1500 Stories is a socially engaged art and storytelling project about economic inequality in the U.S. The project is inspired by a classic data visualization by economist Dr. Stephen J. Rose depicting the distribution of income and wealth in the U.S. and the fact that currently that infographic would need to be 1500 stories tall to capture the richest 1%--roughly five miles long. Rising economic inequality places the common good in increasing jeopardy. Currently in the U.S. the twenty richest people own more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans combined. Social science scholarship demonstrates the ways in which increasing inequality contributes to political polarization, diminishes economic growth, weakens social bonds and wellbeing, and undermines democracy. Yet, in many ways, class and economic hardship remains invisible in the U.S.
One of the goals of the project is to foster empathetic connections among people through the experience of listening and being heard; another is to break the silence in the U.S. around class and economic position through the idea that everyone, no matter what their socioeconomic status, has a story to share. Quantitative data is not enough to break the silence around class. The 1500 Stories project is premised on the notion that storytelling, dialogue and the arts can break through this invisibility. The digital component of the project aims to increase public understanding of the lived experience of economic inequality through an interactive and aesthetically innovative website and digital story collection that will marry quantitative data about economic inequality with video, audio and photo stories of what it is like to live at different economic positions in America. We want this website to be beautiful, to be data-rich and to reward exploration. You can learn more about the project at https://1500stories.org/
Right now the working group has lots of humanities and arts experts, but absolute no one with expertise on the technical end in terms of both web design and web development. We could definitely use mentoring about the practical things we should be considering from data management to budgeting for the website to processes we should use to find folks. But also even basic advice is welcome, such as how we can make the current website better looking while we dream big about the finished product.
Email Jen at myhrejennifer@deanza.edu if you have more questions about the project! :) Thanks for letting us present at the May 11 Hack Night. We had such a good time and learned so much.
1500 Stories is a socially engaged art and storytelling project about economic inequality in the U.S. The project is inspired by a classic data visualization by economist Dr. Stephen J. Rose depicting the distribution of income and wealth in the U.S. and the fact that currently that infographic would need to be 1500 stories tall to capture the richest 1%--roughly five miles long. Rising economic inequality places the common good in increasing jeopardy. Currently in the U.S. the twenty richest people own more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans combined. Social science scholarship demonstrates the ways in which increasing inequality contributes to political polarization, diminishes economic growth, weakens social bonds and wellbeing, and undermines democracy. Yet, in many ways, class and economic hardship remains invisible in the U.S.
One of the goals of the project is to foster empathetic connections among people through the experience of listening and being heard; another is to break the silence in the U.S. around class and economic position through the idea that everyone, no matter what their socioeconomic status, has a story to share. Quantitative data is not enough to break the silence around class. The 1500 Stories project is premised on the notion that storytelling, dialogue and the arts can break through this invisibility. The digital component of the project aims to increase public understanding of the lived experience of economic inequality through an interactive and aesthetically innovative website and digital story collection that will marry quantitative data about economic inequality with video, audio and photo stories of what it is like to live at different economic positions in America. We want this website to be beautiful, to be data-rich and to reward exploration. You can learn more about the project at https://1500stories.org/
Right now the working group has lots of humanities and arts experts, but absolute no one with expertise on the technical end in terms of both web design and web development. We could definitely use mentoring about the practical things we should be considering from data management to budgeting for the website to processes we should use to find folks. But also even basic advice is welcome, such as how we can make the current website better looking while we dream big about the finished product.
Email Jen at myhrejennifer@deanza.edu if you have more questions about the project! :) Thanks for letting us present at the May 11 Hack Night. We had such a good time and learned so much.