Lede

Lede

21532

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Lede: Interviews and Conversations on Gentrification and Community

Summary:

Exploration and familiarization of Pittsburgh leading to researching the tensions around the newly Gentrified East Liberty Area.
Project was built using Google’s Map API.

Brief:

Conducted Interviews to learn about Pittsburgh, these led to focus on East Liberty and focus on individuals who were trying to preserve their community dispite gentrification and dispersement of peers to other ‘affordable housing units’. Open-ended interviews allowed interviewees to set the topic of the interview. Distilled interviews into clips and placed them on a google map.

Team

Individual Project
Semester Long Project

Credits

Music by Yann Tiersen

Avatars by My Idol

RESEARCH

Interview Process:

Initially, it was super difficult to get people to talk to me. I would go up to people and they would talk to me, but not allow me to record them. Sometimes when the subject of gentrification came up people just shut down and told me they had to go. Because of this, my initial set of interviewees were Carnegie Mellon University affiliated. When I embedded myself in the community by going to Larimer community meetings people were more willing to talk to me.

It was interesting in the different points of views people associated with CMU had versus those who were trying to ‘reinvigorate’ their community.

Interview Findings:

CMU Affiliated:

Matter of fact about circumstances.
Excited about the rebirth of the city, new culture, new restaurants.
Areas are disarmed.
Uncomfortable around the idea of gentrification.
Curious about what it was like before they came to the city.
Noticing the irony of tearing down East Mall to open up the community, to build Bakery Square which is the same type of wall but for people of means.
They notice clashing cultures, and the forces at play.
To live in a place, you must be part of the community.

Non CMU:

Excited to see what will happen to their community.
The cycle of poverty.
Promoting home ownership.
Promoting the idea of community, we can only do certain things if we stick together.
We want a say in what happens, organizing to have a say.
Employment issues
Recognizes that those that make less than 7k a year are going to be displaced. Those that make 30k a year will be able to stay.
Race.
Businesses look out for their own interests. People are selfish.

SOLUTION

Concept:

Lede– was meant as an intervention for the community so a person’s voice could be heard as it is hard for individual voices to have visibility.

Lede allows one to talk about changes in the community in proximity and space. Conversations become physical.

Bringing physicalized conversations to the digital realm, conversations are archives and one could objectively observe how conversations and attitudes change over time.