From The Sopranos to artist Tony Smith, design scholar ,Susan Yelavich, maps the Turnpike as a culture-shifting behemoth in Issue 1. #JerseyAllAlong Film still of The Sopranos opening credits (1997-2007). How does a highway become a pop culture icon? Design scholar and critic Susan Yelavich helps us make sense of the New Jersey Turnpike’s fame in her Issue 1 essay “Lore of the Turnpike.” From studying design’s role in building the future to its role in the stories we tell, Yelavich understands the power of interstate design to impact culture. As a Jerseyan, she also understands the Turnpike’s ..read more

Dense's new Fellowship Program is launching Summer 2023, in partnership with Monira Foundation, as we host our first cohort of changemakers! #WeShapeEnvironmentsShapeUs #SensingTheFuture #GettingDense Artist D. Graham Burnett speaking at Monira Foundation. Behind each Dense story is a community of contributors who operate at the forefront of today's greatest challenges – from advancements in labor practices, reparations, and biodiversity to resilient models of infrastructure, food security and human rights. We regard our contributors as change makers, and so to ensure that they can continue th ..read more

As Lune Ames writes in Issue 1, the trans-ness of Marsha P Johnson beckons us to reach across, over and beyond genders, streets and categories. #TheCityOfNewJersey #WeAreMadeOfMigrations #WeShapeEnvironmentsShapeUs Marsha P Johnson Mural under the concrete Turnpike. Photo by Lune Ames. We are all in a state of trans – transacting, transitioning, transferring, transplanting, transforming. As quickly as we create borders, we move across them. In this Issue 1 piece that flows between prose and poetry, writer Lune Ames guides us to the site along the NJ Turnpike where gay rights activist Marsha P ..read more

Scholar Anita Bakshi is taking on what's problematic about the way NJ’s Indigenous history is presented, by changing how it's accessed. #LivingArchive #mostfirstbestworst History of Misrepresentation Timeline. This timeline includes different representations of the Ramapough Lenape in the media. Credit: Our Land, Our Stories (2022) For Issue 1, scholar and Dense advisor Anita Bakshi writes about how Ford’s 1950s car design and manufacturing, which adapted to the modern interstate’s faster speeds, has directly impacted the Ramapough Lunaape communities in Ringwood, New Jersey and surrounding ar ..read more

Designer Dalal Elsheikh talks with editor Gretchen Von Koenig about surveillance futures, automotive spaces and how we need to do better. #SensingTheFuture #WeShapeEnvironmentsShapeUs Autonomous police vehicles monitor autonomous passenger vehicles, neither of which are operated by humans. Design and image by Dalal Elsheikh. What do car design, data surveillance and the future of policing on the New Jersey Turnpike have to do with each other? A lot, according to futurist and autonomous vehicle designer Dalal Elsheikh. Whether we realize it or not, our driving habits are not only informing (and ..read more

Dense cofounders Lune Ames and Petia Morozov discuss what’s behind Issue 1’s “Rules & Regulations,” and why every design process needs them. #LivingArchive #WeAreMadeOfMigrations Image from New Jersey Turnpike Authority Annual Report,1973. The caption read, "Checking one of the hundreds of reflectorized signs made by the vacuum applicator at the Authority's sign shop in Hightstown." No two design processes are alike. Depending on what factors and perspectives are put into focus, one design process can look and feel quite different from another – from informal, collaborative and transparen ..read more

If there’s anyone you should explore the randomness of New Jersey with, make it photographer, publisher and punk aficionado Nelson Chan. #GettingDense #WeAreMadeOfMigrations Image courtesy of Nelson Chan. Photographer Nelson Chan is of many worlds. Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and having grown up on two continents, Chan’s multicultural experience is the force that runs through the majority of his photographic work. Whether he’s tracing the meanderings of immigrants along highways or capturing utopia’s overgrowth in plain sight, Chan’s search for personal a ..read more

In Issue 1, University of Orange offers up their antidote to speeding past and around America’s Main Streets, and it’s music to our ears. #WeShapeEnvironmentsShapeUs #TheCityofNewJersey #JerseyAllAlong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDT88KFANjs Take it from Martha & The Vandellas and the University of Orange: if you’re aching for a sense of belonging, try parking your cars and dancing in the streets. UofO’s Issue 1 essay “In The Circle of Sound” traces the interconnections between the speed of the Turnpike and the slowness of our main streets by way of music – played by live, local musici ..read more

Co-founder Petia Morozov serves up a plateful of unlikely connections between the Autobahn and the NJ Turnpike, in the “World of Tomorrow.” #LivingArchive #JerseyAllAlong #SensingTheFuture A rare, vintage New Jersey Turnpike Souvenir Plate. The hand-painted ceramic plate is marked "Made in Germany." Courtesy of Petia Morozov. Recently, editor and Co-founder Petia Morozov came across a rare vintage souvenir from Germany that brings to light at least one unlikely connection with New Jersey's much beloved and reviled Turnpike. Could it possibly be that the Turnpike was "Made in Germany" in more w ..read more

Cofounder Petia Morozov speaks with design historian ,Gabrielle Esperdy, about the city of the future, and spoiler alert, it's New Jersey. #TheCityOfNewJersey #WeAreMadeOfMigrations Gabrielle Esperdy, photographed with her vehicle of choice for her series, "American Road Trip." Image courtesy of Gabrielle Esperdy. In her Issue 1 essay, "The City of New Jersey,” design history scholar Gabrielle Esperdy explores what future cities might look like, and no surprise, she’s betting that they’ll resemble America's densest state – all 8,723 square miles of it. With such a bold claim, we wanted to foll ..read more