Finding artifacts

What would a homeless black man own or discard? Probably tattered clothes, cigarette butts, beer vesicles, napkins, and any of the trash that can be found on floor.

Last Sunday at around 5pm went I looking for these things. They were all over the place. Discarded, cigarette butts used, remnants of cheap food, and clothes left behind covered the streets of New Brunswick. The problem was there was no way to know that any of these things actually belonged to a homeless person. In fact, I was almost sure that nothing I found on the streets belonged to any homeless people. While walking around the our designated block i saw hundreds of college students wearing tattered clothes, smoking cigarettes, and eating fast food. I could only assume that everything I found belonged to college students. I decided that I actually needed to follow a black homeless man and pick up his garbage.

My new problem was how i was going to find a homeless black man. I checked two hot spots i thought would be sure things by I couldn't find any. None in Alexander Library or the train station. In an act of desperation I went to a homeless shelter outside of the boundaries of the project. In the shelter I talked to a variety of homeless people, including some who were black. Unfortunately, none of them had anything they were willing to give up. In the end I ended up compromising my artist vision and just shared garbage with ambiguous ownership with my group.