, sorry that people were enslaved. I can’t, no, I’m enslaved by the IRS” (Ayo, “Living Flag”). Damali would then give the money she got from donations to black people she saw walking around (Ayo, “Living Flag”). While most accepted their “first reparations payment”, others refused it (Ayo, “Living Flag”).
For this project, the participants were the ones asked if they would like to pay reparations, or those that received the reparation money. The audience for the project was everyone who saw it, from those that saw her on the streets to those that saw the taped performance on YouTube. Damali intended for the project to start dialogue about slavery, race, and reparations, and to hopefully get the government to do something about reparations (Ayo, Nat’l Day). It is a satire of how blacks have begged the government for reparations for years, and it seems that the only way to get it done is through panhandling (Ayo, Nat’l Day).
While Damali Ayo has good intentions of wanting to raise issues of race and slavery, she goes about it in a negative way. One of the reasons why Panhandling for Reparations is offensive is that it supposedly combats racism when in fact it creates it. In Panhandling for Reparations, Ayo says, "I'm collecting reparations for slavery right. And I'm collecting it from white people and I'm handing it out to black people”. Right from the start she divides people into black and white, by only asking people who appear white to pay reparations and giving them to people who appear black. She automatically assumes that all white people created slavery and that all black people were slaves and should be rewarded for their labor. This viewpoint makes white people the enemy, that because of the color of their skin they should pay reparations. As everyone would agree, judging people by the color of their skin is one of the bases of racism. Therefore, by asking only white people to pay reparations just because they are white is racist, which is the very concept that Ayo is trying to destroy.
Ayo also doesn’t realize that just because someone is white, they are not automatically a part of the slavery of African Americans. Also, just because someone is black, doesn’t mean that his or her ancestors were slaves. By asking only white people for money and handing them out to any black person she sees, she makes judgments based on one’s skin color. Personally, I would be highly offended if she demanded that I paid reparations for her ancestor’s slavery. My parents both came here from Europe, my mom in 1972 and my dad in 1980. In no way, shape, or form is my family related to any slave owners involved in African American slavery. My ancestors lived nowhere near America. Amy Alkon, a white writer, is also in a similar situation as I. She states,
“As for my family, when black people were being enslaved over here, we
were being chased around Russia by the Cossacks. My relatives came
over on boats from Eastern Europe, so if you're looking to place blame
for slavery simply because I have the complexion of Wite-Out, well, you
really shouldn't be looking at me” (Alkon).
However, if we passed her on the street, she would ask us to make a payment only because our skin tone is white. Regarding white people that are descendants of recent immigrants not involved in slavery, Ayo tell us to make a payment because blacks should receive a rectification for slavery as they were wronged by our entire race, and that we are a member of a country and a race that enslaved people and we should take responsibility for that (Ayo, Nat’l Day). According to Ayo, just because my skin tone has less melanin than hers, because I happened to be born white and her black, that I should pay her for the work her ancestors did because other people who shared my skin color enslaved them. Her reasoning for whom should pay reparations is completely racist. If one is going to use racist reasons for a cause that is supposed to resolve racism, it will never happen.
Ayo believes this because she doesn’t think that racism can occur to whites. She once said that, “reverse racism is an impossibility” (Alkon). In response, Alkon writes,
“So…if, according to Ayo, there is no reverse racism, what was it I
encountered at the University of Michigan when I happily sat down at
the end of a table of black girls in the beginning of my freshman year,
and they all went silent…and looked down at the table at me as if I
were a giant turd with legs?”.
Alkon also brought up the minority fellowships in journalism, sometimes offered to wealthy black people and completely unavailable to a poor white person who’s only option to further their education was community college because they could not afford better (Alkon). If the fellowship situation were reversed, it would be an outrage. Few notice that anyone can feel prejudice based on his or her skin color, not just blacks. If Ayo can realize that blacks are prejudiced because of their skin color, she should also realize that whites and anyone else can go through the same thing, but based on her project, she doesn’t.
