At the beginning of this project, we endeavored to illustrate, “how can we realistically make changes in our busy lives for the better and how we, as a community and as individuals, can make a difference?” In this, we believe, we succeeded. Our project, used art and spectacle to make people think about how our actions, our trash, effect the environment around us. Stimulated by the Heidelberg project, we repurposed recycling into art with the plastic bag tree and the tin can man with his footprints of trash that represented the waste we all leave behind. Coupled with the words inspired by Janet Kauffman, this (“broken”) installation “is become new.” Bottles of red, blue, green, and white littered the hearts of those who saw it. They opened the minds of those who stopped to look and wonder why, as we asked the public to “rob yourself from your gravesite.” Our chalk-sprayed words became a mantra not just for others, but for ourselves, as we thought about what would outlast us: these words, these ideas, these connections we have made in our desire to inspire others. In our aims to sure up permission for this project, our proposal enticed GREEN to connect and collaborate with us; a happy accident that increased our network to decrease waste on campus. Our published ideals, printed in black and white, reached our community and beyond. They found students in search of news, faculty during their lunch break, and citizens in cafe’s drinking their morning coffee. We became gumshoes, as pictures of #wayward #gum were etched into our everyday thoughts. Though these thoughts only extended as far as ourselves, @the422crew did our best to reach EMU about this issue. If we could go back in time, with the knowledge we have gained, we would have liked to see more, do more, be more, to have hopefully inspired more people to recognize the sticky underbelly of our institution. The temporality of our project reminded us of the temporality of our own state of being and how we should endeavor to leave our surroundings better than we found them. We hope we did just that and gave our community some beauty to enjoy, however fleeting it was. We recognized the significance of the effect our words and our art could have, to stir up thoughts and encourage action, as we considered their efficacy. Did they exemplify all that we wished? We believe so. Through research, we turned questions into answers. Through waste, we turned trash into art. Through ideas, we turned words into thoughts. Through pictures, we turned views into actions. Through collaboration, we turned four projects into one. Through community, we turned separate into unity. Through it all, we persevered to achieve more together than we could have apart. We did not wait for “then what?” We pushed forward into “what next” and next and next. As our time together draws to a close and we consider what our futures will bring. We continue to examine these questions: what will outlast us, what roles will we fill, where will our names be written? Only time will tell, but the spirit of social imagination that was aroused in us this semester will live on and become new again in our words, relationships, and work. What we found was much more than a place, ideal, or a single issue. What we found was our voice and that has far more value than any one statement. Like the chalk stained stencils, we have been remade into something new, something better than before. So thank you, from the bottom of our de-littered hearts, sincerely The 422 Crew.
Author: kgreavesemichedu
Charlie and His Tree Kidnapped by the Physical Plant!
Upon arriving to school Monday morning, Charlie’s mother was aghast to find her son, Charlie, and his favorite plastic tree missing! She was much dismayed to not see her beloved tin-can man, she lovingly named Charlie, atop his hillside next to Pray-Harrold. About to break down, right there on the side-walk, she suddenly realized who had motive to kidnap her son, as the hillside where Charlie stood was freshly mowed, even though it rained over the weekend and it’s basically about to start snowing so there’s no reason to be mowing grass at this time of year, but she also knows his neighborhood association has high standards, so there could only be one culprit responsible…The Physical Plant. Charlie’s mother deftly pulled out her phone and called them up and irately asked, “Why would you kidnap my son! He has expressed permission to be here not only by the administration but by you!” The poor bewildered secretary answered “….umm, hold on a minute.” Charlie’s mother almost felt bad for the poor woman but not so bad as to drop her aggravation at this atrocity. As she waited on hold for a few seconds, her irritation only grew, how could they, they should know better, what if they killed him?! After a minute or two of these thoughts that slowly spiraled her into a deep depression, bordering on craziness, as she considered skipping class and jumping into her car to drive over there to get physical with the Physical Plant, a man with a deep voice answered, “Hello, this is Rob.” “Hello Rob, what have you done to my son?!?” “Oh, yea, we took him. I’m sorry. We thought he was just trash,” Rob tried to explain. “Yes, he is trash,” Charlie’s mother replied, “but he’s trash with a purpose. What have you done with him? Have you thrown him away…?” She asked, as the silence before his next words stretched into what felt like two full days, which was about how long she had been in labor when giving birth to him. “No we still have him. We thought he might be important to someone when my guy called and wondered ‘why is this trash staked to the ground,’ so we kept him. He’s here at the Physical Plant. You can come pick him up anytime.” Thank the lord! Charlie’s mother was so relieved. Unfortunately, she still had a class to go to and assuming that he wasn’t being mistreated in any way, Charlie could wait to be picked up until after her regular school hours. “I’ll be by around two to collect him.”
