meaningcleaning January 18,2008

Meaningcleaning
Collaboration between Hayley Severns
and Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen

January 18, 2008
E train platform @ WTC site, 12:30pm
Duration: 1 hour
Undocumented

Products brought:
-Red dust bin with handle
-Pink plastic broom
-Yellow latex gloves, large
-Scrubbing tool
-Rags

I arrived about 20 minutes before Hayley, to the overwhelming smell of urine and feces coming from the platform and train tracks. Although disgusting, I knew we had chosen an appropriate place to clean. I decided to sweep entire length of platform; riders and MTA workers alike did not approach me or say anything to me. A few people stared as they walked by.

Hayley arrived at 12:20. We collectively decided to clean between 3 I-beams that created two large squares of platform. Our intention was to clean a portion of the platform in relation to the rest of the (dirty) platform as intervention.

We quickly realized that buffing the platform portion to a high shine would be an added bonus as a visual component; cleaning was not enough. Both of us felt we were back in La Cipressaia cleaning the floor together on a Sunday.

Initially, no one asked us questions about what we were doing. The overall responses from MTA workers was positive and appreciative. One worker wanted to nominate us to be "New Yorkers of the Week" from NY1 News. We said we were taking responsibility for our environment. We were largely ignored by train riders.

After cleaning the platform portion, we infused the space with lavender oil to attempt to mask the urine smell eminating from the tracks. We had moderate and temporary success with that. Since the station we chose was the last stop on the line (in many ways: at night the E train is a homeless mecca; during the day it brings business people to the financial district), the trains were held there for 5-10 minutes, a perfect amount of time to infuse a single train car with lavender oil before its departure north through Manhattan.

We worked very quickly: I infused the bases of the poles in the middle of the car while Hayley aesthetically rubbed down the upper poles and seat poles. We also infused the corners of the entry way doors with oil and picked up any debris. We thought a nice follow up would be to travel from the beginning to the end of a train line infusing each car as its moving.

The responses from train riders about the lavender was also mostly positive. We were asked if we were doing "community service" or punishment for breaking the law. Although we were doing community service, we both contributed voluntarily.

The performance lasted one hour. We cleaned a 20' square of platform and infused four train cars with lavender oil.

No one asked us why were were doing this, only "what are you doing?"

We thought we were going to get in trouble, and had a lot of premeditated trepidation, but were pleasantly surprised with the overwhelming humanity by the MTA workers. We were given ideas to include more people to "really be effective". Our cleaning created a point of entry for conversation and inquiry.