Compost Toilet as a Radical Act of Care? A gentle invitation to deal with our shit.                                                                                                                                                                                                        senior project | environmental and urban studies | environmental humanities and the arts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             bard college | spring 2024 








    






thinking through the 
intimacy 
of “wasting” infrastructures  
 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   






The de-composed manifesto
is embroidered into 


Cotton, 
Gossypium hirsutum



dyed with 



Pokeberry,
Phytolacca americana



Black Walnut,
Juglans nigra  



Coffee, 
Coffea arabica?



Marigold, 
Tagetes erecta



and Indigo, 
Tagetes erecta.
 



This tangible piece explores the concept
compost as form
as a real, physical 
way to make art and thus make worlds: 



“While I am beholden to compost as a physical process
in forests, farming, gardening and living
that transforms “waste” into
crumbly, soil-like nourishment
through the very art of decay,
I also embed my mind within this rich darkness
in a practice of thinking
through, with, and out of
dangerous, polluting structures which shape a world
also in great need of decay
and vital transformation
(always and already underway).”



The manifesto is a decomposed version 
of the academic paper itself,  
composed of key phrases and words 
 embedded in the written work. 
It is a hot-compost-piling, 
a generous borrowing
of ideas and phrases 
from ecological-thinkers such as 
Donna Haraway,  
Max Liborion, 
Maria Puig de la Bellacasa,  
Silvia Federici, 
Robin Wall Kimmerer, 
Timothy Morton, 
and more.   

 











The de-composed manifesto
 was made into a zine  
printed on zerox and risograph  
at Eureka!, 
in Kingston, NY. 








To request access to the full paper and literature review, 
“Compost Toilet As A Radical Act Of Care? A gentle invitation to deal with our shit.” 
please click here