The HighWaterLine/1B7=<5C723 0/A32=</>C0:71/@B>@=831B/22@3AA7<51:7;/B316/<53 0G3D3;=A63@ Presented by as part of an Art & Ecology Learning Guide Series addressing environmental issues through replicable social practice art projects Funded in part by The Compton Foundation ACTION GUIDE 1=<B3<BA • 5SbbW\UAbO`bSR ................................... 4-8 Overview .......................................................4 What participants will learn ......................................4 The Story of the artist and her project .............................5 Making it Local ..................................................8 AGENCY: Empowering Self & Community ..........................8 • 1ZW[ObSBW[SZW\S ...................................9 • 1ZW[ObS1VO\US ............................. 10-11 • AbOUSa ...........................................12-24 Stage 1: UNDERSTAND Climate Change .......................12-13 Research what climate change is and how it affects your community Stage 2: MAP the HighWaterLine .............................14-17 Map your community to determine the local impacts of climate change Stage 3: TAKE the HighWaterLine to the Streets ...............18-21 Mark the line in your community Stage 4: ADVOCATE for Climate Action ........................22-24 Document your experience and share with your community • Ac^^ZS[S\bOZ/QbWdWbWSaT]`9 ................ 25-31 Stage 1 Regional Research Station • Extreme Weather Station ...............26-27 Tidal Markers • HighWaterLine Blog Stage 2 Cartography Office • Topographic Experiments ...................28-29 Geo-cache the HighWaterLine • Performing the Water Table Stage 3 Climate Change TV • Mapping Bureau .........................30-31 Climate Change Design Lab Stage 4 Potluck Dinner • Story Bank ................................... 31 Common Core Standards ....................................... 31 • @Sa]c`QSa ...................................... 32-33 • Credits & Acknowledgments ....................... 34-35 53BB7<5AB/@B32 B63AB=@G=4B636756E/B3@:7<3 In 2007, visual artist Eve Mosher embarked on a the same area that Mosher demarcated in her art journey to map the areas in New York City predicted project was then flooded in 2012 by Hurricane =D3@D73E to be impacted by increased flooding due to Sandy, as was projected by many scientists. stronger storms fueled by climate change. Mosher The HighWaterLine ACTION GUIDE was developed to accommodate a wide range of participants researched climate science, spoke with climate Today, Mosher invites you to join her in creating scientists, and charted flood zones onto Google the HighWaterLine in your community – to mark a including nonprofit organizations, school groups, and individuals. It can easily be a weekend maps. She then spent six months using chalk and a flood zone or sea level rise in your neighborhood workshop, an entire semester, or annual project of research, production and presentation. sports field marker to draw the 10-foot above sea or region, and to develop strategies to engage in The project is considered a reproducible tool for anyone interested to take action addressing level or 100-year flood line on the city streets and dialogue about climate change and what we can sidewalks of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The do to address the inevitable threats of extreme climate change. line extended nearly 70 miles through coastline weather and other severe ecological impacts. communities that are now being impacted in this Although the range of impacts due to climate change are vast and include extreme weather, century by extreme weather and storms intensified drought, food shortages and more, the guide specifically focuses on educating and activating by climate change. 4W\RbVWaZW\Y]\g]cbcPSQ][ communities to reduce C02 emissions, and to advocate for adaptation, mitigation and Mosher named the project HighWaterLine and resiliency. Participants will begin to understand conceptually through active visualization how engaged people on the streets while marking the accelerated global warming will impact the people and the environment in their community. line. The act of physically marking the projected flood zone was a performative gesture, interrupting the routine of daily life in the city, while providing Activities found in the guide have been broken into STAGES, which can be executed individually a platform for dialogue about climate change or all together, and at the depth that makes sense with the learning goals of an organization and its local and global impacts. Melding science, or institution. Included in each stage are ACTION STEPS to create your own placed based art, data-visualization, and public education, this action invites a range of opportunities to engage HighWaterLine. At the end of the guide are RESOURCES