Student Shout-Out: Sarah Hirsch at Great Urban Hack SF

Today’s “Student Shout-Out” goes to senior Communication Studies major Sarah Hirsch for her recent work with the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts and the Great Urban Hack SF: The Tenderloin. According to Sarah, “Our mission was to, in the span of a weekend, plan and implement a project prototype to address a real need that the Tenderloin faces. Our group decided to focus on the realm of ‘bad publicity’; i.e., the Tenderloin had become the ‘black box’ of San Francisco where tourists and locals alike are told to avoid at all costs. But these negative stereotypes do little justice to all of the colorful people and incredible stories and personalities that exist there. To that end, we wanted to create a ‘data set’ to humanize the Tenderloin. More than that, though, our goal was to show just how similar we all really are.”

Over a two day period, Sarah and a team of “hackers” collected over 70 interviews and pictures from people in the Tenderloin area by asking them to respond to two questions: “What are you thinking about right now?” and “What do you need?” According to Sarah, some of the answers were funny, some heartbreaking. The team then designed a prototype website where they uploaded pictures, transcribed interviews, and put audio clips.

Sarah was fully involved in this project, from the project planning to collecting and transcribing interviews (Aahhh, transcription! Sarah probably had fond memories of Communication and Culture!). She also worked on the website and is in the process of developing a blog to discuss the project more publicly. You can check out the website here: www.weallneed.net

You can get more information about the event from their event website here: http://greaturbanhacksf.eventbrite.com/

You can read the blog post from the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts here:
http://www.gaffta.org/2010/11/09/the-great-urban-hack-re-cap/

Tomorrow, December 9th, is the art gallery opening at the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, where all of the projects will be on display. Read about it here: http://www.gaffta.org/2010/12/07/the-great-urban-hack-showcase-and-lights-on-market-launch/

Of particular note is that this project was not part of a class assignment. This is something that Sarah did fully of her own accord (you know, with all of the free time she has as a college student in the midst of finals!). Congratulations to Sarah, for dedicating her time and talent to such an important project!