Looking even further into Panhandling for Reparations, why do blacks deserve reparations for the slavery of their ancestors? Slavery has been around since ancient times, and has been implemented in numerous cultures in nearly every continent (Hellie). It is likely that most people, if not everyone, has a distant ancestor that was a slave. For everyone in the world to demand reparations because they had a distant ancestor who wasn’t paid for their labor is ludicrous. The only fair way of reparations is for the slave owner to directly pay a person they enslaved. Since it has been many years since slavery existed, we can only pay the descendants. However, how are we to find out who is a descendant of a slave and who isn’t? How are we to find out who is a descendant of a slave owner? Even this approach isn’t fair, because the unlucky people who are the descendant of a slave owner would be forced to pay money to others because of what an ancestor did, even if they agree that slavery is wrong. Also, if this approach went through despite the unfairness, what would it solve? One of the reasons why African Americans want reparations is because their ancestors were held back socially and economically (Brophy). However, it has been over 140 years since slavery has been abolished, and since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, blacks have been given advantages in society such as affirmative action. Many consider affirmative action to be a form of reparations, as we are giving blacks and other minorities a higher chance of getting a job than a white person of equal ability (Brophy). If we were to add reparations to that, it could create more hatred and racism, as whites will now be the ones repressed. If we want to achieve racial equality, reparations are not the way to go. Focusing on the wrongdoings of the past, placing blame on others, and demanding justification will bring us nowhere toward equality. We should look back upon the days of slavery, realize how wrong it was, make sure that it will never happen again, and promote equality for people of all races, which is something Panhandling for Reparations fails to do.
Adrian Piper, another black artists, also creates public art that shows people the wrongness of racism. One of her projects, Funk Lessons, introduced white people to a popular form of black music called funk (Piper). In these, she teaches white people the history of funk, how to appreciate the music, and how to dance to it (Piper). While many were offended by the music upon first hearing it, they gradually began to appreciate the music through these lessons (Piper). The reason for their distaste when first hearing it is simple, just that they were not accustomed to this type of music (Piper). Through these lessons, white people were introduced to some of black culture, and it was a positive experience for all involved (Piper). This is an example of public art against racism that made positive impacts, much unlike Panhandling for Reparations. No one was segregated by race, but only introduced to music of other cultures that they would never have heard or appreciated otherwise. The project brought people together and got people to see beyond their prejudices of funk music and to appreciate its value, which will hopefully one day occur between blacks and whites. By introducing whites to music of black culture, it blends the line between the two cultures and allows people to appreciate a culture they don’t know much about.
Perhaps we look beyond the racism and offensiveness of Panhandling for Reparations and look at it as a new genre public art project. Arlene Raven says that public art “forges direct intersections with social issues” (Kwon, 105). While public art was once more about the aesthetic appeal, lately it has been changing to art with a social function (Kwon, 111). Panhandling for Reparations is not about aesthetics, but about creating intersections with the social issues of slavery, racism, and justice. Ayo uses the project as a tool to promote dialogue about reparations and race (Ayo, Nat’l Day). Kwon also poses many questions about new genre public art on page 117 in her book One Place After Another. One of her questions is, “What criteria of success and failure are posed…in this major reconfiguration of public art that moves aesthetic practice closer to social services?” How are we to define what is successful and what is not? If one defined it by the statement it made about the social issue it brings up, one could consider it as a success because, despite its wrongs, it does get people to talk about race and reparations.
Even though in the world of new genre public art, Panhandling for Reparations would be a success, in the real world it is a failure. It attempts to address the problems of race and slavery and resolve issues, but it only adds to the pot. Addressing the issue of blacks and whites does not need to involve demanding that people with lighter skin pay for what people of lighter skin did in the past to people of darker skin. We should rather introduce public art projects such as Funk Lessons whose goal is to bring people of different races together and introduce each other to their unique cultures. Reparations for slavery will never solve the issues of racism in the world. Rather, we can achieve equality by bringing people of different so called races together to show that we are not made up of Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or any other race people can come up with, but that we are all a part of the human race.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Essay 3 Outline
Introduction
Damali Ayo is an artist who has been creating public art such as Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations and her book How to Rent-A-Negro.
