"Doodle Walls" is a social project that seeks to encourage artistic self-expression for people of all ages in lower-income communities and to display the inherent artistic value of street art. It is an installation that is located in Lafayette Square which gives the citizens of Cambridge the opportunity to experiment with street art and draw on a brick printed wooden plank. The planks read, "write your name", "draw a line", and "Draw a shape". these three simple instructions that allow viewers to express themselves in the most simple of ways. In some cases, people don't feel comfortable sharing or creating art, whether it's because of its expensive nature or their skill and creativity level. So, this project will give everyone the opportunity to showcase their art, using simple instructions applicable to everyone, artist or not.    

  This street art project will give people of certain communities the opportunity to express themselves on a large brick painted wall with paint markers of all colors. We have decided to make one large wall, and position it on a street corner in Lafayette Square, where people will be all around it and hopefully engage with it and feel free to display their art. In many communities, street art is frowned upon, and in most cases, illegal. Graffiti as you probably know is illegal in most cities and communities, but there is one alley in Central Square where this is not the case. We wanted to expand on this idea, giving the community more places to interact with street art and express themselves, most importantly. 

Azaria's Brief

Lottery Pig: An interactive and informational sculpture that brings awareness to the way people spend their money, addiction, and how scratch tickets can affect families financially. The design is the shape of a piggy bank with a transparent body and messages engraved on the side that informs people about the number of scratch tickets purchased in their community.

Many families are affected by addiction and gambling, and the piggy bank seeks to bring awareness to this issue. In addition, the piggy bank is also used as a recycling bin to prevent littering in neighborhoods and educate scratch ticket buyers about the use of their money. This project is created to capture people's attention with a pink pigs head, legs, and tail attached to a clear tube with markings signifying the number of tickets in the tube. As viewers place the scratch ticket inside the piggy bank, they are able to read the markings to understand the number of scratch tickets inside the tube. The goal of this project is to encourage people to think twice about the amount of money they spend on lottery tickets and how they can use that same amount to invest in themselves, their family, and their community. 

India's Brief

Lottery Pig: caused by scratch tickets and inform viewers about the hazards of gambling. In the shape of a piggy bank with a clear cylindrical body adorned with a pigs head, feet, and tail, the viewer can see the number of scratch tickets pile up, with markings indicating the money spent gambling.

The piggy bank brings awareness to the adverse effects scratch tickets have on lower-income communities. It also acts as a recycling bin, helping to decrease the amount of litter caused by scratch tickets. Placed outside of corner stores, the pig not only draws attention to addiction and gambling by informing the viewer with statistics about gambling but has a beneficial use. The markings, not finished in time, explain the amount of money the pig collected in scratch tickets and an alternative use for the money. On the other side is facts about the effects of gambling such as how lower-income families spend an average of $412 on scratch tickets. The pig is built from a laser cut skeleton support system, a vinal cylindrical body, and a slotted wooden head. It is created to raise awareness about the number of scratch tickets purchased as well as a way for the neighborhood to reduce litter.

Projection Description:

Mirrors, a piece of art to reflect just how many refugees you don't see.

Millions of Syrian refugees are scattered all across the globe. While the United States has admitted just over 10,000 of them, Germany has taken in over 400,000 thousand, and over 4.8 million refugees have fled to countries including Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. The recent ban on Syrian refugees to the US has only made the sitaution worse. American leaders must understand that even though the US has taken in refugees in, they really have not done enough. There is too much needless suffering, and people must immerse themselves in this topic to truly understand what needs to to be done. 

Our project is an installation that will raise awareness about how many refugees the US has taken in, compared to how many that still need somewhere to go. Our project is built to be mostly submerged underground. We hope to place it in a public area, like a tree box, or flower pot. The top of our project just surfaces, and inside you can see a few refugees. This is there to represent how many refugees we have in the US. It will intrigue viewers to take a look closer. After all, why would there be something like this in a tree box? Once they take a step closer, and look into the installation, they will see an infinite amount of refugee figures. This will strike the viewer to think about just how the US is not doing nearly what they could do. We are able to get there to be an infinite amount of refugees below the surface by using a mirror system. The mirrors reflect the image of the refugee an infinite amount of times so it can really shake the viewer. We originally based this off of the idea of an iceberg. Although they already look huge above the water, that's only about 10% of what it really is. The other 90% lies below the water. We hope that this installation can affect the viewer to really take time to think about the refugee situation in America. There is so much more that can be done, and we hope that this mindset can find it's way into everyone!

