Christopher Joyce of National Public Radio is about to launch a series of reports on the “Industriosphere,” in which I am taking part. As in my book Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape, the subject matter is all the manmade bits of the environment we live in. (What is that stuff? What does it do? Why is it there?) Two weeks ago I spent a couple of days exploring and recording in and around Washington, DC, with Joyce and his NPR crew. The first report is scheduled for broadcast tomorrow afternoon (November 26) on Weekend All Things Considered. Check your local NPR station for broadcast times, or listen on the Internet. After the broadcast, some additional material (including photographs) will be posted on the NPR web site. And there is already an Industriosphere Flickr group.
In the photo above Christopher Joyce (foreground), producer Tina Tennessen (right) and audio engineer Drew Reynolds are “getting ambi” (recording ambient sounds) near Thomas Circle in Washington, where we all spent some time playing in traffic.
Update 2006-12-03: A brief followup interview, discussing the wooden rooftop water tanks of New York City, was broadcast on Saturday 2 December 2006. The interview is online here.