Beginning Thesis
Damali's art projects are intended to be works that raise awareness of racial issues, however they also created controversy.
Panhandling for Reparations
In Panhandling for Reparations, Damali makes her argument that black people deserve reparations, but does it in a biased manner.
How to Rent-A-Negro
Ayo's book was a highly controversial piece misunderstood by many.
Ethical Questions
Damali Ayo's works have a common theme of raising African American issues to society, but there were ethical flaws in their approaches.
Public Art
A goal of public art is to raise awareness of a certain social issue, but does the controversy around Ayo's projects help or hinder their meaning?
Conclusion and Ending Thesis
Despite the controversies brought about by Ayo's projects, perhaps they were beneficial.
Quotes
"As public art shifted from large-scale objects, to physically or conceptually site-specific projects, to audience-specific concerns...it moved from an aesthetic function, to a design function, to a social function." -Miwon Kwon
"The dialogue is now to occur between an artist and a community or audience group that is identified as such in relation to some social problem..." -Miwon Kwon
"I'm collecting reparations for slavery right. And I'm collecting it from white people and I'm handing it out to black people." -Damali Ayo in her performance
"This work is more symbolic and satirical- a biting commentary on the state of the reparations debate." -Damali Ayo, on her blog
My essay ideas are still a work in progress. Changes will probably be made, and my essay may not look like this.
Damali Ayo is an artist who has been creating public art such as Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations and her book How to Rent-A-Negro.
Beginning Thesis
Damali's art projects are intended to be works that raise awareness of racial issues, however they also created controversy.
Panhandling for Reparations
In Panhandling for Reparations, Damali makes her argument that black people deserve reparations, but does it in a biased manner.
How to Rent-A-Negro
Ayo's book was a highly controversial piece misunderstood by many.
Ethical Questions
Damali Ayo's works have a common theme of raising African American issues to society, but there were ethical flaws in their approaches.
Public Art
A goal of public art is to raise awareness of a certain social issue, but does the controversy around Ayo's projects help or hinder their meaning?
Conclusion and Ending Thesis
Despite the controversies brought about by Ayo's projects, perhaps they were beneficial.
Quotes
"As public art shifted from large-scale objects, to physically or conceptually site-specific projects, to audience-specific concerns...it moved from an aesthetic function, to a design function, to a social function." -Miwon Kwon
"The dialogue is now to occur between an artist and a community or audience group that is identified as such in relation to some social problem..." -Miwon Kwon
"I'm collecting reparations for slavery right. And I'm collecting it from white people and I'm handing it out to black people." -Damali Ayo in her performance
"This work is more symbolic and satirical- a biting commentary on the state of the reparations debate." -Damali Ayo, on her blog
My essay ideas are still a work in progress. Changes will probably be made, and my essay may not look like this.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Topic, Questions, Sources
Topic: Damali Ayo's Panhandling for Reparations
Questions:
How did the project go in the many other locations people panhandled for reparations?
Did the project raise awarness about slavery and reparations?
Will there be any lasting impact from the project?
Possible Articles:
Purposeful Panhandling: Volunteers gather money on Portland streets for slavery reparations by the Associated Press. Portland, Oregon newspaper.
Panhandling for Reparations draws ire but also discussion by Erin Hoover Barnett. Newhouse News Service. Portland, Oregon newspaper.
Interview: Damali Ayo on her Web site, rent-a-negro.com.(9:00-10:00 AM)(Broadcast transcript)(Website overview) by Tavis Smiley
Portlanders Beg for Reparations. Portland, Oregon newspaper.
