New York Collection
New Orleans Collection
Antarctic Collection
Trinidad & Tobago Collection
A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting (Balkin et al.)
Visit the archive at sinkingandmelting.tumblr.com
The archive is a growing collection of items contributed from places that may disappear owing to the combined physical, political, and economic impacts of climate change, including glacial melting, sea level rise, coastal erosion, and desertification. Through common but differentiated collections, contributed materials form an archive of the future anterior; what will have been. The materials in the archive mark the asymmetry of present or anticipated loss, standing in as proxies for the contributors' recognition of the geopolitical production (or spatial politics) of precarity and slow-onset dispossession. Together, the contributions form one material record among many, a collection of community-gathered evidence, a public record, and a midden.
The archive operates from the principle that any thing is equally valuable as a record of present or projected future disappearance of a place, as chosen by someone there. A contribution doesn't have to originate from that location - it can be anything that happens to be there, including detritus, flotsam or jetsam. As of 2025, the archive contains contributions from locations including Anvers Island (Antarctica), Cape Verde, Greenland, Kivalina (Alaska), Nepal, New Orleans, New York City, Panama, Peru, Senegal, and Tuvalu.
A People's Archive invites contributors to an archive to be comprised of objects sent by people living in places where climate change is implicated in either current or future disappearance.
Contribute
A People's Archive is actively seeking contributions.
WHAT TO CONTRIBUTE
Any item is equally valuable as a record of a sinking or melting place, as contributed by someone who lives there. Your contribution can be something natural, manufactured, found, made, or discarded, including trash. It doesn't have to originate from that place - it can be anything that is there. Your submitted object will be permanently archived with the information you send and the location's UNFCCC Party Grouping.
Your contribution must weigh less than 1/2 lb. The archive will not accept items with import/export prohibitions.
HOW TO SEND
1. FILL OUT the contribution information below and email it to: registrar (at) sinkingandmelting.org
Item name:
Description/Materials:
Contributed by:
Location:
Lat/Long (if available):
Date Collected:
How location is impacted by climate change (sinking/melting/desertification, etc.):
Notes:
2. MAIL or BRING contributions to:
A People's Archive of Sinking and Melting
c/o Registrar: Amy Balkin
2136 Fell Street, No.301
San Francisco, CA 94117 USA
3. SUBMIT any 8MB or smaller .jpg images to: registrar (at) sinkingandmelting dot org
4. (OPTIONAL) QUESTIONS
Do you live where the object came from? If not, what is your relation to that place?
What have you seen disappear there, environmentally or otherwise? What do those disappearances mean?
What is your relationship to the object(s) you contributed?
Why did you contribute to the archive? What do you hope for your contribution, and the archive generally, to change or draw attention to?
QUESTIONS? CONTACT the registrars at: registrar (at) sinkingandmelting.org
Contributors
As of 2025: Jelena Adeli, Golnar Adili, Brandon Aguirre, Pedro Muñoz Alvarez, Kristie Anders, Erica Isabel Cerrato Aquedano, School of Plural Futures with ATLAS Arts, AURA lab, Pacita Romero Avila, Luz Baca, Mike & Bernie Bell, Walter Brinkerhoff, Murray Bolesta, Bill Burns, Jose Ramon Castelrau and his grandson, Vreni Michelini Castillo, Vladimir Chuprov, Adriane Colburn, Laura Colomban, Lilian Cooper, Marta Cruz, Kate Davis, Wynell Davis, Monique Dean, Steve Desroches, LaShine Dickerson, Kevin Dunne, Alec Finlay, Clara Forest, Linda Franklin, Froincia Mariel Portillo G., Teodosia De Jesús Aguilar Galea, Rodrigo Garcia, Yoanis Gil, Tara and David Gladden, John Graham, Ole Jørgen Hammeken, Michael Hampton, Moray Heggie-Milne, Tyler Henry, Benjamin Herrera, Sherrill Ingalls, Maila Hung Izquierdo, Pantea Karimi, Sarah Kavanagh, Nandor Kovats, Jesus Landin-Torrez III, Luis Vasquez La Roche, Neri Díaz Leal, Zoë Leonard, Sarah Lewison, Caroline Lipke, Karla Lizardo, Bertrand Lozay, Ali Macdonald, María Auxiliadora Maldonado, Tyjunaique McKenzie, Isabel McLeish, Melissa María Mendez, Alicia Milne, David Moore, Gerd Mörsch, Ranu Mukherjee, Nenesinho, Micaela Neus, Milissa Orzolek, Moiria Elizabeth Paguada, Mr. F. Panisi, Sandhya Parajuli, Peter Peiser, Elein Ramos Pérez, Sabine Reinecke, Flor de Maria Moncado Reyes, Christina Riley, Clare Robb, Carlos Fernando Rodriguez, Melanie Roumiguière, Digna Migdalia Sánchez, Chiara Sartori and Giuditta, Guadalupe Schneider, Douglas Seaton, Leo Sexer, Christine Shearer, Alette Simmons-Jimenez, Marcel Sparmann, Bill Stephens, Matt Swagler, Steve Sweet, Monika Szilabi, Elizabeth T., Renzo Taddei, Cassie Thornton, Robin Treen, Pleasur'ne Thomas, Caroline Tripet, Evgeniy Usov, Terri Willis, Isabel Martinez Zelaya, and Marco Alonso Zepeda.
Co-registrars
Amy Balkin, Everett Ó Cillín (2020), Olga Kopenkina (2014-15), Malte Roloff (2012) and Cassie Thornton. Thanks to Rosa McElheny.
Cedeño co-registrars
Luz De Solzireé Baca Rodriguez, Hernan Alberto Rodriguez, Carlos Fernando Rodriguez, Nixirela Isabel Martinez, Brandon Aguirre, Flor de Maria Moncada, Francia Mariel Portillo Godoy.