Summer Activation 2019 #2 (July)

On Saturday, July 27th, we held our second public activation for Process(ing) Transformation. This time around, a total of five teams and a few volunteers came to collaborate, each team being at different stages of the design and installation process.

Before getting into our work modes, we engage participants in building walk through and recap some the different installations featured at 8x3: Art + Architecture from 2018 and how some of them have been updated or evolved since.

Photos: Ayesha Riaz (top) and Lianne Ahn (bottom).

Site-Design and Center for Neighborhood Technology prepared interactive/participatory boards and didactic materials as part of the Cultural and Climate Resilience project – where they feature different types of plants that may be utilized for their rain garden and landscape design in progress located on Prairie Avenue. They also prepared mood boards and informational boards about what a rain garden does and could look like. They've also marked where the rain garden will be with spray paint for the ground to be paved and cleaned out.

Our long time collaborator, UrbanWorks, also came to upgrade their previous classroom art, Palimpsest. To match this years theme of MEMORY, INCLUSION, and EQUITY, UrbanWorks is planning to focus on people's memories of West Pullman through interviews and audio stories.

Silvestro Design Operations did some scouting of different spaces for their installation – they are very interested in the hallway space with the double/double doors. Their project will emphasize the relationship of indoor/outdoor spaces of the building design, and will use play as a design prompt.

Smart Bronzeville team returned this year and brainstormed about potential ways to transform classroom 110 located on the first floor facing Indiana Avenue. They are interested in technology, community, personal journeys and their relationship to opportunities Paula Robinson with the Bronzeville Community Development Partnership has been researching Opportunity Zones Federal Program, and thinking how those will influence economic development in black communities.

Bronzeville Plus map installation team also progressed with the design and process. As we continue to identify assets to be highlighted and featured in this map, we also advanced the making of the base map of combined Bronzeville, Kenwood, Washington Park neighborhoods. We prepared a couple of interactive boards where people can come by and pin different assets that they think are important in the neighborhood and why. We marked off on the current parking lot located on Prairie Avenue where the map will be, we identify the scale and reference those areas. The map will have a total surface of 60 x 120 feet. We first measured the general distances, snapped chalk lines, then spray painted over the lines to get white borders around our space.