Questions:
How did the project go in the many other locations people panhandled for reparations?
Did the project raise awarness about slavery and reparations?
Will there be any lasting impact from the project?
Possible Articles:
Purposeful Panhandling: Volunteers gather money on Portland streets for slavery reparations by the Associated Press. Portland, Oregon newspaper.
Panhandling for Reparations draws ire but also discussion by Erin Hoover Barnett. Newhouse News Service. Portland, Oregon newspaper.
Interview: Damali Ayo on her Web site, rent-a-negro.com.(9:00-10:00 AM)(Broadcast transcript)(Website overview) by Tavis Smiley
Portlanders Beg for Reparations. Portland, Oregon newspaper.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Ericson and Ziegler
"Art in the public interest forges direct intersections with social issues."
The quote was found in Miwon Kwon's One Place After Another on page 105. It says that public art, such as the projects found in Culture in Action, can tie into and bring light to certain social issues. One such project was Eminent Domain, done by Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler (Kwon 102). The project consisted of color charts with different colors named after an issue with public housing in the Ogden Courts Apartments of Chicago (Kwon 122). Ericson and Ziegler said that "The chart would deal with some specifics about federall funded housing, demographics, etc. It would of course hopefully raise issues that are of concern to the tenants but it would also question the validity and morals of the suburbs which these charts often cater to" (Kwon 122). This public art project ties into social issues of housing with the names of the paint colors, such as HUD Cream, Homeless (which is sky blue), Scattered-Site Coral and FHA Gingerbread (Nesbitt). Because the paint charts were created by the residents, the ones who experience housing social issues such as problems with the FHA or being homeless, the project gave them a voice to raise awareness of the social issues. Their connection is direct, between the issues and the art, which is what public interest art is all about.
Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002.
Nesbitt, Lois. "Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler." Artforum International 32.n9
(May 1994): 104(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Syracuse University
Library. 28 Oct. 2007 http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=
AONE.
The quote was found in Miwon Kwon's One Place After Another on page 105. It says that public art, such as the projects found in Culture in Action, can tie into and bring light to certain social issues. One such project was Eminent Domain, done by Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler (Kwon 102). The project consisted of color charts with different colors named after an issue with public housing in the Ogden Courts Apartments of Chicago (Kwon 122). Ericson and Ziegler said that "The chart would deal with some specifics about federall funded housing, demographics, etc. It would of course hopefully raise issues that are of concern to the tenants but it would also question the validity and morals of the suburbs which these charts often cater to" (Kwon 122). This public art project ties into social issues of housing with the names of the paint colors, such as HUD Cream, Homeless (which is sky blue), Scattered-Site Coral and FHA Gingerbread (Nesbitt). Because the paint charts were created by the residents, the ones who experience housing social issues such as problems with the FHA or being homeless, the project gave them a voice to raise awareness of the social issues. Their connection is direct, between the issues and the art, which is what public interest art is all about.
Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002.
Nesbitt, Lois. "Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler." Artforum International 32.n9
(May 1994): 104(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Syracuse University
Library. 28 Oct. 2007 http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=
AONE.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Video and Resistance: Against Documentaries
Originally photography was intended to be visual replications of truth, however, this is not the case. The artists look at documentaries, and how they are supposed to be accurate representations of real life events, yet they are just another form of propaganda. Images and commentary are paired together to give the viewer a sense of only one view existing towards a story. The flow of a documentary gives the viewer no chance to question or interpret the story for themselves, and only to follow along.
The artists describe how photography's original purpose was to be concrete evidence for truth that cannot be found in people's memories. Memories are easily distorted, but with a photograph you get a true representation of a piece of history. Sontag shares a similar view of what photos are and describes them as "not only an image,...an interpretation of the real;it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask." Sontag also believes that "photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history." According to the artists, that is the idea behind documentaries. Documentaries are a collection of images to display history as if one actually witnessed it. Both Sontag and the artists view photos in a similar way, as something more concrete than a drawing or a memory, but an actual replication of a moment of time and that photos are a powerful and versatile tool with many uses.
