Landmarkings - Social Art project

This is a group dedicated to documenting and mapping litter surrounding local and national landmarks.

When visiting a landmark we often overlook the peripheral space and interactions. By pointing one's camera down and away from the landmark we can begin to explore the traces left behind, creating a new experience altogether. By uploading the "data" to an online site, we can collectively document and catalog alternative experiences. In doing so we transform the landmark into a social space, comprehending the site beyond its purpose as a tourist attraction.

Would you like to participate? Visit a local landmark and mark the litter you find in chalk (using a circle, square, or triangle to denote the object's function). Take a picture of the object and pick it up to dispose of later. Keep a list to describe the objects photographed and later dispose of them at a proper garbage/recycling receptacle. Contribute to the documentation of these spaces by uploading your photos to our Flickr.com group. Please "geolocate" your findings to the best of your ability.

The chalk can be found at any number of local stores but if you would like I have assembled sets of all of the chalk colors for sale (at cost) on etsy.

Check out the Flickr site!



IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN:
go to the Flickr "Landmarkings" group site

Thank you for participating!
Dan

Step 1 Marking the Litter

By going to a "landmark" in your city and circling the small bits of litter you give people a chance to re-encounter the smaller spaces they often overlook.

It starts with looking for anything you would call litter (maybe exclude cigarette butts since they are much, much too numerous and will take up all of your time). Here's Zoe in Millenuim Park - Chicago on the hunt for some good items:

When you find something MARK IT!!
There's three shapes that are nice and simple to surround the piece of litter in: Circle, Triangle, and Square
Make each of the shapes pertain to a different category of that object.

For example my friend Zoe chose:
CIRCLE - Litter associated with the body (food, tissues, a comb, etc)
SQUARE - Litter that conveys or represents information ((receipts, clothes tags, maps, etc)
TRIANGLE - Litter dealing with the material nature of the object (interesting peice of aluminum, a peice of yarn)

*BE CREATIVE - what do these objects convey to you within these categories?

Here's Zoe on the hunt!:
Burger King receipt

Comments

[Keko]

I love this. Brilliant. Keep it up.

[SicilianMafia]

Hmmmmm..... it's strange to see the Bean so not-cluttered. Every time I'm by the Bean, it's packed to the brim. I guess a rainy day in Chicago keeps the curious tourists at bay.

[debenntt]

If you check it out before it rains, I had a buncha friends come out to Millennium Park yesterday and lay down a buncha shapes!

[scoochmaroo]

Fun! Why is the gum packet a circle and not a triangle? Just want to get my lexicon straight :D

[debenntt]

The Shapes were updated/finalized, body is circle. The project was in "Beta" when I put it up... thanks for checking the project out!

[ilpug]

Pretty amazing. Makes people aware of the problem very effectively.

[MissouriVillian]

I'm afraid I'm going to come off as sounding rude here, and I may well have missed the point of this project, but whatever happened to picking up some trash just because it was the right/nice thing to do? Why does it have to be a social project?

[paganwonder]

Social projects help us feel part of the larger whole- social isolation interferes with our mental, emotional/spiritual and physical health. Our "community" is only as strong as our weakest member. Large commentary could be made on this topic these days...

[Aegian2424]

how exactly does this connect us/make us feel like being a prat of a larger whole?

[MissouriVillian]

That actually makes some sense. Thank you. And it would seem I did indeed miss the point the first time around. Live and Learn.

[l8nite]

very interesting project