Environmental Wayfinding System (EWS). Building off traditional “hobo” pictographs, this reimagined folk communication system serves as a graphic survival-code for people navigating environmental collapse. Some symbols communicate opportunities for potable water, free charging stations, clean campsites, dry firewood, and welcoming “safe” communities. Conversely, other symbols warn of environmental threats and misfortunes including arson wildfires, barren farmland, superfund sites, chemical plumes, monoculture landscapes, and pandemic hotspots.

The Environmental Wayfinding System is a living graphic language that is constantly evolving in response to ecological developments and consequential cultural phenomena. Like many underground communication systems, EWS is most often informally shared amongst its users. EWS is fairly unique in that its adoption transcends class, race, social status and other tribal affiliations and identities. EWS seems to appeal to anyone interested in survival. So, it is not surprising that EWS symbols have been recorded across North America ranging from the hills of the Rust Belt and the desiccated flats of the Dust Bowl 2.0 Region to the swamped back alleys of American coastal city states.

In the semiotic tradition, EWS is a learned communication system. As such, it is not surprising to see EWS signs and symbols incorporated into homemade items as a means to teach this survival knowledge to the young. Documented examples of EWS objects include baby quilts, bandanas, lightning stools, hand tools, and even toys for children. There is a movement to standardize EWS in an effort to make it more accessible across all resiliency-indexed social strata. To that end, a newly published pamphlet entitled The People’s Guide to Ecological Collapse, was released at David Buckley Borden’s Ghost Forests exhibition at Simmons University’s Trustman Art Gallery in the summer of 2022. Remaining copies of the hand-printed pamphlet were distributed through this webpage.