| The architectural future of Brooklyn's 'Atlantic Yards' reveals itself in an interactive installation that compares 3D renderings with video imagery of the neighborhood as it currently exists. As people move towards the screen, the vision of the architects dissolves into drawings by local children, contrasting what our children imagine with what we actually build for them. Audio of residents calling to talk about the issue of development provides local opinions on the controversy surrounding the Atlantic Yards. |
DEMO VIDEO
Click to view demo video of the installation. Video edited and narrated by Ed Purver |
OVERVIEW
Future Perfect is an interactive audio/video installation that contemplates the proposed 'Atlantic Yards' development in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. If it is built, this astonishingly large-scale development will include 17 high-rise buildings and a sports arena, and it will be constructed in a neighborhood that consists primarily of low-rise residential buildings and local businesses. The architectural shape of the neighborhood will be drastically altered.
The Atlantic Yards development is currently a controversial issue in Brooklyn. Walking around the area it is difficult to envision the enormity of the proposed architecture and to construct an informed opinion about the suitability of the proposal. The only images available of this planned future are the architect's renderings, which are necessarily drawn from a partisan perspective that presents the designs in a positive light.
With a desire to address this information gap, we have created an installation that visualizes the developers' plans from many angles, allowing people to interactively compare the proposed future with the present reality. Feeling the lack of community voices, we posted fliers all over the area surrounding the site, asking residents to phone in with personal opinions about the development, and about how they would ideally like to see their neighborhood developed. Recordings of the many calls that we received create the audio soundtrack to the piece.
We also invited local schoolchildren (the people who will have to live with this architecture) to visually imagine how these streets would look if they had the power to shape this future. The installation is interactive in that both these "futures" are only revealed by someone's physical presence. As soon as a viewer steps into the installation, a video layer of an architectural future is interactively revealed in front of them, and follows them as they move through the room. By exploring the width as well as the depth of the installation space, the viewer can dynamically compare and contrast these different futures with the architecture of the present. In this way, the installation serves as a critical document of this moment in Brooklyn's history.
Flyer posted on a street corner in the Atlantic Yards area.
 |
 |