The artists describe how photography's original purpose was to be concrete evidence for truth that cannot be found in people's memories. Memories are easily distorted, but with a photograph you get a true representation of a piece of history. Sontag shares a similar view of what photos are and describes them as "not only an image,...an interpretation of the real;it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask." Sontag also believes that "photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history." According to the artists, that is the idea behind documentaries. Documentaries are a collection of images to display history as if one actually witnessed it. Both Sontag and the artists view photos in a similar way, as something more concrete than a drawing or a memory, but an actual replication of a moment of time and that photos are a powerful and versatile tool with many uses.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Essay Revision
Cristina Posilovic
October 14, 2007
Superfund and Onondaga Lake
The industrial age in America resulted in many consequences, one of which is toxic pollution. Thousands of areas such as lakes, rivers, and pieces of land were polluted by the waste of many companies. These areas pose problems to human health and safety, animal health and safety, and the cleanliness of our environment. In 1980, a government program called Superfund was created to help clean up the most polluted areas in America.
According to the EPA website, Superfund is an environmental program that was established to provide funding to clean up hazardous waste sites (EPA). It was established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which taxes oil and chemical companies and gave “authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment” (EPA). The money from the taxes was the main source of income for Superfund to clean up the waste sites (EPA). The act also holds the companies that dumped the pollution responsible for payment of the cleanup, and uses the money in the trust fund for places where the polluter has since abandoned the area or gone bankrupt (EPA). Ultimately, Superfund exists to remove toxic waste in our environment to protect the lives of people and animals and make the world a safer place.
On November 4, 2003 an article came out in the Christian Science Monitor by Brian Knickerbocker called “Superfund Program: A Smaller Cleanup Rag” that addressed problems with Superfund. It begins by saying that the fund is now virtually bankrupt, and that it is becoming more difficult to clean up other sites. It also states that the amount of sites cleaned per year by Superfund has been declining for the past three years. Since the program began, 886 sites have been cleaned up, but 1,203 still remain on their list (Knickerbocker). The article talks about Superfund’s policy of making the polluter pay, but also mentions about the large number of so called “orphan sites” where the companies responsible are now bankrupt or have since abandoned the area (Knickerbocker). Knickerbocker writes about the tax placed on oil and chemical companies that was once the main contributor to the fund, but that the tax has not been reinstated since 1995. Taxpayers are now contributing 53% of the cost compared to 18% when the taxes were still in place (Knickerbocker). Many still agree with the polluter pays policy, but it does have its drawbacks. The companies tagged to a site are given full responsibility of the cleanup, and in some cases they go and sue other companies that they can find that tie into the polluted area in one way or another (Knickerbocker). Oftentimes, more money is being spent for legal purposes rather than to clean up toxic waste sites (Knickerbocker). These problems are inhibiting the cleanup of numerous toxic pollution sites in the United States.
One such polluted area is Onondaga Lake, considered by many to be the most polluted lake in America (Landers 64). The 4.6 square mile lake is found just north of the city of Syracuse and is contaminated with numerous substances that were discharged by a few companies in the late 1800s to the mid 1900s (Landers 64). In the late 1800s, the Solvay Process Company produced soda ash, with “1.1 pounds of sodium chloride and 2.2 pounds of calcium chloride produced for every 2.2 pounds of soda ash”, which was pumped into waste beds along the shore of the lake (Landers 64). The wastes increased the salinity of the lake, which has killed many forms of marine life (Landers 64, 65). Between 1917 and 1970, Allied Chemical further contaminated the lake by adding contaminants such as mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, which are considered to be carcinogenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are also known carcinogens, and chlorinated benzenes, which can affect the health of humans and fish (Landers 65). The Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant also added to the pollution of the lake. Since 1920 they have discharged chemicals such as phosphorus and nitrogen into the lake, which caused a rapid growth of algae in the lake, and reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen into the lake, which can kill marine animals (Landers 69).
