Three groups of UC students hit Cincinnati's streets to find out what everyday residents think about public transit and the Cincinnati Streetcar as part of a three-quarter-long project called Transforum.
They heard responses that ranged from "can someone please tell me what light rail is?" to "I see public transportation as a civil rights issue." One person said "the streetcar is a choo-choo train to nowhere."
The students digested those words and created a campaign of posters, videos and flyers in response. The final presentation of their work was shown last Wednesday in Corryville at the
Niehoff Urban Studio.
Many of the students are seeking degrees in industrial, graphic, digital, or fashion design and the range of backgrounds lent a broad aesthetic appeal to their gala presentation. Visitors could don a cardboard streetcar costume and pose for a photo before chic, tasty hors de oeuvres fueled them along a path to different informational stops. At one stop, a poster illustrated all of Cincinnati streetcar's funding streams, and at another films of potential transit scenarios played out on computer screens.
In the center of the room sat the future of the project: a mock streetcar stop. The aluminum and plexiglass shelter displays images and information relating to light rail in Cincinnati, but has one white panel where people can write their thoughts and opinions in response to the information (it feels kind of like writing graffiti on a bus stop advertisement.) Peter Chamberlain, the professor who taught the studio, said the kiosk has already been to Final Friday in OTR and the Northside Farmer's Market, and it might show up in the lobby of the Downtown Library someday.
The comments written on the white wall will be transferred into digital form as a picture or text, and posted on the
Transforum website. Chamberlain called the streetcar stop the physical manifestation of the site.
"We really want it to live on to be a magnet for people's comments," he said. Once they've been posted, the comments can start discussions on the Transforum website.
Since the Transforum studio time has come to a close, the project must now rely on volunteer labor of the students to keep it alive. Chamberlain said he thinks they will carry on the unique project.
"I don't think there's any other group in the city that's doing such a focused effort of trying to connect with people in the course of their everyday lives," he said.
Writer: Henry Sweets
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