Black Box
A mixed media piece about the current conversation around police, violence and race
View Website View WebsiteTHE IDEA
The Black Box is a mixed media piece about the current conversation on pilice, violence and race. It took the idea of camera phones as citizen journalism and flipped it: the media story within the box can only be captured and seen with your phone -- much like after a plane disaster, peoplelook to the black box for truth.
DESIGN + IMPLEMENTATION
Upon entering the room, John Coltrane’s “Alabama ” is playing. When the user places their phone in the black box, audio from one of the cellphone camera videos is triggered via a Kinect and OpenFrameworks, playing over “Alabama ” and creating a new kind of protest song. “Black Box ” is creating a new kind of confrontational piece, by remixing video inside of the box (which can be seen when the phone’s video camera is turned on and placed in the top of the box) along with the remixing of “Alabama ” and audio from a police shooting captured on a cellphone camera.
EXHIBITION
The project was created within the ITP Innovation Lab and we were given an ask by Morehouse College to explore creating an interactive installation that addressed the current climate of policing black bodies and violence within our police system.
• July 2015 - ITP Innovation Lab at NYU
• October 2015 - Art from the Heart at Vanderbilt Republic