Newtown Creek

Understanding Urban Weather Systems and Designing for Climate Change

Moderated by Elliott Maltby, Partner, the thread collective & iLAND board member
Presented by:
Philip Orton, Research Scientist, Stevens Institute of Technology
Victoria Marshall, Assistant Professor of Urban Design, The New School
and
Higher E.D. (Ecology + Dance), 2012 iLAB Residents:
Liz Barry, Public Laboratory for Open Technology & Science
Jessica Einhorn, Dancer, Scientist
Lailye Weidman, Choreographer

Micro to Macro Movement in New York City waterways from East Tremont to Newtown Creek

Moderated by Carolyn Hall, Dancer, Historical Marine Biologist & iLAND board member
Presented by:
John Waldman, Professor of Biology, Queens College
and
Follow the Water Walks, 2012 iLAB Residents:
Rebecca Boger, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth &
Environmental Sciences, Brooklyn College
Damian Griffin, Education Director, Bronx River Alliance
Paloma McGregor, Choreographer

Specifically addressing the study of and relationship to the rivers and sewers of New York City, this panel serves to highlight how interdisciplinary strategies can broaden our understanding and embody a sense of a waterway’s past compared to its present through changes in the landscape, inhabitants’ migrations, and the communities that border its shores. Can such interdisciplinary studies enable us to find more flexible ways to address rising water levels, dense coastal populations, and increased frequencies of hurricanes? We will also discuss how the panelists’ efforts to renovate, restore, study, and discover such integrated water systems, native species, and human communities challenge them to physicalize, reinterpret, and seek collaborations to better understand their subjects. Moderated by dancer and historical marine ecologist Carolyn Hall, the panel features Queens College Professor of Biology and author John Waldman speaking on the health of the greater waterway ecosystem of NYC and specific studies on Newtown Creek and the Bronx River, and the iLAB residency fellows of Follow the Water Walks that explored East Tremont’s relationship to the Bronx River and the sewer ways that service the community through dance, education, and mapping.