Installation Audio Components: Interstate 35 Below the Median Income

The installation contrasts Des Moines ranking as “Best in Nation” place to live, “Iowa nice” reputation of being overly friendly and go out of our way to help fellow citizens, and the visitors’ personal story.

Introduction and Lesley Payne * 7:33 Davonte: RunDSM * 18:49 Marlú Abarca: Office of Latino Affairs & Des Moines Public Library * 35:00 Morgan Nicole: #PaintitBlack at Drake University

Travel outside the space of your routine to reflect on:

When did you get to Des Moines?

Where are you going?

Who are you going to see?

Why are you going?

What will you do in Des Moines?

How will you move forward?




Hello, my name is Lesley Payne. Welcome to Below the Median Income.

The land on which we gather is the traditional lands of: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Meskwaki Nation: Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, and the Sioux People. We pay our respect to elders both past and present.

Below the Median Income was inspired by two quotes: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” from entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker Jim Rohn; and on March 12, 2018, Director Joshua V. Barr Esq. of the Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission said, “We have seventy-five percent of students experiencing some form of poverty in Des Moines Public Schools, so what can we do to improve that outlook? Research has shown that if a person remains in an impoverished condition up through their adolescent years they are more likely to remain in that position as they become older and become adults.”

These quotes and the information related to them evolved into an art installation of visual and audio components to place the visitor outside the space they routinely travel. The audio components are interview recordings obtained from people involved with public or non-profit organizations. The interviews tell the visitor about where that person routinely travels. The installation contrasts Des Moines ranking as a “Best in Nation” place to live, “Iowa nice” reputation of being overly friendly and go out of our way to help fellow citizens, and the visitors’ personal story.

During the making of the Day One audio, I decided to follow the saying: “don’t ask someone to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself”.

To begin, I was born and raised in Iowa. I moved to a suburb of Des Moines in December 2004 for a job after college. It was overwhelming being in an unfamiliar area. Getting from place to place could be a challenge. It’s a lot easier now with cell phone navigation.

I lived in Des Moines city limits two of the past 14 years in the metro area. My experience of the city during that time was not very exciting. I was balancing creative interests, a 40-hour a week job, and paying down student loans. My first impression of people in Des Moines is limited because of those things.

I have stayed in the metro area because I think it has the best variety of things to do in Iowa. It’s close, but not too close to my family.

When I walk outside the place I live, I see a row of bushes, to my left, further out is a lot of trees blocking my view of the neighbors house to the south, the front yard slopes down to meet the road. As I turn to my right I see the neighbors houses across the street, grass, trees, mailbox, and the end of the street. I hear vehicles, crickets, little dogs barking, cicadas, and once in awhile birds singing. I live in a house on a dead end road with 11 other houses. I regularly waive at people that live in 5 of them. The people in the other six houses have never seemed interested in waiving at me or acknowledging when I waive at them.

If I am going somewhere, I get there by driving my car or as a passenger in someone else’s car. I have used DART, which is Des Moines Area Regional Transit. It was for a week in 2006 when my car decided it didn’t want to start. I made my first car purchase with a down payment