In 1994 Onondaga Lake was added to the National Priorities List, also known as Superfund (Landers 65). In 2005, the cleanup plan for the lake, known as the ROD, was finalized (Landers 66). According to the ROD, “2.7 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and waste” will be dredged from the lake and “disposed of at an off-site facility” or in a sediment consolidation area (Landers 66). These sediments will go through a new water treatment plant and decontaminated until it fulfills discharge limits and then returned to the lake (Landers 67). 425 acres of shallower areas of the lake will be covered in a multilayered isolation cap to prevent “upward migration of contamination” (Landers 67). In deeper areas of the lake, a total of 154 acres will be covered in a thin-layer cap for the same purposes as the isolation cap (Landers 67). Deeper lake areas will only have a thin cap, while shallower areas will have a thicker cap due to erosion (Landers 67). In addition, barrier walls will be built to collect groundwater to be sent to a treatment plant before entering the lake. The total cost of this plan is 451 million dollars.
According to the Onondaga Nation, a tribe of Native Americans who hold the Onondaga Lake as sacred, the plan is nowhere near suitable. There is an additional 18 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment that will not be dredged under the ROD. The plan only dredges in certain areas, instead of removing the entire in lake waste deposit (Onondaga Nation). They also say that caps are not reliable, because at some point the cap will move or erode and the chemicals will be re-released (Onondaga Nation). Viewing the diagram in the New Life For Onondaga Lake article, caps will only cover a very small area of the lake, while the rest of it will hopefully be covered by clean sediment. This is an unrealistic approach, to hope that one day uncontaminated sediment will cover the entire lake bottom and will always contain the chemicals in the sediment beneath it. It will never happen. The Nation says that the entire lake bottom is contaminated with mercury, and unless it is removed or fully contained it will continue to be in the lake’s ecosystem (Onondaga Nation). In addition, the plan involves treating water according to certain discharge limits (Onondaga Nation). This means that not all of the pollution will be removed from the water and sediments, and some of it will be re-released right back into the lake. This plan will only slightly reduce the amount of pollution in the lake and hope that the caps installed will contain the chemicals, instead of finding real solutions to get rid of all of the contaminants or to contain them properly in a way that will not fail in years to come. The cost of a real cleanup, according to the Nation, would be around 2.16 billion dollars (Onondaga Nation).
The plan outlined by the ROD cuts corners, takes shortcuts, and hopes that the problem of contamination in the lake will be resolved. A thorough cleanup is possible for the lake, however it seems that money is the reason why Onondaga Lake will not receive a worthy cleanup. Due to the lack of funding received by Superfund, Onondaga Lake is not getting the proper cleanup it should, and this is probably the case with numerous other sites around the country. According to an article in the Washington Post, Superfund’s budget has “declined by 34 percent over the past decade”, adjusting for inflation (Eilperin). With budget shortfalls, the lack of the tax on chemical and oil companies, Superfund will never be able to offer timely and worthy cleanup plans for the many toxic waste sites around the country, and it will be the people, whose taxes now pay for a large portion of Superfund projects and those that live near sites that are given inadequate cleanup, that will suffer.
Works Cited
"Basic Information." Superfund. 21 Sep 2007. EPA. 8 Oct 2007
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/about.htm.
"CERCLA Overview." Superfund. 17 July 2007. EPA. 8 Oct 2007
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/policy/cercla.htm.
Eilperin, Juliet. "Lack of Funding Slows Cleanup Of Hundreds of Superfund Sites."
Washington Post 25 Nov 2004 A01. 14 Oct 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/
ac2/wp-dyn/A11246-2004Nov24?language=printer.
Knickerbocker, Brian. "Superfund Program: A Smaller Cleanup Rag." Christian Science
Monitor 14 Nov 2003 07 Oct 2007 http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1114/p02s01-
usgn.html?related.
