Oil Twitchers and Barge Spotters: a Field Guide to Whale Creek

Floating Studio for Dark Ecologies (FSDE) uses the familiar forms of a field guide and a self-guided audio tour to invite participants to explore the underappreciated Newtown Creek Nature Walk (designed by George Trakas in 2007), one of the few public access points on Whale Creek, Newtown’s tiny offshoot that flanks one of the city’s wastewater treatment plants. The field guide and audio entices the visitor lovingly into the Creek’s toxic waters with its astonishingly resilient fauna and its 25 feet of “black mayonnaise.” The creators use poetry, ecology and history to lay bare the power and complexity to name elements of the creek. FSDE’s intended audience includes the general public, with an emphasis on urban explorers, tourists, and neighborhood residents. The guide is available on the web (in audio form on iTunes and Soundcloud, and as a downloadable pdf). FSDE anticipates that locals and visitors will be inspired and empowered to adventure down to the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, and then share the “exhibition materials” with friends.