Project

With(in)

Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0 International

gabriela bílá

Groups

With(in) is a multi-stage project that includes an exhibit, installation, qualitative exploration, and visual storytelling.

This is a story about connection. The City Science group presents an immersive window into the worlds of three women in three settlements: Gihan in Cairo, Egypt; Eva in Guadalajara, Mexico; and Mama G in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Through 360-degree videos and projection mapping on domestic objects, we experience activities from the mundane to the surreal, from the deeply meaningful to the inconsequential. We visit the vertical slums and bustling restaurants of Cairo, the fringe neighborhoods and community centers in Guadalajara, and the tiny homes and crowded markets of Port Harcourt. In the lives of each individual, we examine the micro and the macro, from the gentle care of fixing one's hair each morning to the cultural swells of holidays, religious ceremonies, and funerals. In these places, far from our own, we learn and inquire, we gather and we listen, in the hope of better understanding the complexity of the world and possibilities for how will we live together in the future. 

With(in) is a multi-stage project that includes an exhibit, installation, qualitative exploration, and visual storytelling.

This is a story about connection. The City Science group presents an immersive window into the worlds of three women in three settlements: Gihan in Cairo, Egypt; Eva in Guadalajara, Mexico; and Mama G in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Through 360-degree videos and projection mapping on domestic objects, we experience activities from the mundane to the surreal, from the deeply meaningful to the inconsequential. We visit the vertical slums and bustling restaurants of Cairo, the fringe neighborhoods and community centers in Guadalajara, and the tiny homes and crowded markets of Port Harcourt. In the lives of each individual, we examine the micro and the macro, from the gentle care of fixing one's hair each morning to the cultural swells of holidays, religious ceremonies, and funerals. In these places, far from our own, we learn and inquire, we gather and we listen, in the hope of better understanding the complexity of the world and possibilities for how will we live together in the future. 

Research Topics
#design #food #music #storytelling #marginalized communities

Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0 International

Through immersive projection mapping and soundscapes, we experience the red brick cities  of Egypt, busy markets in Mexico, and funeral rituals of Nigeria.

As extreme urbanization unfolds at an astounding pace, all three locations reflect the chaos and the importance of community in these vast urban worlds. One woman’s journey can be both individual and global when viewed in the context of the others. We ask ourselves, what is important to the culture we live in? How does rapid urbanization impact the community we seek?  How do intimate domestic activities such as food preparation and celebration reflect the larger cultural context?  How do we define culture, place, ownership, and womanhood?  How can help ensure that people of informal settlements attain lives of dignity, prosperity, and peace?

Bare bricks outside, endless patterns inside. Meet Gihan and the women from Ezbet Khairallah, Egypt,  in their daily preparations of big batches of food, carefully served as pieces of art.

Underneath a highway in Port Harcourt, Nigeria,  Mama G goes about with her business. But for one week everything will be extraordinary. Mama G and 300 guests celebrate the burial of her husband.

Among varillas de la esperanza (rebars "of hope"), electricity cables and lots of corn flour, we follow Eva's preparations for Christmas at Lomas del Centinela, Mexico. 

 

Project Research

The Power of Without

This initiative is for identifying cost-efficient and lightweight infrastructure systems for deployment in rapidly urbanizing areas.