Manifesto
Heavy Trash is an anonymous arts organization of architects, artists, and urban planners. Heavy Trash creates large, disposable art objects that draw community and media attention to specific urban issues. By explaining a particular urban problem and suggesting a solution, Heavy Trash seeks to provoke dialogue among citizens.
posted by heavytrash at 9:21 PM
24 Comments:
I live in Tijuana, Mexico, and saw what you did with the watch towers in Los Angeles.
I agreed with what your group had to say , so I checked out your site.
Been around since 1997, and you've made a total of three public statements?
Ever thaught of expanding out of the L.A. area, and actually getting a movement going on a more national membership and agenda?
I love what you are doing! I'm attempting something (much smaller scale and more jsut random art than so organized, but of the same intent) in my hometown of Fairbanks, AK right now. I really admire the focus behind all of your projects, the world needs more groups like you doing artistic and interesting forms of social dissidance(sorry for the spelling) to make people think!
Beautiful idea!
I am from Warsaw, Poland and unfortunately I see similar trends in my city, where "fortified" sections of the city are isolating themselves, destroying communities and forcing artificial social divisions.
Keep it up!
Mikolaj
Bravo!
Its a free country...if people have the money and wish to have gated communities, more power to them...since police have little success in keeping crime under control, and the ACLU defends criminals rights instead of victims rights at every turn, I don't blame people for walling themselves off.
My name is Karla and I live in Orlando. This is a fabulous idea! Hopefully you will accomplish stirring social debate. Good job!
Go back to Russia you damn pinko commies and take the ACLU with you!
what a relief to see people actually using their minds to comment the changes in a world turning rapidly authoritarian. I am congratulating you and I am supporting the whole concept of 'anonymity' of the group. Well done! Wish there were more of you in this world.
Gated communities are a symptom not a problem in and of themselves. Illegal immigration has streched the limits of effective assimilation and now many parts of LA resemble a 3rd world country. People are isolating themselves as a reaction to the decline of their community. If we can stop illegal immigration and control the flow of immigrants to a manageable pace this would not happen.
Bunch of nuts. Leave people alone. If I want to live in a cave, I should have the right to live isolated from the riff raff of this city. I prefer a gated comminity, want to know how many burglaries we had last year? 0. Robberies? 0. The list goes on and on. When I go to the store, I bring my gun, just in case. STAY OUT OF OUR LIVES!
awesome! what a poignant statement.
I agree with the comments above regarding illegal immigration and the deterioration of various communities as a result. Not all gated communities are made up of multi-million dollar homes. There are various gated communities that hold staunchly middle class houses, that exist because they clearly hold onto their price values better in spite of at times worsening community conditions. I have seen illegal immigration utterly devastate decent areas and render them for all intents and puposes uninhabitable for any middle class American who would like nothing more than to have a safe family and a peaceful life. Within many gated communities there are still children playing on the streets, and yes, they do play together as they grow up. Other children on Halloween flock to these communities because it is simply safer. When children who live in these communities have birthday parties, their parents are able to be more relaxed when they're all playing in the front yard because it's safer. Kidnapping is unlikely. Auto accidents are unlikely. Mugging is unlikely. And I'm only referring to my best friend's Gardena complex which houses only middle class citizens in moderately priced and sized homes. These anachronisms are not only welcome but also very desirable in these difficult times. To see happy, safe children playing with each other, sheltered (at least while they're at home) from much of what ugliness exists outside those walls is a very wonderful thing. Do I lament that it's come to segregating ourselves in order to be safer and happier? Yes. But I do feel that, while I do agree that Heavy Trash is doing a public service by stirring debate, Heavy Trash also is displaying a deeply shallow understanding of the underlying causes of why gated communities exist. It is not only childish to view all gated communities as sactuaries for the ultra-rich, it is false. And when a bright enough light is shone on the mendacious nature of Heavy Trash's underlying beliefs which bolster their most recent social statement, it's sad. It's just more noise which confuses the truth about why gated communities have become so popular lately. We need to look deeper.
While public debate is good, unless the discussion digs deep enough, searching for a solution rather than simply spitting out condemnations and glib ideals, it's all nothing more than cheap demagoguery.
Lofty ideals will never be reached except by also realizing and having respect for the reality which makes up our daily lives. Ultimately, what are we shooting for? Happiness, right? Nobody can be happy off of ideals alone.
This is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen.
Why bother with this ridiculous waste of time when far more profound and pressing matters abound?
Where would you prefer to live? In a gated community with fences, guards and cameras or in one of the many other neighborhoods with bars on the windows, attack dogs and a gun within easy reach? These neighborhoods have the "unrestricted pedestrian access", "public infrastructure" and "eyes" (usually watching the outside world through a peephole in the door) that you claim will "make neighborhoods safer, friendlier and livelier", but it hasn't helped.
This gate and wall is a safety issue and thats all. And you are infringing on that issue for one thing, but that isn't really relavent because you could scale one of those walls with one hand tied behind your back. They read the same papers you do, get the same news you do, drive the same streets you do and the only exception is at the end of the day they enter the small area inside a 7 foot high 1 foot thick wall guarded by an unarmed watchman. WTF?! Do you know how much they pay for that small privelage? YOU infringe on democracy by denying people a right to exclude themselves for a sense of privacy. And then you build yourself a box to gather people to come and watch them mow their lawns. Why don't you ask the guard for a tour?
in my town gated communities create a false sense of security there were more robberies in gated communities than in just normal areas although i live in a small section its not a gated community and in the past seven years that i have lived there there have been no robberies and if the people want to live in an elite scociety the least they could do is move 2 miles down the road to sands point i have nothing against gated communities
Gated communities may provide safety, but the isolation they create is much more damaging in the long run, especially for children. Growing up in a gated community can make children believe that they should be seperated from others. The lack of socialization in those communities lends to countless hours of television, video games, and internet as entertainment for the children.
just great idea what you did with VIEWING PLATFORMS! tricky!! but maybe instead of opening those communities we should think of how to generate more safety in cities? no borders would be needed. or maybe how to expand those safety borders to gain bigger and bigger parts of the city, region, country.
What Alan P. wrote is ludicrous. Gated communities are not more damaging for children. As your evidence you stated that these communities "lends to countless hours of television, video games, and internet as entertainment for the children," which is not only absurd but patently absurd. Is it your position that these practices are only popular amongst children within gated communities? I also disagree with your suggestion that gated communities lead to a lack of socialization. You're dancing on the enge of comedy, my friend. We are not talking about biosphere containment bubbles. These "gated community children" also attend school and partake in summer activities. They play with each other, and I would go as far as saying that within the context of a safer environment, these children exhibit a healthier, more comfortable socialization with a little less paranoia and fear. In fact, they even see more children around during the holidays, especially the fun ones like Halloween. Does this sound like a group of damaged children in danger of lacking in socialization?
It sounds to me like you've read too many criticisms of gated communities and imagined far too much without experiencing it for yourself.
what is it good for???
These are very :( times we live in. It is arrogant for them to wall themselves up! They think their money makes them better than everyone else.
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