and SUPPLEMENTAL ACTIVITIES citizens in conversations on climate change and E/B16B67AD723=7<B@=2C1B7=< sections that can be aligned with Common Core Standards. how we can adapt to the changes in our natural and built environments. The project garnered Eve Mosher’s HighWaterLine global media attention for its simple yet powerful A film by Cicala Filmworks and The Canary Project statement in visualizing climate change impacts: For more about the project visit the site: first when it was created in 2007 and later when highwaterline.org/nyc /0=CBB63/@B7AB(3D3;=A63@ New York-based artist has received grants from New York State Council >O`bWQW^O\baeWZZbOYSOQbW]\W\bVST]ZZ]eW\UO`SOa( Eve Mosher creates on the Arts and New York Department of Cultural work that investigates Affairs both through the Brooklyn Arts Council, • Climate change research • Navigating public space landscape as a starting The Compton Foundation, Invoking the • Storm surge mapping • Sharing information and stories point for audience Pause, 11th Hour Project, and The City Parks exploration of urban Foundation. She holds a Masters of Fine Art issues. Her public works from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn with a major raise issues of concern in sculpture and a minor in photography, and a for public/private space Bachelors of Environmental Design from Texas use, history of place, cultural and social issues, A & M University with a major in architecture and and understanding of an urban ecosystem. a minor in photography. Eve Mosher is currently Mosher’s visualization methodology is her a consultant and leader for the Professional medium. Out in the public sphere, armed Development Program at Creative Capital and with scientific research, she makes visible the is an Assistant Professor at Parsons the New interstices of nature and human activity. Mosher School for Design, both in New York City. 53BB7<5AB/@B32 4 53BB7<5AB/@B32 5 67BB7<51:=A3B=6=;3(6c``WQO\SAO\Rg In New York City where Eve Mosher performed the of the storm surge – over 13 feet at The Battery. HighWaterLine in 2007, city streets and subways According to a research assessment being produced were inundated with floodwaters from Atlantic by the Earth System Research Laboratory at the hurricane Sandy on October 29th, 2012. It was the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, largest hurricane on record in diameter with winds “It is very likely that further sea level rise will spanning 1,100 miles, and the second costliest contribute to increased coastal high water levels in hurricane ($75 billion) behind Katrina that hit the future, conditions that led to Sandy’s primary Dear Friends, New Orleans in 2005. Sandy affected 24 states impacts on coastal New York and New Jersey.” including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains I am so glad that you are considering the HighWaterLine as a project to undertake in your to Michigan and Wisconsin with particularly community. When I started the project in 2006, I didn’t really understand how meaningful it severe damage in New Jersey and New York. would be to go out and draw the line. Over the course of the project, I learned so much about my watershed and how it might be affected in the face of climate change. Hurricane Sandy was intensified in part because of changing climate and weather patterns. Warmer seas provided energy and allowed the hurricane Doing this project gave me the opportunity to have amazing conversations with people living to travel farther north than usual. Sea level rise in New York City about what could happen in the event of sea level rise and increased storm was one of the contributors to the extreme height intensity. Taking action changed the way I viewed my community and it gave me a voice in the global conversation on climate change. 7<3D3@E/<B32B=03@756B/`SÀSQbW]\Pg3dS;]aVS` Now, more than ever, the effects are all around us: decreased snow-cover, rising sea levels, intense I didn’t set out to be a prophet(ess). I never want- almost 70 miles of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan heat, drought, and stronger more frequent storms. Climate change is real, and the recent extreme ed it to happen. I only took the published facts coastline. I got to know the people who lived, and translated them into a physical and visual worked and played in those communities… At weather and “superstorms” are predicted to get much worse over the next century. We all play indicator. In fact, I was hoping that I could bring the time I sought to get climate change and its a part in contributing to climate change, but we can also do a number of things to increase the conversation to light in order that we might potential impacts to be a part of the conversation awareness, and change our own habits and actions when addressing