MOBILE MEDIA LAB (MML), 2011

Completed with Avery Guthrie, Alicia Reinhart, Danielle Sernoskie, Miriam Ng, Omar Aljebouri, Silvia Gonzalez, Tristan Thom; Regent Park Focus; and many generous companies.

WINNER OF A 2011 TORONTO URBAN DESIGN AWARD

The MML was the result of collaboration between university students and young people from a youth media organization in Regent Park. The design objectives were not given explicitly; rather, part of the work was to define the project brief and then execute it, on an extremely short timeframe and small budget. The client requested a means to take their multi-media operations out of their basement space and into the community, in order to showcase their work, document their environment, and to create a neighbourhood dialogue. Our aim was to create a mobile yet spatial spectacle for the organization.

The physical form of the MML speaks both to the change the neighbourhood is undergoing as well as the future of media. The aluminum storage grid with moveable ‘pixel’ cubes resembles the taking down and building up of Regent Park’s buildings. It also references digital media – screens made of pixels – continuously recombining to display different information. Perhaps the most socially powerful feature of the MML, however, is its mobile and expandable form. Not only does the MML comment on the social change that is occurring, it provides a forum in which to discuss it – residents can interact with the MML riders, and it can be deployed to create a seating area for conversation or film viewings.

Photography by Geoff Fitzgerald.