Me, Myself and Infrastructure

Engineering Is Us

Me Myself and Infrastructure: Private Lives and Public Works in America was a consumer’s-eye view of everyday environments and the people who design them. The project’s real-life perspective captured people’s emotions. Why? Our behaviors and values shape infrastructure: the location of a crosswalk, the condition of a building, the taste of water. At the same time, infrastructure shapes our lives and values—for example, the seeming ability to drive anywhere at any time and to treat computers and phones as disposable. Me, Myself, and Infrastructure explored public expectations of infrastructure, and the role of civil engineers in its design, construction, and management.

Most people take infrastructure for granted. When they can’t, they ask:

Who’s responsible?
Is it safe?
How big is it?
Is it available?
How much does it cost?
How long will it last?

These questions, the foundation of the project, were posed within familiar settings, including a coffee shop, big box store, and bus stop. My focus on the user mindset--on everyday challenges and concerns rather than on categories defined by experts--led to engaging and novel project conception and design.

Me, Myself and Infrastructure was created for the 150th anniversary of the American Society of Civil Engineers. It included a major traveling exhibition, catalogue, outreach exhibition, and supplementary project, I on Infrastructure.

This project appeared at the New York Historical Society, National Building Museum (Washington, D.C.), One Market (San Francisco), Turtle Bay Exploration Park, 2002-2003; and Chicago Architecture Foundation, 2007.

I on Infrastructure appeared in the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library.

Ask the Infrastructure was a traveling exhibition produced in multiple copies. Shown on display at the Library of Congress.