Fast Trash: Roosevelt Island's Pneumatic Tubes and the Future of Cities

…which opens this Thursday at Gallery RIVAA on Roosevelt Island and will be on view from April 22 – May 23 with more details below and on their website (by the way, you should probably know more about CUP, which is an amazing, pedagogically-progressive, hard-to-classify education organization – working with kids and schools across the city of New York to explore how the city they live in works and what it means to live there. (CUP website).

Ever wonder why you don’t see any garbage trucks on Roosevelt Island? Or why there aren’t smelly piles of trash bags on the street? Roosevelt Island’s garbage disposal is nearly invisible: the trash gets whisked away at 35 miles per hour through a series of underground pneumatic tubes. In fact, it’s so inconspicuous that few Roosevelt Islanders know it exists. CUP worked with students from Roosevelt Island’s The Child School to teach residents about their pneumatic system. After a visit to the Island’s processing facility, the crew created a handy User’s Manual and a poster that uses visual metaphors to explain the system.

Their work will be on display at the exhibit “Fast Trash: Roosevelt Island’s Pneumatic Tubes and the Future of Cities,” organized by Juliette Spertus with Project Projects.

Opening reception: Thursday, April 22, 6 – 9 pm. Gallery RIVAA, 527 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, NY
F to Roosevelt Island