Landers, Jay. "New Life for Onondaga Lake." Civil Engineering (American Society of Civil Engineers) 76.5 (2006): 64,71, 86.
"Onondaga Lake ‘Clean-up’ Plan." Onondaga News. 11 Dec 2006. Onondaga Nation. 14 Oct 2007 http://www.onondaganation.org/news.cleanup1.html.
October 14, 2007
The industrial age in America resulted in many consequences, one of which is toxic pollution. Thousands of areas such as lakes, rivers, and pieces of land were polluted by the waste of many companies. These areas pose problems to human health and safety, animal health and safety, and the cleanliness of our environment. In 1980, a government program called Superfund was created to help clean up the most polluted areas in America.
According to the EPA website, Superfund is an environmental program that was established to provide funding to clean up hazardous waste sites (EPA). It was established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which taxes oil and chemical companies and gave “authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment” (EPA). The money from the taxes was the main source of income for Superfund to clean up the waste sites (EPA). The act also holds the companies that dumped the pollution responsible for payment of the cleanup, and uses the money in the trust fund for places where the polluter has since abandoned the area or gone bankrupt (EPA). Ultimately, Superfund exists to remove toxic waste in our environment to protect the lives of people and animals and make the world a safer place.
On November 4, 2003 an article came out in the Christian Science Monitor by Brian Knickerbocker called “Superfund Program: A Smaller Cleanup Rag” that addressed problems with Superfund. It begins by saying that the fund is now virtually bankrupt, and that it is becoming more difficult to clean up other sites. It also states that the amount of sites cleaned per year by Superfund has been declining for the past three years. Since the program began, 886 sites have been cleaned up, but 1,203 still remain on their list (Knickerbocker). The article talks about Superfund’s policy of making the polluter pay, but also mentions about the large number of so called “orphan sites” where the companies responsible are now bankrupt or have since abandoned the area (Knickerbocker). Knickerbocker writes about the tax placed on oil and chemical companies that was once the main contributor to the fund, but that the tax has not been reinstated since 1995. Taxpayers are now contributing 53% of the cost compared to 18% when the taxes were still in place (Knickerbocker). Many still agree with the polluter pays policy, but it does have its drawbacks. The companies tagged to a site are given full responsibility of the cleanup, and in some cases they go and sue other companies that they can find that tie into the polluted area in one way or another (Knickerbocker). Oftentimes, more money is being spent for legal purposes rather than to clean up toxic waste sites (Knickerbocker). These problems are inhibiting the cleanup of numerous toxic pollution sites in the United States.
One such polluted area is Onondaga Lake, considered by many to be the most polluted lake in America (Landers 64). The 4.6 square mile lake is found just north of the city of Syracuse and is contaminated with numerous substances that were discharged by a few companies in the late 1800s to the mid 1900s (Landers 64). In the late 1800s, the Solvay Process Company produced soda ash, with “1.1 pounds of sodium chloride and 2.2 pounds of calcium chloride produced for every 2.2 pounds of soda ash”, which was pumped into waste beds along the shore of the lake (Landers 64). The wastes increased the salinity of the lake, which has killed many forms of marine life (Landers 64, 65). Between 1917 and 1970, Allied Chemical further contaminated the lake by adding contaminants such as mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, which are considered to be carcinogenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are also known carcinogens, and chlorinated benzenes, which can affect the health of humans and fish (Landers 65). The Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant also added to the pollution of the lake. Since 1920 they have discharged chemicals such as phosphorus and nitrogen into the lake, which caused a rapid growth of algae in the lake, and reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen into the lake, which can kill marine animals (Landers 69).