That class was the longest hour and a quarter she had ever sat through, as her mind kept wandering to Charlie. Is he ok? Have they harmed him in any way? He’s a very sensitive tin-man and must be handled with patience and care at all times. He only likes to be held in a certain way otherwise his arms get hurt and will fall off, not unlike an iguanas tail except that it wouldn’t grow back without his mother’s help. The class finally ended and Charlie’s mother rushed to her car and drove around campus before realizing, she had know idea where the bloody Physical Plant was. Luckily, she drove past a campus map sign, so she parked the car, jumped out, and ran over it. It was filthy and almost illegible, but she quickly found the Physical Plant on the directory and slowly found its corresponding position on the map. After staring at it for long enough to get a rough estimate of where she was headed, she hoped back in the car and raced to her son to rescue him from his kidnappers.
The Physical Plant was truly a prison with a fence and everything. Before considering how she could climb over it to break Charlie free, she remembered his main kidnapper, Rob, had given her his phone number, so she called him to direct her to Charlie’s holding cell. He was laid out on a table. He could barely hold his head up and in his initial capture they had severed Charlie’s hand! Fortunately, he was otherwise unharmed or Charlie’s mother might have shown them her knew skills with a power drill. His tree friend was similarly unharmed, though one of his branches had been pulled loose. As she surveyed her son and his tree, rob apologized again and even offered to help her reattach his hand. Realizing that Rob must have reverse stockholm syndrome, she finally felt bad for this man and allowed him to put hands on Charlie to help fix him. It turns out, Rob also has great skills with a power drill and made quick work of securing Charlie’s hand. He even helped her bring Charlie and his tree to her car. “I’ll make sure no one messes with him again,” Rob assured her. “Thank you,” Charlie’s mother replied now feeling grateful to this man, her son’s kidnapper, for having the where-with-all not to seriously maim or kill her boy. She was glad that this man would protect her son from his gang of lawn mowing thugs.
On the drive home, she placed Charlie in the front seat next to her so she could keep an eye on him the whole way home. A mother’s worry never truly ends, even when he’s safe and sound once again in her presence. It seems there’s only so much a mother can do. Eventually they all leave the nest and must brave the elements alone, but she would never stop doing all she could for him, not until the day he dies, which wont be for another few weeks. It took a while for Charlie and his tree to settle back into his home at the hillside next to Pray-Harrold. They had gone through so much, she was afraid to leave him without making sure he was secure. Charlie’s mother even set up his favorite footprints behind him that were also saved from sure destruction. The kidnappers had collected them into a big black plastic garbage bag for safe keeping, so to pay homage to them and this unforgettable event, she placed it at the end of the footprints, which actually made it better than before, in her opinion. Also, while securing Charlie into his home, she found a new plastic bottle left on the rocks near his house, so Charlie’s mom snatched it up and used it for the footprints placing it into the prominent position of first footprint. What was stolen had become new again. Even though they had both gone through this traumatic experience, Charlie’s mom felt more assured in her son’s well being than ever before. They were both stronger now. She finally left him safe and sound in his home on the hillside where she would visit everyday there after.
Coda:
I decided to turn this almost disaster into an opportunity. This story is my creative response to the bathhouse events. Like Janet Kauffman, I used pictures to convey my meaning and enhance the story. I like the idea of having a multimedia collaboration of both the mental and physical image. Also, similar to Kauffman’s topics, I chose to write about the destructive force man has on the environment, as if Charlie, a man-made creation is now apart of his environment, being shaped and molded by the evil lawn mowers; Its not a poop field, but still, it’s similarly amusing. The writing is an ode to Joanna Ruocco. I wrote in very long, extended, rambling sentences, as she often does. I also tried to have very descriptive and dramatic details when relaying the story. As she had in some of her writings, almost all of the details were taken from real life, but re-told in a new and imaginative way. I named my tin man Charlie and told the story of, me, his mother, finding him kidnapped by the Physical Plant. Luckily, the story actually had a happy ending, as it did in real life. This also ties into Ruocco’s discussion, as she writes romance novels that of course always have happy endings. I hope this tale of loss, tragedy, and rescue, breathes new life to our blog in a fun and interesting way.
“Students Promote Recycling With Class Project” by Olivia Grills
Installation Day!!!
We had a crazy, messy, fun day installing our projects! It actually took an hour longer than we expected. It was cold, very cold, but we had a great time. We were interviewed by the Echo today as well, which means our project should be featured in the News section on tuesday! Big shout out to GREEN for helping with the campus map of all of the recycling bins. Our projects were made from recycled materials, so broken is become new. We hope everyone enjoys our installations as much as we do. See. Think. Recycle! Rob yourself from your gravesite. We only have one world, one campus, one community so lets do all we can to keep it clean. Be mindful of the waste we all use and create, and remember: what will out last you?
Installation Day is coming up!
Our installation set up date is tomorrow! Friday, Nov. 10 from 9-11!!!
Miscellanies: Statistics and Information
While researching some gum statistics, I found these informational photos that susinctly illustrate how toxic gum is for our environment and how to properly dispose of gum. Professor Hume saw this student government poll and sent it to us. These statistics are useful to inform us of student responses to issues of sustainability on campus. Most of these issues were also discussed in the meeting with GREEN. The chalk policy was given to us from administration and its guidelines were followed to obtain permission to use chalk spray and will be followed during the set up of our installation on the weekend of Nov. 10-12. We chose to have varying times for this set up as it will depend on the weather.
