PLACE/SETTING
Joining forces with civically engaged social scientists, innovators and activists, French 2D and Gabriel Mugar (www.buildingthecommons.org) created Place/Setting, a series of collaborative meals set in an installation that traces the productive conversations that happen within its space during HUBweek 2017 on Boston on City Hall Plaza. Reflective, multi-color materials exchange views from interior to exterior for visitors and meal guests. The long table telescopes out of the container onto the plaza to extend the conversations. The acrylic tabletop surface and a set of “plates” are writable for notes during and between meals on programmed themes. The objective is to demystify the feasibility and value of cooperative models in a variety of contexts. Place/Setting featured five public meals with 10-12 guests from a mix of grassroots and legacy institutions with themes revolving around the growing disparity in income in greater Boston and the arenas in which this is being addressed: housing, urban agriculture, civic engagement, cooperative economic models, and media and gentrification. The installation was open to visitors between the meals and acted as a collector of the collaborative gatherings - traces of the writing on the table and sound bites of the conversation layer on the space for asynchronous immersion.
The installation was open to visitors between the meals and acted as a collector of the collaborative gatherings - traces of the writing on the table and sound bites of the conversation layer on the space for asynchronous immersion.
Place/Setting Team:
Gabriel Mugar www.buildingthecommons.org
Anda French + Jenny French
Estelle Yoon
Images provided by French 2D and HUBweek. All rights reserved.
