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Activity

World in a Block

Five migrants in Queens, New York, returned to home countries with lent cameras. Part of experimental new media project.

An activity by
partnering with marcus haraldsson, Sudo Studio

Explores the borders

Queens borough Homes on five continents

Why

USA is a country of migration, and Queens, New York, is one of the most diverse areas in the world. This project tried to address and combine personal narratives of the space between “homes” on a global scale. The original attempt was to find residents from all continents on earth living in one block. And send them all on a home-searching journey with lent cameras to tell the stories of shifting identities.

Location

Queens Museum, Meridian Road, Queens, NY, United States

Characteristics

Area

The borough of Queens, New York, prides itself as one of the most diverse areas on earth. Its residents, 46 percent born outside the U.S., represent over 100 nations and 138 languages.

Audience

The participants were first generation migrants from six continents all living in the borough of Queens.

How the audience/participants were reached or discovered

Our original intent was to find one singular block in Queens where people with origins on all world continents would reside – and be willing to partake in project and travel back to their home countries with a lent camera. But this block was hard to find as Queens is parted into relatively ethnically homogenous sub-parts. Instead we had to go much further, and ended up getting participants living across the whole borough.

 

 

 

A New York Times graphic on the diversity of origin in New York City. For the original article, click here

 

A creative illustration by Freecell Architects of some of the “Littles” of New York City. For origin of the map, click here

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_ethnic_enclaves 

How it was done

coding
drawing
exhibitions
interviews
lectures
mapping
photos
writing
Bordr stories

How

Lecture

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

world-in-a-block-presentation

 

Interviews

 

Drawing

 

Photography

 

Writing

 

Mapping

 

Bordr / Coding

 

 

Exhibitions

 

Results

Bordr Stories

As part of this activity, Bordr stories were booked.

View more stories posted with this activity

Main lessons learned

Inspiration

 

 

Mapping Main Street

 

Credits

Marcus Haraldsson, project initiator and conceptual story developer, Columbia Journalism School
Christo de Klerk, project initiator and technical and conceptual developer, The New School University
Dale Maharidge, main advisor, Columbia Journalism School
Duy Linh Tu, technical advisor, Columbia Journalism School
José E Rodriguez, advisor and help, Queens Museum of Art, New New Yorkers Program
Sofia de Juan, project intern, Queens Museum of Art, New New Yorkers Program

Activity Timeline

2011

  • Start of project

    Start of project period

  • First project proposal deadline

    The original project proposal is accesible here