12 Journeys Through 9/11 Living Memorials
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<OVERALL SATIN AQUEOUS> Living Memorials Project Land-markings: http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/ The cover of this catalog is an image taken 12 Journeys through 9/11 from the interactive Living Memorials Project National Map. It shows the location Living Memorials and site type of approximately 700 living memorials created, used, or rededicated in ERIKA S. SVENDSEN AND LINDSAY K. CAMPBELL honor of September 11, 2001. These sites USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station were documented by USDA Forest Service researchers from 2002-2006, and cataloged in an archive of thousands of images that will soon be made available to the public. 584 SITES SHOWN 667 TOTAL SITES United States Forest Department of Agriculture Service SPINE <OVERALL SATIN AQUEOUS> Living Memorials Project Published by: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS USDA FOREST SERVICE http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/ This exhibition was organized jointly by Parsons The New School For Design, The Tishman 11 CAMPUS BLVD SUITE 200 Environment and Design Center at The New School, and the USDA Forest Service Northern NRS-INF-1-06 NEWTOWN SQUARE Research Station. The Living Memorials Project is a collaborative effort of the USDA Forest Service’s PA 19073-3294 Northern Research Station and Northeastern Area, State & Private Forestry. The Living Memorials For additional copies: Project Web site was created by Steven Romalewski, Christy Spielman, Marty DeBenedictis at the USDA Forest Service Open Accessible Space Information System (www.oasisnyc.net) and is currently maintained by the Publications Distribution Center for Urban Research at The Graduate Center/CUNY. Joel Towers, Associate Provost for 359 Main Road Environmental Studies and Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center was instrumen- Delaware, OH 43015-8640 tal in securing support for this exhibition. We would also like to thank Michael Rains, Mark Twery, J. EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION Phone: (740) 368-0120 Morgan Grove, Robin Morgan, Phillip Rodbell, and Matthew Arnn of the Forest Service and Colleen Murphy-Dunning and Chris Marchand at Yale University’s Urban Resources Initiative for their contin- Living memorials are spaces created, used, or reappropriated by people as they employ the landscape Fax: (740) 368-0152 ued support and interest in urban environmental stewardship, including this unique research project. to memorialize individuals, places, and events. Ranging from single tree plantings, to the creation of new September 2006 The exhibit was held at the National Park Service Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City, parks, to the rededication of existing forests, hundreds of groups across the country created a vast network http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us and particular thanks go to Michael Callahan and Jim Pepper for their assistance in making it pos- of sites that continues to grow. sible. Finally, we thank all the creators, stewards, and users of living memorials who spent time The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination sharing their sites and their stories. in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, Curation and research: Erika Svendsen and Lindsay Campbell, “Land-markings: 12 Journeys through 9/11 Living Memorials” is a multimedia exhibition that compresses familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station four years of research data and analysis on over 700 living memorials into 12 digitally authored journeys. information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program Curation and design: Brian McGrath, Parsons The New School for Design Social science researchers, urban ecologists, designers, and architects collaborated in order to collect, (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with dis- abilities who require alternate means for communication of program analyze, and present this dispersed collective response to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. As a result, information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact Media design: Phu Duong, Approach this interpretation presents memorials not only as mechanisms by which we mark events and individuals, USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Installation: Ethan Lu, Metropolitan United Studio, LLC but also interprets the function and spatial location of these remembrances, treating them as emergent Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20250- Parsons The New School for Design 9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA Julien Leyssene forms that outline how we interact with our public landscapes. is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Catalog editing: Susan Wright, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station Production assistance: Flora Kohane, USDA Forest Service National map: urban-interface http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/ SPINE Table of Contents Land-markings: Introduction . 