Working with my team was the most interesting and least agonizing experience I’ve ever had in a group project. We entered into this project with the knowledge that we were all leaders in one way or another and that came with mutual respect and a shared dedication to the project. We held each other accountable, discussed and planned our (many) ideas thoroughly, delegated tasks as a group and ended up with a something we were all proud of. We texted a lot during the process and genuinely became friends with Albert (which surprised me).
A huge portion of the making of our map was letting go of ideas. We originally had four that we liked for one reason or another and were fairly attached to. In the end it came down to us having a Google Hangout conference one night so that we could decide on one idea.
It involved compromise, because Zoe in particular was really excited to work with data and history in one of our other ideas and Fia was concerned that our idea lacked concept. We had to convince each other and build on ideas so that everyone was satisfied with our plan. We all agreed to map the lights we saw between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. With the observation that the stars couldn’t be seen from our site due to light pollution, we resolved to use our map to give the city it’s own night sky.
When it came down to physically making the final product we all pitched in one way or another. Zoe knew what fabric to choose and handled sewing, Albert made the video and we all sat on the floor cutting and punching holes into the fabric. We also all contributed to brainstorming ideas which never seemed to stop.
We originally wanted to hang our project against a window but found that using a bright light above the map created a stunning shadow on the floor. As we moved while holding the map we came to the realization that the shadow moved like water which we could connect to the Hudson river. When we thought about presenting it in class we noted that the shadow wouldn’t appear as clearly during the day (we worked late at night) and so we decided to create a video to document it.
