I worked with performance artist Risa Horn and 11 Boston public high school students to create Crossing Urban Boundaries, a performance piece in which each student collaborator led the group to their own neighborhood to explore the area from the perspective of visitors and residents, considering physical, social, cultural and racial boundaries between communities. We asked ourselves: Why do we only visit certain neighborhoods and never go to others? What does the city look like from the point of view of a visitor? What do we love or hate about our own neighborhoods? Where do we feel safe?

As we visited each student's neighborhood, we collected materials on site. In the studio we created reflections on our experience and experimented with different ways to present our findings to the public. Some of these experiments are documented on our blog at www.urbanoproject.org/crossboundaries. Our excitement, confusion, and surprise, as we noticed similarities and differences between the between communities, sparked the heated group discussions about race, power, politics, and money, that are linked to QR codes throughout the exhibition.

Listen:
Vanely S. talks about visiting Roslindale
Emily Rose N. talks about art and activism

Visit the blog: urbanoproject.org/crossboundaries/

Detail of large-scale final installation including found objects, students' writing, photos taken on site visits, and sound files linked to QR codes.

QR codes and mini speakers transformed audience members' smart phones into sound and video transmitters.

Audience members are invited to scan QR codes with their smart phones to listen in on students' discussions of politics, urban planning, race, and class.

Listen now:

Kim A. talks about visiting Roxbury
Emily Rose N. talks about visiting Mattapan
Xavier H. talks about why people do good deeds
Vanely S. talks about his relationship to the government

Visit the blog: http://www.urbanoproject.org/crossboundaries/