Celebrate PS 64/charas Interactive Documentary Installation

In 2013, I collaborated with community members to design an interactive documentary called 'Celebrate PS 64’. The goal of the work was to illuminate the incredible effect the organization, CHARAS, had on the Loisaida/Lower East Side neighborhood for close to 30 years. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to sell the building to a developer. Members of both CHARAS and the greater community are fighting diligently to get their building back. In the meantime, I decided to celebrate their legacy through an interactive push-button video projection installation that would project both animations and quotes from community members.

After meeting and interviewing many stakeholders in the community, I was able to gather enough stories and images to create two animations that I projected vertically on the front facade of the PS 64 building (see images below).

The push-button interactions would allow the public to essentially write messages derived from public conversations about CHARAS on the wall to amplify the community’s voice.

To produce the piece, I used openFrameworks code, handmade push-buttons connected to Arduino, two projectors, a generator, a slew of adapters, two laptops, and lots of support from friends and Loisaida community members to make ‘Celebrate PS 64/ CHARAS” come to life.