From 2015 to 2017, I worked with Street Sense Media in Washington DC to create immersive, participatory and interactive art projects. A few un-housed and myself worked on several projects to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness in DC and around the world. The works received attention from media outlets such as Washington Post and NPR.
The first project was titled One Step Away. It was entirely the team’s idea—I would never have dared to suggest such a project myself. They wanted to express several truths about life on the streets as a homeless person. First, that people experiencing homelessness are often invisible—no one looks at them, no one truly sees them.
Second, that everyone is only one step away from becoming homeless themselves.
And third, that society—and the system meant to support it—constantly steps on them, both figuratively and literally.
I fabricated a step and we all gathered in front of city hall and asked the passerby’s to come and participate in the project by stepping on the step which was directly above an un-housed person laying on the street.
The second project was called the invisible bus. We had taken One Step Away to an organized protest, but ironically it received no attention. The project members were furious so when we got back to the offices of Street Sense, we came up with the next project. I had purchased a school bus for future projects, but we used it for this. The concept was – even this big bus that is procured to raised awareness – is invisible. This project was covered in Washington Post and NPR.
We had a performance art piece next to the bus. Three un-housed people were covered by paper next to the bus. One person recited a poem and at a climatical moment, the invisble un-housed punched through and started making art on the covered bus.
The bus is ultimately used for a few projects, where the un-housed would make immersive art exhibit inside, we toured it around and let the passerby’s draw art outside. The quote was ” They will be touched by the art, if they touch the art”