In 1994 Onondaga Lake was added to the National Priorities List, also known as Superfund (Landers 65). In 2005, the cleanup plan for the lake, known as the ROD, was finalized (Landers 66). According to the ROD, “2.7 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and waste” will be dredged from the lake and “disposed of at an off-site facility” or in a sediment consolidation area (Landers 66). These sediments will go through a new water treatment plant and decontaminated until it fulfills discharge limits and then returned to the lake (Landers 67). 425 acres of shallower areas of the lake will be covered in a multilayered isolation cap to prevent “upward migration of contamination” (Landers 67). In deeper areas of the lake, a total of 154 acres will be covered in a thin-layer cap for the same purposes as the isolation cap (Landers 67). Deeper lake areas will only have a thin cap, while shallower areas will have a thicker cap due to erosion (Landers 67). In addition, barrier walls will be built to collect groundwater to be sent to a treatment plant before entering the lake. The total cost of this plan is 451 million dollars.
According to the Onondaga Nation, a tribe of Native Americans who hold the Onondaga Lake as sacred, the plan is nowhere near suitable. There is an additional 18 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment that will not be dredged under the ROD. The plan only dredges in certain areas, instead of removing the entire in lake waste deposit (Onondaga Nation). They also say that caps are not reliable, because at some point the cap will move or erode and the chemicals will be re-released (Onondaga Nation). Viewing the diagram in the New Life For Onondaga Lake article, caps will only cover a very small area of the lake, while the rest of it will hopefully be covered by clean sediment. This is an unrealistic approach, to hope that one day uncontaminated sediment will cover the entire lake bottom and will always contain the chemicals in the sediment beneath it. It will never happen. The Nation says that the entire lake bottom is contaminated with mercury, and unless it is removed or fully contained it will continue to be in the lake’s ecosystem (Onondaga Nation). In addition, the plan involves treating water according to certain discharge limits (Onondaga Nation). This means that not all of the pollution will be removed from the water and sediments, and some of it will be re-released right back into the lake. This plan will only slightly reduce the amount of pollution in the lake and hope that the caps installed will contain the chemicals, instead of finding real solutions to get rid of all of the contaminants or to contain them properly in a way that will not fail in years to come. The cost of a real cleanup, according to the Nation, would be around 2.16 billion dollars (Onondaga Nation).
The plan outlined by the ROD cuts corners, takes shortcuts, and hopes that the problem of contamination in the lake will be resolved. A thorough cleanup is possible for the lake, however it seems that money is the reason why Onondaga Lake will not receive a worthy cleanup. Due to the lack of funding received by Superfund, Onondaga Lake is not getting the proper cleanup it should, and this is probably the case with numerous other sites around the country. According to an article in the Washington Post, Superfund’s budget has “declined by 34 percent over the past decade”, adjusting for inflation (Eilperin). With budget shortfalls, the lack of the tax on chemical and oil companies, Superfund will never be able to offer timely and worthy cleanup plans for the many toxic waste sites around the country, and it will be the people, whose taxes now pay for a large portion of Superfund projects and those that live near sites that are given inadequate cleanup, that will suffer.
"Basic Information." Superfund. 21 Sep 2007. EPA. 8 Oct 2007
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/about.htm.
"CERCLA Overview." Superfund. 17 July 2007. EPA. 8 Oct 2007
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/policy/cercla.htm.
Eilperin, Juliet. "Lack of Funding Slows Cleanup Of Hundreds of Superfund Sites."
Washington Post 25 Nov 2004 A01. 14 Oct 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/
ac2/wp-dyn/A11246-2004Nov24?language=printer.
Knickerbocker, Brian. "Superfund Program: A Smaller Cleanup Rag." Christian Science
Monitor 14 Nov 2003 07 Oct 2007 http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1114/p02s01-
usgn.html?related.
Landers, Jay. "New Life for Onondaga Lake." Civil Engineering (American Society of Civil Engineers) 76.5 (2006): 64,71, 86.
"Onondaga Lake ‘Clean-up’ Plan." Onondaga News. 11 Dec 2006. Onondaga Nation. 14 Oct 2007 http://www.onondaganation.org/news.cleanup1.html.
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