Urban Safari

Submitted by adammyerson on Mon, 05/24/2010 - 09:17

http://www.johnewing.org/VirtualCorners/about.php

 

Beginning in June 2010, a storefront in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, and in Dudley Square, Roxbury will be transformed into large video screens, providing pedestrians of each neighborhood with a portal into one another's worlds. Running 24/7, life-size screen images and AV technology will enable real-time communication between residents of the two neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods we have chosen to connect are transportation and cultural hubs with rich and intertwined histories. They are only 2.4 miles apart and a city bus runs directly between them, yet very few people from either neighborhood visits the other. Using technology developed to bridge geographical distances, Virtual Street Corners instead traverses the social boundaries that separate two important neighborhood centers with significant historical connections.

 

Part of me feels like, for the Brookline folks, it's going to be like going to the zoo. I can't decide if this is going to break down barriers, or build them up. The animals can't hurt you when they're behind a digital cage, can they?

I'd rather see the white folks over in Brookline come on down for breakfast at Haley House. Dudley's got a lot to offer in real life that you can't experience by watching it on TV.

I'm skeptical, but I hope it comes off as the artist intended. If it works the way it's supposed to, it could at least make a small nick in the walls of Boston's still strong ghetto system. We have a lot of ingredients in Boston's pot, but not a lot of melting.

Comments

Submitted by RMM on Mon, 05/31/2010 - 21:07.
As you may know, I lived in Coolidge Corner for over 5 years and currently teach at Brookline High. My last teaching position was at Brighton High, which educates a large number of students from Roxbury and Dorchester. Those students take the 66 through Coolidge Corner daily. Most of them never get off the bus until it reaches Dudley, though there are exceptions. For instance every time I go into the CVS next to the Coolidge Corner Theater, I run into former students from Brighton High (via Rox) who work there. Sometimes when the weather is nice, or when they lose their bus passes, students will walk back to Roxbury via CC. So Dudley folk "see" Brookline. But you are correct that Brookline folk seldom go to Dudley. It will be interesting to watch the people in Brookline as they watch Dudley on the monitor. That will be the real show.