Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The following essay was written Sept. 12, 2001 at the request of an OP-ED editor at Newsday, a NYC-LI newspaper. The editor decided not to use it - I believe she had asked several people, and used the first one she got back. However, the story has traveled quite a bit, particularly among artists, both here and abroad. ----------------------------------------------------------- We had a studio in the World Trade Center. On the 92nd floor of Tower 1. Until yesterday. Our art/architecture collaborative Ocean Earth, had been granted this space by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council through their World Views program. It was an exhilirating place to work, to watch a thunderstorm, to look out on the waters we sought to utilize as sources of alternative energy. To replace our reliance on BIG OIL. To alter the ecological, economic, political and social consequences of our reliance on BIG OIL. I had watched the World Trade Center being built. As a young architecture student, I visited the big hole in the ground which was to become the WTC. A huge hole crisscrossed by the tubes of PATH trains They hung in the air like artifacts of a Flash Gordon movie. Later my mother worked in the building, and I'd meet her for lunch. We'd look out the windows, watching airplanes pass below us. Later it became a place of transit for me as a commuter from my home in New Jersey, the first hints of New York City I'd see from the train, the place I'd arrive, and the last place in New York on my journey home. I'd watch the changes in the mall on the ground floor, waxing nostalgic for the bank, the Japanese sushi vendor, the other transient elements of what seemed like a permanent place. Tuesday morning I left my daughter's apartment on the Lower East Side at 8 AM, whispering goodbye to her as she slept. Later she arose, and looking out her window, saw the first plane strike Tower 1. She called my wife: "Mom, a plane just hit the World Trade Center!" "Don't watch it - it's going to be horrible!" my wife replied. Our studio in the WTC required us to obtain special photo ID cards. For security. I remarked to my colleague: "This is stupid. It just feeds an atmosphere of hysteria. It makes as much sense as airport security. It won't stop anyone who is determined to plant a bomb, it actually encourages them to try." Why did the buildings collapse so rapidly? What can we learn from this? What lessons does it have for current architectural practice? Steel is very sensitive to heat. In most skyscrapers, the steel skeleton in encased in concrete, to protect it in case of fire. The World Trade Center, with its' steel structure on the outside of the building, would have been immune to fire of ordinary proportions. In the event of an inferno, however, the steel will weaken, twist, and collapse under the weight above it. This is apparently what happened. This collapse then progresses like a house of cards. It is a consequence of the arrogance of scale - as we stretch ourselves heavenward, we have created a condition in which we are literally placed on a slender support, vulnerable to small pertubations. This morning, the day after, I asked myself what I can do. Dressing, I pulled out my tee shirt with Dr. Martin Luther King's picture on it. I need to assert the spirit of Dr. King. I need to shout it to the world, to place it on my chest. I wish our President would speak of the need for reconciliation, not retribution. We don't need more innocent victims. Today, Ocean Earth, in the shows "Policy Models" at the Rockford Art Museum in Illinois and "Sea Change" in Spacex Gallery in Exeter, England offers a vision of a world not dependant on petroleum and free of the conflicts and hostilities attending our reliance upon it. Had our proposals for the Persian Gulf and other locales producing the raw materials for energy been adopted, the hostility evident in this act would have been defused, replacing the need for conflict with the need for cooperation. George Chaikin, September 12, 2001 Plexus 1.618 Assistant Professor of Art Lehman College, CUNY Associate Professor Adjunct Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture The Cooper Union Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story213.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.204.87.112 Annotation Annotations to this item. Afganistan/Mideast Economic effects Foreign Policy Newspaper and Magazine Coverage Politics and politicians U.S. retribution WTC, pre-911 WTC, worked in (ever) NY:3 Sep 11- Sep 21, 2001