Model boats will explore contaminated New York City waterway

The Newtown Creek Armada preview from Newtown Creek Armada on Vimeo.

Nathan Kensinger is an artist "whose work explores hidden urban landscapes, off-limits structures, and other liminal spaces." He told me about a project that he, Laura Chipley, and Sarah Nelson Wright are working on called The Newtown Creek Armada:

It's a public art installation that is using remote control boats and underwater cameras to explore the Newtown Creek, a federal Superfund Site in New York City.

The installation opens this weekend, when we will be inviting the public to pilot our fleet of nine miniature boats, and to film their own voyage on the Newtown Creek. We will also be presenting several videos of our voyages that document the more polluted parts of the creek, which is home to the second largest oil spill in the United States, and has been used as a dumping ground for heavy industry and raw sewage for over 150 years. Despite this history, nature is slowly returning to the area, as we discovered on our voyages.

The Newtown Creek Armada

• [Deidzoeb]

  Aquatic unmanned drones!

• [SomeGuyNamedMark]

  Ah, Newtown Creek.  Brings back water and benthic mud sampling memories.

• [CLamb]

  When I tried this in the local freshwater pond the propeller kept getting fouled by water plants.

  • [fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

    Clearly you aren’t polluting your pond sufficiently hard, if you still have a plant problem.