Gum Installation Adaption
As our original gum installation was turned down for heath reasons, we decided to adapt our project into a social media campaign. We created an Instagram page entitled, the422crew, that will collect a collage of #wayward #gum pictures taken on campus. Students can #becomeagumshoe and find and take pictures of #wayward #gum on campus, post them on Instagram, and tag our page – the422crew. We created a digital flyer to inform students of this project. The flyer has been distributed to many students and faculty and we hope that this project garners some participation from students to expose this sustainability issue of improperly disposed of gum on campus.
Project Interview Part II
After meeting with GREEN, Eric, the President of the organization, answered some interview questions over email. These questions pertained to the organization itself and to GREEN’s sustainability efforts on campus.
Expanding Our Collaborative Commuity
Our project proposal was seen by the GREEN organization who offered to help with our project! GREEN will be helping in the creation of the plastic bag installation in the Halle library on sunday Nov. 5, by gathering materials for the plastic bottle installation, and in disseminating our gum flyer and engaging in the gum project campaign. They heard about our project from the physical plant office, whom they work closely, as they continue to explore better recycling practices on campus. These emails were followed up by a meeting with Dorothy, a member of GREEN, and Eric, the President of GREEN, on tuesday, 10/24 at noon. During this meeting the plastic bag installation was adapted into a tin man with a tree instead of a parachute to ensure that it holds up against the weather and for a longer period. The tree will illustrate how our environment is shaped and sometimes overcome by man made waste. The tin man will also have footprints of trash trailing behind him to illustrate the waste we leave behind.
Eco-Manifesto
Our world only has so many resources. They are limited, yet men abuse them…soon there will be nothing left to abuse…then what?
Sylvia Stults words echo through our littered hearts. With so many people on this earth, we often wonder, what difference can we truly make? How can we realistically make changes in our busy lives for the better?
First, we listen, and we learn, then…we make art.
We the creative writing students from 422, aim to bring awareness to Eastern University on the effect our everyday habits have on the environment. We aspire to inspire better sustainability efforts in our community, through, engagement, art, and words.
Our purpose is to repurpose trash and create beauty. We will engage students and faculty on Eastern’s campus with spectacle, to educate, and make them think. We will illuminate the impact our actions could have to improve our community and clean up our campus. We will act and create art from scrap. We refuse to waste time waiting for…then what? We are far more interested in…what next.
(a coda, an echo:)
janet kauffman suspends herself in brush. i remember the smell of soil, jasmine rice, how my face looked real fleshy outside the screen. is being an adult daring to see garish advertisements of my face iterated in candy bar wrappers, in peppered wads of gum, out of the womb forever? who will outlast me? what i make (of my local 7-11, of My Little Pony, of my starbucks straws ) outlasts me
“brokenness is becoming now
and again”
what we make is becoming
and what do we learn in class? are we aware of the balance of our breath/bank account? put pocket change in, get a life out in your 15 minute sprint
between classes.
good mourning, waking up to it in my disposable
coffee cup, the trash i make is where i put it
“It matters what you call a thing: Exquisite”
or broken in the receptacle, earth, where you arrived and where you will exit
eventually, but for now, (forgetting your own sleep!) ask what will outlast you
where will your name be written (which cup)
and what do you fill?
Words Matter. They have the power to lift us up and the ability to tear us down. Words can unite us or divide us. We see this, in the racial slurs that adorn our halls, or in hate, written on our bathroom stalls. In an age when words can so easily be disseminated, a “safe space” is a fallacy. There are no impenetrable walls to block out words or ideas that we find offensive. We hear them, see them, speak them.
Words can define who we are. Label us, as one thing or another. We live in a time when our first amendment rights are in peril. We are accused of being “unpatriotic,” when we take a knee. We are accused of being “snowflakes,” when we say our feelings are hurt. We are categorized by our opinions, classified as left or right wing. Words easily said or written, loose significance. Their meanings are twisted into unrecognizable forms. Words like “Black Lives Matter” are seen as back lives matter more, instead of, black lives matter too. A kind word can make your day and an insult can ruin it. As these words pile up, they create the fabric of our existence. They can change our perspective, enlighten us, or drag us down beneath our lowest depths. What words are used to describe you? What words do you use to describe others?
We, the creative writing students from 422, invite you to use your words for good. We aim to bring beauty and truth to Eastern’s Campus. Words can be painted over, erased, but the affect they have on others is as real as the floor beneath your feet, as hard as stone. This is the inspiration for our project: words, written in stone.
We will explore how we can effectively use language to communicate our ideas and feelings in a positive way. We aspire to inspire you, to write your words with meaning and intention, and be aware of the affect our words may have on others. Join us, as we collect words written in stone. Your words. Our words. Tell us your truth. Your words matter.
The 422 Crew 