Revealing Rio Website

Sarah Thompson
During our 10 day trip in Rio, we met with many people and organizations, and toured many different places (downtown, favelas, beach-side areas, and public spaces). We found that there is a lot going on in Rio: the city's preparation for hosting two big mega events, 2016 Summer Olympics and World Cup 2014, the issue of Favela integration, pacification, and gentrification.  We heard many stories regarding these issues and quickly learned that these topics aren’t one sided.  There are many views, opinions, and explanations on each issue.  We felt that each view has importance and should be shared.  When we arrived back home in Boston, we decided that these stories and issues that we learned about would be easy for US citizens to view through a website.  The goal of our website is to tell the story of Rio to a US audience.

Rio is undergoing a grand makeover especially after winning the Olympic bid, but there is debate over who exactly will benefit from this makeover. With so many different interests at play, it is important to learn about Rio from many different angles.  To show the different interests at play, our goal was to create an interactive website, "Revealing Rio," that allows people to pan through a cross section of Rio that spans from Cantagalo to Vila Autodromo.  By scrolling over different pop-ups, the user learns about a range of topics from pacification to favela tourism. When reading about a topic, the user has the option to learn about it from at least two different perspectives. We decided to view these topics from the perspectives of: a favela resident, the government, big business, and foreign tourists. The opinions of these groups are often conflicting and broadcasted only by select groups. It is our hope that a US audience will leave this website having learned not only about the current issues of Rio, but also be motivated to further understand the complexity and multi-sidedness of those issues.