Bargaining Table
This workshop produced tools using Adobe Flash for public debate about ecology and urban development focused on Environmental Impact Statements (EIS).
Our focus is on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a research document produced by federal agencies to inform the public about potential environmental effects of a proposed federal construction project. The EIS and subsequent community forums often invite contentious debates, pitting federal agencies, environmentalists, developers, NIMBY community organizations, affordable housing advocates, and labor unions in opposition to one another. In rejection of these false oppositions, students have explored the potential for interactive media to identify common ground between environmental and social issues.
Adobe Flash, a medium conventionally used for advertisements and video games, is here used for its ability to create innovative and meaningful quantitative, visual, and spatial relationships among objects, individuals, environments, actions, and economic factors. We have worked with the Center for Urban Pedagogy to develop a fifth installment of their “Envisioning Development” toolkit, which provides community organizers with tools to introduce their constituents to development issues. Students have created “A People’s Guide to NYC Environmental Impact Statements,” a flash interface that explains the EIS and fosters hands-on learning, discussions, and open-ended debates about development. Projects use the Atlantic Yards project as an illustrative case study.
Please test the projects below!
Master of Architecture Visual Studies Course