Monthly Statement:
November 2005
2792 - TOTAL AOL cds accumulated as of 11/30/05
37 - non-AOL cds (including, but not limited to, Earthlink, Juno, Excite and Peoplepc.)
3 - 3.5 inch AOL floppy discs

Clearly, the Village Voice has been the number one contributor this month to the Pillars of Decency project, although I've been receiving a relatively constant stream of cds in the mail from postings I've made to craigslist and freecycle. In the Voice's recent weekly publication (Nov. 22-28) they included an AOL cd as an advertisement in each and every paper. I like the paper, but this seems like a bad thing for the "largest American alternative newsweekly" to do; taking into account how wasteful this form of advertising is.

I made some calculations. Each CD (without packaging) weighs approximately 0.03527396192 lbs. The circulation of the Village Voice is about 249,942. That means that during that week, somewhere around 8,816.44 lbs. of discs were introduced to the streets of New York City. I suppose taxpayers foot the bill for that, and the landfill will digest those for decades to come. Myself and a few others made a goal of getting 1% of those discs. We accumulated them from in and around the red plastic display boxes that house these free papers. The photos show that. (By the way, all photos represent exactly what I saw when I came upon the Village Voice display boxes, I did not arrange anything.)

We fell slightly short of our goal, with 2210 cds.

A friend familiar with the project suggested I count how many free hours of AOL internet service my accumulates could provide. So, I counted all of them. They ranged from 15-1175 hours each. (For cds that listed unlimited service over a period of days, instead of a specific amount of hours of free service, I estimated hours comparing the designs with cds that did list an amount of hours.) Enough cds have been accumulated since September 1, 2005, to give each American citizen 37 seconds of AOL internet service; most of that courtesy of the Village Voice. In layman's terms, well over 3 million hours.

All the cds taken out of their respective packaging reach a height of over 12 feet when stacked. So I will have 2 "Pillars of Decency" roughly 6 feet in height for the December show!

I also sent a letter to the editor of the Villiage Voice thanking them for their contribution to the "Pillars of Decency":

"Hello! I'm gathering AOL cds as part of the Accumulation Project (http://www.accumulationproject.org/). I want to thank you for your contribution during the week of Nov. 22-28. As you know, an AOL cd was placed in each copy of your paper as an advertisement. Judging by the amount of cds I saw lying around your red plastic newspaper stands, people don't like them very much, as they were strewn all about.

I also made some calculations. Each CD (without packaging) weighs approximately 0.03527396192 lbs. The circulation of the Village Voice is about 249,942. That means that during that week, somewhere around 8,816.44 lbs. of discs were introduced to the streets of New York City. I suppose taxpayers foot the bill for that, and the landfill will digest those for decades to come.

Once again, thank you for your time and contribution. By the way, there is an exhibition for the Accumulation Project that takes place in Brooklyn on Friday, December 16th. Check out the above url for more information.

Sincerely,
Eric Brown"

For more information on what it takes to make a cd, see this document put out by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Process:
I will accumulate as many AOL cds as possible until September 2006. I will enlist the help of friends and strangers through word of mouth, emails, craigslist, freecycle, and other existing social networks. The CDs are accumulated from where they are forced upon the public; primarily from people who have received them in the mail, or from publications where the cds are inserted as advertisements.

I will stack them and build "Pillars of Decency" (a funny comment on the wastefulness of this form of advertisement). The more I get, the taller the "Pillars" will be!

When the year is over, I will donate them to --> http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/

What I would like from you is the following:
1. Your AOL cds! - The ones you and your friends, family and neighbors receive in the mail! Whenever you find some, keep them and think of me.
2. Get the cds to me. - If you live in the New York City area, I can probably pick them up, if you have a bunch, or you can mail them to me (sorry, I have $0.00 budget for this project, so I can't reimburse you for postage. However, I will offer you fame and good feelings by mentioning your name in thanks when the project is exhibited. If you send them "Bulk Mail" it will be cheaper!)
-OR- Send me an email, and we'll figure out how to get the CDs to me. (see below for addresses)
3. Tell your friends! - Talk to, or email your friends, family, coworkers, strangers, etc. about this project. The more the better!That's it.
I very much appreciate your time and effort in making this project a success, and welcome you to check out the website frequently, as it grows every month!

Eric Brown
93 Bright St.
Jersey City, NJ 07302
eric@dogseat.org