Leave no trace?
We’ve built far more than just traces. Future generations might someday call them scars but until those days arrive is there anything that altrustic people can really do to improve what we currently have? From the most chronic point of view (sitting in a car driving down a road) it’s almost impossible for someone to truly witness and experience the environment around them. Only by changing the perspective (walking, biking, or utilizing public transit) is a person able to see the world, their city, and their streets through a lens that can reveal opportunities for marginal gains.
Curiosity is important. The sense of wonder about the earth that all children have and all adults seem to have lost somewhere along the years. Unfortunately those that still cling to such feelings often choose to satisfy them by hopping in an SUV, driving out to an aesthetically pleasing somewhere, taking a few pics for Instagram, and then driving home. What if instead we sought out hidden treasures closer to home? Maybe just a quick walk or bike ride away? That special something might be right around the corner.
I'm obsessed with bicycles. It used to be building them, then buying and selling them. Now I ride them with a mind focused on a subtle background of advocacy towards how goddamn wonderful they are at solving so many of the worlds problems. I truly believe that once someone gets a taste of what freedom feels like compared to what they believed it was since the day they turned 16, that’s where the real sea-change potential resides.
Okay so he can obviously ramble, both with words and velocipedally, but what does that have to do with an artist residency?
Here’s the pitch: however long you graciously allow me to reside at Culdesac I would spend each day riding my bike around town methodically filling in the map until every street / road / path has been covered. I have been working on perfecting the technique of this since I moved to Tucson in early December and have recently crossed over 50% of the city (1373 unique miles, 3280 total miles) completed.
Okay okay cool idea but what’s in it for us?
Mmm here’s where it gets fun! While out exploring I’ve become more than a bit dedicated to picking up litter, specifically aluminum cans, with the ethos of improving everywhere I go at least a little bit. I haven’t yet found a handy online tool to track my trash pickups but based on my scrap yard drop-offs I would estimate I’m around 3500 total cans picked up off the streets of Tucson so far. The math is a bit fuzzy, but what if I collected enough cans to be melted down and recycled into some sort of memorial bench or bike rack or both? Perhaps there’d be a way to publicly display my progress to the community, hopefully motivating others to join in the cause and contribute however they can.
I’m hopefully not assuming too much when I speculate that the goal of Culdesac is more about inspiring how humanity plans cities rather than y’all being hired to rebuild the whole country from scratch. If the end result of this is nothing more than an odd bench residing under a tree than I’d consider it an acceptable project but the unofficial metric of success would be how many people I could inspire to look differently at their world. Choose a slow walk over a fast drive, open your eyes to look down and around instead of blinders straight ahead, be an intrinsic part of the community instead of someone who simply travels through it. Beauty isn’t always beautiful but it can always be found nearby.
Sooo that’s the main idea, but here’s a few bonus features as well.
You can probably guess that gamification works quite well as a motivator for me to perform certain tasks and also guess that I fulfill the professional photographer cliche of always having a camera with me. While out rambling I discovered that one can earn points on Google Maps by making edits, checking facts, answering questions, and most importantly uploading photos! Most businesses seem to not have any representation of their storefront other than a blurry out of date street view screenshot which motivated me to snap quick snaps as I explore, make some light edits, and upload to their corresponding Google Maps page. This has resulted in some interesting numbers when I passed 10,000,000 views on my uploads right as I hit 50% of Tucson filled in. The same motivation would continue as I filled in Tempe, and perhaps Phoenix as well.
Tucson unfortunately doesn’t have a 311 app or phone number for direct reporting of issues. However, due to the like minded individuals that occupy the cycling community in Tucson, I’ve been lucky enough to become friends with people who work for the city. Whenever I’m riding around and notice an issue with city infrastructure (Do y’all have the broken sidewalk skateboard ramp problem up there? They’re everywhere down here!) I log the date + time + location with a photo and send it their way to be filed with the right department to take care of it. Tempe apparently does have a 311 service and app thus enabling me to do a inspection of the entire city from a pedestrian point of view; something I’d bet has never happened in anywhere in this country.
I opened with the classic line everyone uses to justify if they should exist somewhere. Leave no trace, they’ll say, confident that passing through the world as a purely neutral ghost is the best approach. It’s easy to empathize with the wave of indecision rushing in when one considers the multitude of volunteer efforts, charities, community service efforts, and the like, but it’s even easier to just pick up a few bits of trash when out for a walk. There’s certainly no confusion about that brightening a street, improving a community, changing a city. Small traces are what matter. A million small traces can change the world.
Specification of goals.
Ride my cargo bike on every road in Tempe (~700 unique miles) within the first two months of residency. Expand outwards centering from Culdesac HQ covering at least 250 unique miles every month.
Gather 10,000 cans. This will be achieved primarily by my own collection from the streets I’m riding on, with faith that other members of the Culdesac community will join in. Bonus: studio photographs / cinemagraphs of unique cans.
Submit 200 reports to 311.
Photograph 500 unique businesses and upload the photos to their Google Maps page.
Source a local maker that can mold / melt / convert the cans into a form of functional art that will live on the Culdesac campus.
Document the entire process and progress on Instagram / Twitter / Strava.
Have fun.
Be safe.
Drone photo by Mike McKisson. All other content created by Erik Binggeser.