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<< The scale and impact of the Atlantic Yards development unveiled through an interactive audio / video installation. |
| The proposed architectural future of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards neighborhood unveils itself in response to people's movement in an interactive installation that mixes 3D renderings of the planned developments with video imagery of the current area accompanied by audio of residents calling to express their opinions on the issue of development. |
DEMO VIDEO
Click to view demo video of the installation. Video edited and narrated by Ed Purver |
OVERVIEW
Future Perfect is an interactive audio video installation that contemplates the proposed Atlantic Yards development in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. If it is built, this astonishingly large-scale development will include 17 high rise buildings and a sports arena, and it will be constructed in the middle of a neighborhood that is primarily low-rise, residential buildings and small local businesses. The spatial design of the area will be drastically altered, meaning a complete change in the architectural shape of the neighborhood. Other likely outcomes include a radical shift in population size, demographics, traffic congestion, and the destruction of several local businesses.
The Atlantic Yards development is a very controversial issue in Brooklyn, and one that many people feel very strongly about. When walking around the neighborhood itself, it is difficult to envision the enormity of the proposed architecture and to construct an informed opinion about the suitability of the proposal. The only images available of this suggested future are the architect's renderings, which are necessarily drawn from a partisan perspective of wanting to present the designs in the best possible light.
In response to this perceived bias, we decided to create an installation that will visualize the developers' plans from a dispassionate and non-partisan viewpoint, allowing people to compare and contrast the proposed future developments with the present reality. Using the architect's plans as our blueprints, we are building virtual 3D models of the proposed buildings, which we will composite into video of the neighborhood as it stands today. This process will give us two synchronized videos with identical camera angles and edits: one showing the present and one revealing the future. We have posted flyers all over the neighborhood surrounding the site, requesting residents to phone in and record their personal opinion about what would be their prefererred use of the Atlantic Yards site. Calls are already coming in and being recorded, and the voices of these residents will play as an audio soundtrack to the video. The installation will be interactive in that the future will only be revealed by someone's physical presence. The two videos will be played simultaneously, in exact synch, and wherever a viewer stands, a corresponding vertical strip of the "future" will be revealed. By moving through the room, or holding out their arms, a viewer can explore the entire image, revealing the full extent of how this area of Brooklyn is going to change beyond recognition. In this way, this installation will be an interesting document to look back on, if and when this development is completed.
This page documents the initial version of the Future Perfect project. Ed Purver continued working on the project for his ITP Thesis project in Spring 2007, adding 2 layers of interactive footage beyond the Forest City Ratner plans in this version. Ed added models from the alternative plan put forth by Extell and rejected by the NYC government as well as a more playful layer of video animated from neighborhood drawings by area school children. Go watch his amazing presentation of the project on the ITP page here.
EXTRA IMAGES
Flyer posted on a street corner in the Atlantic Yards area
Working models of the proposed building development