- Will

BRIEF:

Dispute! A board game aimed to expose players to landlord-tenant housing issues in an easily digestible form.

This project arose from the Engineering Landscapes studio. During that studio, students were exposed to various parts of Cambridge and came upon the posters for the Somerville-Cambridge Tenants’ Union. A compilation of Interviews with that union and with local tenants as well as significant research into housing laws and issues formed the basis for the characters in the game. Dispute! Is an opportunity to introduce the concept of landlord tenant issues to people from a variety of different socioeconomic and cultural viewpoints. The goal is for the players to be engaged in landlord-tenant issues and introduced to the role income, savings, other social issues, and how even issues that might seem as trivial as landlord mood might affect the outcome of those disputes.

A combination of 3-D printed plastic game pieces as well as a wooden laser cut board with movable acrylic spinner and laminated printed cards make up this dynamic board game. Using the format most people are familiar with as board games from their childhood this easily digestible format provides a recreational manner in which to introduce an emotionally charged and sometimes heated subject.

If you want to share your own landlord tenants stories go to disputeboardgame.com

Dispute! Issues with your landlord never seemed so fun!
#apartmentwoes #argueitontheboard

Jacob:

DISPUTE! The Apartment Game: An interactive board game aimed to bring awareness to the people who have been impacted by gentrification and exploitative landlords. Designed to mimic the shape of an apartment building, the game presents itself as a commentary on the bias, social and economic classes in America and how that affects apartment tenants.

DISPUTE! serves as an outlet for people to share and learn about the issues between landlords and tenants. It features lived experiences from people living in Boston to raise awareness about the issue of gentrification. Through collaboration with the Somerville Cambridge Tenants Union, the project features stories from real people who have been to court with their landlords. The game is comprised of a three-dimensional board representing the many kinds of living in an apartment complex. Players are randomly assigned a character card at the beginning of the game. The board's unique and innovative three-dimensional shape catches the viewer's attention and serves as a visual hook too encapsulate the player further immerse themselves into the world and situations of the game.

As the game progresses, players will discover, learn and dispute many of the issues faced by tenants on a daily basis. Disputes are settled based on the characters assigned to each player at the beginning of the game. For example, if a player is assigned "Judy Turner", a white suburban middle-class mother of two who can't pay next month's rent, she would face a dispute card with issues ranging from resolving lease agreements to major landlord settlements. The game has been specifically designed for the people who don't face these housing challenges. The goal of DISPUTE! is for users to understand and empathize with those impacted by gentrification and exploitative landlords.

Forty-Four Unclaimed Bodies In Massachusetts:  an interactive piece that brings awareness to the rising cost of funeral services and how this trend is disproportionately affecting low-income communities.  Each coffin contains information about the issue and features stories from people impacted in Massachusetts.  

In MA, there is a law that states every single unidentified person must be buried. Between January 2014 and January 2016, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner came into possession of 186 abandoned bodies, each body was held in the morgue coolers an average of 44 days. Forty-Four features 44 coffins. Every coffin has text inscribed into the lid, providing a fact, story, or a solution to the problem. In addition, there will be a map in each coffin so that people can find other coffins and learn more about this issue. Flowers will stick out of the head to pay our respects to the people this issue has affected.  The caskets are small because they are not meant to be noticed by everybody.   This installation is designed to spread awareness about this issue and to inform the public about potential solutions.  

Jonny's Brief:
Gentrification Exhibit: an interactive installation that asks viewers to look beyond the windows of a modern office building. The viewer places their head into the box to learn about the history of gentrification and how it will affect Cambridge in the future. 

The exterior of the project is painted to look like an office building to demonstrate the outside part of the story. It symbolizes what people see at first glance. The brick on the interior of the project shows what happens when the new buildings are peeled and the history of the location is revealed. It shows what is there when a person looks deeper into gentrification.

There was extensive research done on gentrification in Boston, then Sea Port, then Central Square Cambridge. The research highlighted different stats ranging from apartment costs to how Harvard University affects gentrification in Cambridge. The box exhibit is attached to a light post using a peg device that changes the height making it friendly to visitors of all size. Once the viewer places there head inside, they can read and interact with information about gentrification in Cambridge. The overall goal is for the people of Cambridge to be educated on what is happening to their city.

Malachi's Brief: