Angela Pablo
Catherine Colman
Under The Level
Under the Level seeks to bridge the cities of New Orleans and New York by providing visual interventions on the streets of New York City and within an online environment that provoke a wider spread consciousness about the situation New Orleans is currently facing post-Katrina, worsening global environmental conditions, and ways to take action to help recovery efforts.
http://www.underthelevel.org
Although the flood waters that exploded through 80% of the city of New Orleans as hurricane Katrina came through have long since receded, the destruction they left in their path, both physical and emotional, are far from gone . The devastation that occurred within the city can only been matched in urgency by the lack of adequate governmental and national response. This has been compounded by a lack of media attention to the situation, which has left many people around the nation under the impression that the city is adequately recovering. Under the Level seeks to provide impetus for people to understand and change what is currently happening in New Orleans by initiating communication through a visual channel that references something people not only have a greater ability to understand but are potentially more responsive to, their own home. Much of the dialog post-Katrina has been centered on why the levees broke, the immediate government response to the storm and the intelligence of building a city below sea level. What most people fail to cite in such discussions is that current changes in climate put many coastal cities at risk of being in a similar circumstance. Under the Level utilizes a map of New Orleans that reflects the location and degree to which certain neighborhoods were flooded and overlays it on a projected map of what New York would look like if sea level were to rise. This overlap places neighborhoods in New York in varying gradations of flood potential, depending on their vulnerability and then relates each neighborhood to a neighborhood in New Orleans depending on the projected sea level and the degree to which the neighborhood could be flooded or destroyed. In order to signify this similarity, we have re-appropriated the "X" spray painted on many homes and buildings within New Orleans to signify that the location was searched and what was found inside, and reapplied the symbol to black and yellow stickers. These stickers will utilize the design of the original marking, while making the language of FEMA, which is not intended for public consumption, readable by anyone. The stickers will have a phone number, extension and a URL and will be placed within certain test neighborhoods in New York City. If the phone number is called and the extension entered, the viewer will be returned a message of the condition of that particular place if it was located in New Orleans during Katrina. If the user goes to the website they will be able to view pictures of a location in New Orleans that corresponds to a location in New York. They will also be able to find links to groups and organizations that are working within New Orleans and information on how they can help.
The first phase of background research occurred inadvertently when Catherine traveled to New Orleans. She was able to speak with various community groups and people living within the city about their circumstances and what they needed in order to facilitate recovery within their communities. She was also able to witness and photograph the city in its current state, as of March, 2007. Upon returning, in the second phase of research, we looked into how much coverage New Orleans was currently getting in the national media. We also looked into some of the programs being offered to the community for rebuilding purposes, including Road Home Program, and the problems associated with these programs. We also began to do research into national and local organizations working within New Orleans to access what their particular goals were and which ones were being helpful.
In thinking of how to encourage people to be motivated to care about New Orleans and possibly donate some of their time and money to facilitating recovery, we began to discuss what kind of visual interventions we could create within the city of New York that could tie back to New Orleans. In the third phase of research, we began to look into projected changes in sea level that could potentially cause flooding within certain neighborhoods in New York City. We compared these projected flood maps to actual flood maps in New Orleans from Katrina and they proved to be remarkably similar. After making this connection, we began to do more specific research into exactly how much water and how much destruction consumed specific neighborhoods in New Orleans.
Related research can be found here: http://del.icio.us/catherinecolman/under_the_level
Our target audience is primarily people living in the two neighborhoods that we are using as test areas for the project, the Lower East Side/East Village between 14th Street and Houston, east of 1st avenue, and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The reason that we have chosen these two areas is that, according to sea level and flood information research, these neighborhoods are the ones closest to NYU that have the greatest risk of flood.
We do, however, plan to expand the project to include other neighborhoods, particularly lower Manhattan, areas in Brooklyn near Coney Island, the Upper East Side/East Harlem and parts of Astoria and Long Island City, which also prove to be vulnerable.
In addition, we hope that the visibility of the stickers will encourage people who visit these test areas frequently but don\'t necessarily live there, to notice and participate. We also hope that the web component will facilitate a larger audience.
If included in the show, since the area that immediately surrounds NYU would probably be safe in a flood, we would modify the project slightly to project our test areas into the fourth floor space so that viewers from various neighborhoods can get an idea of the magnitude of the problem.
In the neighborhoods of the East Village/Lower East Side and Williamsburg, Brooklyn we plan within the next week to place stickers that re-appropriate the \"X\" symbol used in New Orleans. A user would see this sticker and be able to call a number and enter an extension that corresponds to how devastated that particular location would be if there was a flood in that neighborhood. Upon entering the extension, a user would receive a short message detailing what the conditions would be in that location (i.e. under ten feet of water, many houses destroyed, cars overturned, trees uprooted, 1 dog dead, etc). They would also be told where that location corresponds to in New Orleans. The stickers will also have a URL (underthelevel.org) where the viewer can go to receive more information about what New Orleans currently looks like and how they could potentially help. We plan to post the stickers in great quantity so that they will not only be visible but provoke significant interest.
The stickers will be 4 by 5 replicas of the \"X\" in New Orleans (see attached photo). The graphic will depict yellow spray paint on a black background to maximize visibility. The call-in function will be an Asterisk application. This function will primarily be used to deliver the recorded voice mail message that is from the specific location. However, we will also have a function that allows users to leave their thoughts and responses if so inclined.
The website will contain links that correspond to the various levels of flood. Within each linked page there will be a photograph of the location of a sticker within that neighborhood in New York and a slide show of images of a corresponding location in New Orleans. The site will also contain an interactive example of the projected flooding on a map of New York and a search feature that allows users to search projected flooding imagery by New York neighborhood.
It is difficult to get people to care about and become involved in issues that do not directly affect their own lives. It is even more difficult to entice people to donate money or time to such issues. We are hoping that our project, by bringing the devastation that has occurred in New Orleans to the streets of New York in a physical and visible way, will increases awareness, not only about the ongoing horrific situation in New Orleans, but also about the environmental effects that could place New York and other coastal cities in danger of facing similar circumstances.
The first phase of background research occurred inadvertently when Catherine traveled to New Orleans. She was able to speak with various community groups and people living within the city about their circumstances and what they needed in order to facilitate recovery within their communities. She was also able to witness and photograph the city in its current state, as of March, 2007. Upon returning, in the second phase of research, we looked into how much coverage New Orleans was currently getting in the national media. We also looked into some of the programs being offered to the community for rebuilding purposes, including Road Home Program, and the problems associated with these programs. We also began to do research into national and local organizations working within New Orleans to access what their particular goals were and which ones were being helpful.
In thinking of how to encourage people to be motivated to care about New Orleans and possibly donate some of their time and money to facilitating recovery, we began to discuss what kind of visual interventions we could create within the city of New York that could tie back to New Orleans. In the third phase of research, we began to look into projected changes in sea level that could potentially cause flooding within certain neighborhoods in New York City. We compared these projected flood maps to actual flood maps in New Orleans from Katrina and they proved to be remarkably similar. After making this connection, we began to do more specific research into exactly how much water and how much destruction consumed specific neighborhoods in New Orleans.
Related research can be found here: http://del.icio.us/catherinecolman/under_the_level
Our target audience is primarily people living in the two neighborhoods that we are using as test areas for the project, the Lower East Side/East Village between 14th Street and Houston, east of 1st avenue, and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The reason that we have chosen these two areas is that, according to sea level and flood information research, these neighborhoods are the ones closest to NYU that have the greatest risk of flood.
We do, however, plan to expand the project to include other neighborhoods, particularly lower Manhattan, areas in Brooklyn near Coney Island, the Upper East Side/East Harlem and parts of Astoria and Long Island City, which also prove to be vulnerable.
In addition, we hope that the visibility of the stickers will encourage people who visit these test areas frequently but don\'t necessarily live there, to notice and participate. We also hope that the web component will facilitate a larger audience.
If included in the show, since the area that immediately surrounds NYU would probably be safe in a flood, we would modify the project slightly to project our test areas into the fourth floor space so that viewers from various neighborhoods can get an idea of the magnitude of the problem.
In the neighborhoods of the East Village/Lower East Side and Williamsburg, Brooklyn we plan within the next week to place stickers that re-appropriate the \"X\" symbol used in New Orleans. A user would see this sticker and be able to call a number and enter an extension that corresponds to how devastated that particular location would be if there was a flood in that neighborhood. Upon entering the extension, a user would receive a short message detailing what the conditions would be in that location (i.e. under ten feet of water, many houses destroyed, cars overturned, trees uprooted, 1 dog dead, etc). They would also be told where that location corresponds to in New Orleans. The stickers will also have a URL (underthelevel.org) where the viewer can go to receive more information about what New Orleans currently looks like and how they could potentially help. We plan to post the stickers in great quantity so that they will not only be visible but provoke significant interest.
The stickers will be 4 by 5 replicas of the \"X\" in New Orleans (see attached photo). The graphic will depict yellow spray paint on a black background to maximize visibility. The call-in function will be an Asterisk application. This function will primarily be used to deliver the recorded voice mail message that is from the specific location. However, we will also have a function that allows users to leave their thoughts and responses if so inclined.
The website will contain links that correspond to the various levels of flood. Within each linked page there will be a photograph of the location of a sticker within that neighborhood in New York and a slide show of images of a corresponding location in New Orleans. The site will also contain an interactive example of the projected flooding on a map of New York and a search feature that allows users to search projected flooding imagery by New York neighborhood.
It is difficult to get people to care about and become involved in issues that do not directly affect their own lives. It is even more difficult to entice people to donate money or time to such issues. We are hoping that our project, by bringing the devastation that has occurred in New Orleans to the streets of New York in a physical and visible way, will increases awareness, not only about the ongoing horrific situation in New Orleans, but also about the environmental effects that could place New York and other coastal cities in danger of facing similar circumstances.