Ethan Donaldson

This project is meant to spread awareness about poverty, homelessness, and the rest in between. The message is conveyed through maps, a map room concept, statistics, and other media. The soul of the project is a map room in which people are filmed talking about their experiences with poverty/homelessness, and, on a map, mark places significant to the experience. The Idea/Body is a compilation of maps showing different poverty statistics, along with verbal experiences from people living an impoverished life. Ideally, the project includes a whole map room displaying these verbal experiences in a video and showing the maps, and a means of documenting to expand on the room.  The issues the project engages include poverty, homelessness, and the affordable housing system. Key findings from topic research. S/Eastern U.S.A has the highest concentration of section based housing projects, along with the most Federal assistance in such. Near 12.3% of the Central Sq. population, as wealthy of an area as it is, is marked below the poverty line. The project educates the general public about the issues this project addresses (homelessness, poverty, affordable housing.) The project changes the way the public sees the impoverished, the working poor, and the homeless by gaining insight into what it's like to live below the poverty line constantly. Q: Why, as a community, do people give less attention to those less fortunate when it is possible that anybody can become that.
Stakeholders in the project include charity workers, the homeless, people at risk of bankruptcy, other people in the same area. The intended location for the map room is the Carl F. Barron Plaza, on the corner of Mass. Ave and Prospect St. The specific location is important, because of its density in homeless settlers (people who stop for  prolonged periods or living there.) The maps convey different data sets, and when accumulated, show important information, which can be more expressive than reading through a data log. The map room would be something you can walk in and interact with immediately; a person could come read/listen to the prompted guiding questions, and use that to place points/landmarks. The user walks into the park, listens to the prompt, walks up to the main Central Sq. map and picks up a marker from a tray next to it, and marks that they feel is an answer to the question. The intended materials include a large print of central square (ink on canvas.) For plotting points, the user would have a big marker to use. Questions that might arise; What makes your experience unique, but relatable to others impoverished? e What places are relevant to your experience, why?

Nick Hollingsworth

Our project concept is a map room located in the Carl F. Baron plaza. People who are impoverished and living without homes will help construct a map of Central Square that reflects their experiences, including where they sleep and spend their time. In America today about 1.56 million people, or 0.5 percent of the population, are homeless or "living without homes." The homeless are seen every day and passed by many either asking for money or food. Our map room aims to portray their perspectives on their lifestyle and allow them to share positive memories. We are designing this project to show an inner look into other peoples lives and lifestyle that is not common for most people in the country.

The map of Central Square will be mounted on two pillars in Carl F. Baron Plaza. The plaza is a very open place in Central Square through which a large number of people pass on their morning commutes and other times of the day. Two visual prompts are presented with the map to guide the mapping process. One prompt asks them to mark with a red dot on the map where they like to hang out/sleep. Another prompt will ask them to mark a place that they have had an enjoyable memory on the map with a gold star. After marking the map, the people who participate will be asked questions about their experiences in the community and filmed. The hope is that gradually the map will fill up with dots and stars, and the video will expand to give the people of Cambridge a more nuanced view of what it means to be homeless in the area.