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“The ritual of throwing things away is a purification ritual that forms the very basis of being.” Italo Calvino
PRIVY PIT pri-vē ‘pit Noun 1) an outdoor toilet that also served as a trashcan before municipal collection; a popular site for archaeological digs. 2) participating in the knowledge of something private with others. 3) a collective discourse on our discards.
The Privy Pit is a participatory waste study project open to everyone. Pick from the list of Discard Projects and complete them in your own way. Submit it to be added to the growing collection which will be posted here. You can do as many as you want or assign some to people you know. The Privy Pit was created by artist in residence sTo Len and the Department of Sanitation of NYC.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRIVY PIT PROJECTS
1. Take a photo of something you threw away today and tell us about it
2. Take a photo of an object that you don’t know what to do with
3. Make a costume of something you threw away
4. Write a letter saying goodbye to an object you are throwing away
5. Take a pic of your building’s trash bag pile
6. Repair or reuse something instead of throwing it away and document it
7. Make a DSNY thank you banner and hang it in front of your house
8. Make an educational waste flyer for your block
9. Take a photo of the sky when you take your trash out
10. Write a press release for trash day
11. Interview someone about their trash
12. Draw something you threw away
13. Decorate your trashcan and make it nice
14. Draw something you decided to keep
15. Photograph something you would like to trade
16. Imagine an ideal afterlife for an object you threw away
17. Try to not throw anything away today. What happened?
18. Try to not buy anything today. What happened?
19. Negotiating our refuse is a choreography. How does your trash make you dance?
20. Imagine making a home for all of the objects you have ever thrown out
21. Make a new outfit out of things a friend wants to get rid of
22. Write a letter to a friend using junk mail as stationary
23. Write a letter to an object you are throwing away
24. Make a collage with your junk mail
25. Make a sound or a song with objects you are getting rid of
26. Our discards are the shadows of our daily lives. Draw your trash as sillhouettes.
27. Put an object on social media that you want to give away for free - anyone take it?
28. Exchange food leftovers with a friend and cook each other dinner
30. Take a portrait of you with your trash
31. Color coordinate your trash and take a photo
32. Decorate your trashcan and make it something fun to pick up
33. Take a photo of your plastic bag collection under the kitchen sink
34. Ask to take a selfie with your sanitation worker
35. Make an “NFT” - NOT THAT NFT - this is a picture of some “Nice F%#king Trash!”
36. Weigh your garbage bags and document how much they were
37. Take a photo of something you found on the street and took home
38. Take a photo of a bad trash pile with its’ location
39. Write a poem for an object you are throwing away
40. Write a letter to the DSNY about your relationship with them
41. Make a list of things you would like to say to your sanitation workers
42. Write an apology letter to a landfill that your trash has gone to
43. Donate objects to a charity and tell us about it
44. Make an altar for the objects you intend to abandon
45. Write a made-up story about something you are throwing out
46. Write a story about a piece of trash on the street
47. Share a story involving your garbage
48. Learn about how the object was made before throwing it away