Only 7 Black Students Got Into Stuyvesant, N.Y.’s Most Selective High School, Out of 895 Spots

By Eliza Shapiro

Original Article
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/nyregion/black-students-nyc-high-schools.html

Microsite & Interview
https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/truth/the-truth-is-local#/bronx

The Bronx installation embodies the educational inequalities prevalent within the New York school system. We created a curbside classroom to elicit the familiar but visceral feeling of being seated at a school desk. However, the visitor is treated to an Escherian space that is impossibly deep and overcrowded, highlighting the overstretched and unequal distribution of available resources.

We used forced perspective to create the most satisfying illusion of the campaign. Each of the 44 desks was a unique size and skew to be viewed optimally from the window-front and ever smaller props were created to maintain the illusion of depth. The goal was to invoke a sense of uneasiness about the space and a struggle to discern information at the front of the class, much as students struggle to learn in this challenged landscape.

Review of 50 Brooklyn Murder Cases Ordered

By Frances Robles

Original Article
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/nyregion/doubts-about-detective-haunt-50-murder-cases.html

Microsite & Interview
https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/truth/the-truth-is-local#/brooklyn

The Brooklyn storefront places the visitor in the shoes of reporter Frances Robles, who’s attention to publicly available details resulted in the review of 50 murder cases over a detectives use of false confessions and discredited eyewitnesses to secure convictions.

Presence sensors at the location progressively light individual cells of the installation as a visitor remains at the site. We wanted to highlight the importance of attention and time, not only in reporting but in the community, to bring important issues into view. A mirrored floor and ceiling creates the illusion of the stacked cells in a modern prison and reinforces the vast amount of work still left to be done.

We also low-key enjoyed having a reason to place a storefront prison amongst a well heeled street in Brooklyn.

Inquiries Into Reckless Loans to Taxi Drivers Ordered by State Attorney General and Mayor

By Brian M. Rosenthal

Original Article
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/nyregion/nyc-taxi-medallion-loans-attorney-general.html

Microsite & Interview
https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/truth/the-truth-is-local#/manhattan

The Manhattan installation coincided with the release of the second episode of The Weekly and a Times in-depth report on the collapse of the taxi industry. Between the artificially inflated price of taxi medallions, reckless lending practices and the false promises of income security and independence there was a sense of foreboding and inescapability that we wanted to capture in imagery.

The familiar landscape of a city block is distorted into a darkened canyon with a lone taxicab in its ravine. We wanted to take an otherwise unassuming scene but present it with a sense of claustrophobia and solitude that many drivers find themselves as they navigate the mechanisms of the industry.