02 Journey 01: NYC Found Space . 05 12 Journeys through 9/11 Journey 02: WTC Viewsheds . .08 Living Memorials Journey 03: Hudson River . 11 . ERIKA S. SVENDSEN AND LINDSAY K. CAMPBELL Journey 04: Brooklyn-Queens-Long Island 14 Journey 05: Staten Island . 18 Journey 06: New Jersey . 21 Journey 07: New England Families . 24 Journey 08: Somerset County, PA . 27 Journey 09: Washington, D.C. – Arlington, VA . 30 Journey 10: Forests . 33 Journey 11: Schools . 36 Journey 12: New Civic Grounds . 40 References . 43 Index of Projects . 44 Acknowledgment . 49 01 Erika Svendsen photographing the Flight 93 crash site with Anne Cumming in Somerset, PA Introduction Lindsay Campbell interviewing Liz Sulik at Tribute Park in Far Rockaway, NY Phu Duong’s conceptual diagram of video layering technique for merging imagery, data, and soundscapes OUR MOTHERS SENT US NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS, WE SCOURED THE INTERNET, WE PLANNED OUT ROUTES ON A MAP, WE PICKED UP LOCAL NEWSPAPERS WHEREVER WE WENT, WE ASKED DOG WALKERS FOR DIRECTIONS, WE TALKED TO OUR FRIENDS AND THEIR FRIENDS AND THEIR FRIENDS, WE GOT LOST, WE RAN OUT OF GAS ON THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE, WE BROUGHT CAMERAS WITH US WHEREVER WE WENT, AND WE CALLED ERHART’S CLAM HOUSE TO ASK THE BARTENDER ABOUT THE MURAL OUT BACK. DATA COLLECTION Documenting living memo- Others remain exactly as they were constructed. And This is the research project we wish had never existed. rials that use the landscape as a way to remember still more are planned. In the end, it will be the trees But because it does, we hope that it can serve as a way September 11, 2001, is a process that will never be com- planted in these memorials that will help us measure to document the manner in which the public chose to plete. No researcher, however diligent, should have the the passage of time. remember September 11. hubris to imagine that she can catalog and archive all of the possible products of human ingenuity, creativity, In cataloging the living memorial sites for this exhibit, we COLLABORATION “Land-markings: 12 Journeys love, pain, and loss. Although we created a database of were reminded of a comment made by Peg Ogonowski, through 9/11 Living Memorials” is a multimedia exhib- nearly 700 sites nationwide and we conducted formal whose husband John piloted American Airlines Flight 11 it for the fifth-year anniversary of September 11. This interviews with several hundred project stewards, there out of Logan Airport in Boston, MA. When asked if she exhibit, as well as this catalog, is produced collabora- are thousands of sites that we have never visited or considered the living memorials sacred, Peg replied, “I tively by the USDA Forest Service Northern Research interviewed. And even for those that we have visited— don’t know if I’d call them sacred, they’re very special. Station, The Tishman Environment and Design Center, sometimes three, four, and five times—the landscape They are a wonderful tribute to John. It’s also the big S at The New School, and Parsons The New School continues to evolve and shift. Some projects were ideas word, we’d all just rather have John back and leave all For Design. Compressing the photos, videos, print that were never realized. Some sites are already gone. these wonderful things behind.” material, data spreadsheets, and sounds that have been Some memorials have changed beyond recognition. gathered in 4 years of research, the exhibit and this 02 publication are structured around 12 journeys. Some of designers, all of whom contributed greatly to initial notions of remembrance associated with planting new these journeys are almost directly based on transects or interpretations. The creative partnership forged with the saplings in an existing forest stand. Video is a media paths that were traveled (Hudson River, Staten Island), design firm Urban-Interface inspired an interpretation format that can merge data, imagery, mappings, media others are a thematic grouping of sites (forests, schools), of this data through urban design and multimedia. clippings, drawings, and sound to allow for an editorial others are a collage of projects that we learned about over Linking sociology to ecology to media in the interpre- voice to move through what is an incredibly rich and tex- time that seemed to belong together (WTC viewsheds, tation of this project, we collectively began to explore the tured time-space. We crafted the 12 journeys to make New England families). Each journey is depicted in a network of living memorials as designed and emergent explicit one approach to organizing field observations of “sketch map” that visually represents geographic relation- systems in cities. Moving beyond data collection brought various kinds of remembrances. Finally, the exhibition ships between the sites and some aspects of the landscape. new knowledge that fueled our interest in the process recognizes the value of public processes as a constant act These hand-drawn images recognize our subjectivity as of creation of new public spaces.