eulani labay

Blank Plate aims to reverse the food-desert conditions of Hunts Point, The Bronx, by leveraging the power of teen stewardship at The Point Community Development Corporation. A highly creative culinary and event-planning workshop is the centerpiece of this strategy. The concept was designed with Mai Kobori, Amy Findeiss, and Howard Chambers and is funded by Design Ignites Change.

For our MFA thesis project, I have teamed up with Mai to develop and launch the program. Based on an understanding of theatrical design and performance, media studies, and urban studies, my field of inquiry is sensory reframing. How can a sensory experience be designed to create a transformational shift in awareness? With this approach, my objectives are to:

• Utilize sensory experience as a way of understanding the environment.
• Insert anomaly to heighten awareness.
• Engage youth as citizens and enable action.

Blank Plate will launch in Spring 2012.

Humans Versus Mosquitoes is a game designed to educate children about the risks of dengue fever associated with climate change. I worked on a team of Parsons and Yale students in public health and policy, environmental studies, and game design to create a simple, compelling field game that communicates a strong narrative and can be played in any community served by humanitarian aid organizations. Visit the Humans Versus Mosquitoes website for game rules and updates.

In December 2011, the game was presented at the United Nations’ COP17 climate change conference in Durban, South Africa. The Red Cross Red Crescent is now hoping to include the game in the health curricula of developing countries such as Argentina, Uganda, and Vietnam. For more details, check out this article on the Yale School of Public Health website.

The design team includes Yale students Sophia Colantonio, Vanessa Lamers, Kanchan Shrestha, and Lauren Graham; and Parsons students Lien Tran, Mohini Freya Dutta, Ben Norskov, Eulani Labay, and Clay Ewing (recent graduate).

Initiated by Eyebeam Art & Technology Center and Digital Democracy, Project Roebling is envisioned as a free and open-source learning platform for learning digital literacy skills, and for teachers and students to work and play on creative commons, cross-disciplinary project curricula. Based on our research of existing pedagogical paradigms, the Roebling Scholars (Steven Dale, Liza Stark, and I) propose a synthesis of standardized learning goals with emerging digital and creative tools, through project-based exercises that utilize elements of the design process.

In October 2011, we presented Project Roebling in a Design Jam at the Mobility Shifts conference. During this event, workshop participants user-tested our theory by prototyping innovative capstone projects to meet New York State standards. Approximately 25 participants worked in groups to come up with several great project ideas. The scholars plan to seed a prototype web portal with these ideas and further develop the project in summer 2012.

Collaborations in progress

Dialed In
The Egg
Softwalks

CurioUs is a tool that can be used by performers (potentially working with arts groups or transit organizations) in order to engage commuters. Utilizing the mechanics of performance in public space, the objective of CurioUs is to achieve a sense of community through the playful facilitation of aspirational ‘gift’ exchange.

Inspired by the spirit of exchange and the current political and economic climate, CurioUs provides a platform for active participation in a community through the exchange of wishes, hopes and dreams—and perhaps even talismans. By using narrative as an element of play and performance, CurioUs engages with a range of critical themes such as the romanticism of the New Deal and the upcoming holiday celebrations of consumption, while exposing participants to the benefits of sharing (a culture invigorated during WWII).

The intended impact of CurioUs is an atmosphere of comfort, safety and stewardship in the subway. A logic model and a measurement and evaluation plan were applied to both the research and development process of this tool and the tool itself, applying rigor to a type of design where effects can be challenging to articulate. Designed with Amy Findeiss and Kelly Tierney.

Stakehold’em is a networking game designed in collaboration with Karen Sideman, Oylum Boran, Lien Tran and Roussina Valkova for the 8th Annual Games for Change conference. Each attendee received a playing card of a certain suit and value and was prompted to make “hands” with other attendees, for notoreity and prizes. Within two days, hundreds of hands—and connections—were made. Sponsored by the Knight Foundation.

Greetings from Hunts Point is a series of postcards designed to alert all New Yorkers to the effects of policy and planning on that neighborhood. Planted throughout the city in a guerilla campaign, the postcards point to a web portal into the Hunts Point community. A second set of postcards is designed for use in local activities, enabling Hunts Point residents to express their own aspirations for the neighborhood. Designed with Kelly Tierney.

Recent projects
Iconseat

A collaboration with architect Jason Sargenti, the Matchbox House is a versatile structure that would be situated as easily in the woods as by the sea. This house was specifically designed for living in comfort and simplicity in the 2X9 location of Almere, The Netherlands. It uses an economy of materials and construction to provide maximum functionality at the required space and budget limitations.

Like its namesake, the house functions as a minimal and securely contained unit. The sliding compartment of a matchbox also designates an appropriate extension to enjoy outdoor space: as a terrace with an unlimited view or, alternately, an enclosed and private courtyard. This single level dwelling is accessible to people of all ages and abilities. It makes use of daylighting as well as passive heating and cooling strategies for efficient use of energy.

The Matchbox House was exhibited and published as part of Eenvoud: Simplicity in 2006.

Part function, part fun, this six-piece set of furniture is designed for a specific site and scenario: for the benefit of students forced to spend two weeks in a classroom in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. I teamed with designer Pirjo Haikola to address the needs of comfort and social space for this situation.

Each piece is constructed from recycled foam and covered in fabric. Two sides of the furniture are printed with parts of students’ faces, doubling as a mix-and-match game with many solutions. Depending on assembly, the pieces serve as chairs, stools, ottomans, beds, tables and dividing walls.

“We socialize to relax, joke, laugh and have fun.”

Ring for the Afterlife is a simple, unobtrusive talisman made of gold ribbon and sparkling emerald-green beads. Unclasped, the ring reveals a list of places the wearer has ever called home.

Collaborating In and Beyond Music

Teaching Assistant, Spring 2012
Faculty: Michael Schober and Dan Greenblatt
University-wide lecture
Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts

I’m capturing inspirations from and for this course here.

The New School for Public Engagement

In Fall 2011, as a Teaching Assistant for the University-wide lecture “Food and Migrations,” I led a discussion section for 25 undergraduate students in diverse fields of study. Each week, we reviewed lectures by faculty Fabio Parasecoli and guests, as well as readings on the interwoven dynamics of immigrant communities and their food ingredients, dishes, rituals, and lifestyles. Our section also maintained a class blog, where students explored ideas for major assignments and shared personal observations related to the class.

See also:

Blank Plate, a program addressing food justice in the Hunts Point neighborhood of The Bronx, NY

Project Roebling, free and open-source platform for learning digital literacy skills

NYC iSchool

Also known as #disastercamp, this five-day course ran twice at NYC iSchool in July 2011 and was co-facilitated by Francesca Fay, Christina Jenkins, Dylan Snowden, Eulani Labay and Francis Carter. It was inspired by the Imagine Cup Emergency Response and Crowd Sourcing competition of the same year.

With a focus on the Haiti earthquake in 2010, students were introduced to the realities of international emergencies, as well as the impact of digital tools and social media. Students were then guided through the steps necessary to deconstruct a complex problem, in order to meet the challenge of designing creative solutions for disaster response.

Learn more about #disastercamp on Christina Jenkins’ classroom blog, room four zero two.

Starting in January 2012, I’ll be documenting my MFA thesis research on sensory reframing as it applies to the collaborative project Blank Plate. Feel free to share your thoughts!

Transblog
Object History
You Are Here

Design & Education
Autoethnography

Mediated Environments (PDF)
Unflattening: Immersive Experiences
The Making of Strangers