We are here to explore care as a creative, communal, and environmental act set against the rich backdrop of New York City’s composting evolution. Rhythm & Rot serves as a living archive of care, transformation, and circularity. It uplifts the history of NYC composting, the often-unseen labor of community stewards, and the potential of art to make systems change feel tangible. We are all invited to recognize how care shows up in everyday actions from separating food scraps to offering a word, a beat, or a sketch and to root those actions in a deeper consciousness of conservation.
(NYC Composters representing at the ILSR Community Composters Conference 2026 Sacramento, CA)
RHYTHM & ROT Instructions
1. Welcome to your space, my space, our space! May we cocreate it together with love, intention, and infinite direction 2. Share lessons, impressions, and joyful connections 3. As you enter, please have some fruit to nourish your energy centers (chakra love) 4. Leave your food scraps at the inspiration station 5. Take some fabric scraps to enhance your imagination 6. This is our interactive Rube Goldberg machine, so please feel free to do what we need 7. Take a measurement even as I perform, jot down words of reflection for our collective song 8. Visit whichever stations call you into play 9. You can sit or be mobile, I encourage you to take up space 10. Close your eyes, touch your heart, and breathe deeply 11. IN 12. PAUSE 13. OUT (w/ or w/o sound….does it feel easy?) 14. Visualize a composter composting….what do you see? 15. Please then express this imagery artistically 16. In this session we hope to get 17. Our very first design for our Compost Couture FIT!