NYC Poop Map

Pooping is one of the most natural acts for all creatures; poop is a trace of what is consumed every day. However, in New York City, poop is more. It is everywhere and has become an unignorable icon of the city itself. If poop symbolizes NYC, how might we reimagine it in a creative and even revolutionary way?

NYC Poop Map is a web-based crowdsourced platform where New Yorkers can mark and document the poop they encounter in the city. While inspired by Human Wasteland, which visualized waste in San Francisco, this project shifts the focus toward reimagining everyday waste as a site of community, belonging, and connection. By mapping something as universal yet stigmatized as poop, it challenges how we view the flaws of our shared home and reframes them as opportunities for dialogue and collective imagination.

We are excited to include this project because we aim to inspire New Yorkers to rethink what can be designed from something our community is infamous for, and to show how digital platforms can transform mundane traces into shared community space. Using humor and participatory design, we aim to provoke conversation about new ways of reconnecting with our community.

NYC Poop Map is a project created by Yu Lee and Mumu Li.