Neighborhood Window
From Prosthetics for Right Now
Your use of this Platform is subject to the Fulcrum Terms of Service.
University of Michigan needs your feedback to better understand how readers are using openly available ebooks. You can help by taking a short, privacy-friendly survey.
Not finding what you are looking for? Help improve Fulcrum's search and share your feedback.
From Prosthetics for Right Now
Figure 15.1. Neighborhood Window, 2020. Enabling a social exchange as well as distribution of goods, Neighborhood Window simultaneously creates a distribution system while recognizing that our quotidian errands accomplish more than simply procuring goods. There are precedents for this minor renovation that opens up homes and businesses to the street—not only the drive-through takeout windows but pet doors, mail slots, milk delivery hatches, coal chutes. Photo by author.
From Prosthetics for Right Now
Figure 15.2. Visitors’ Platform, 2020. During March 2020–May 2020, the number of COVID cases was surging in southeast Michigan, particularly in Detroit. Some of the hardest-hit places were nursing homes, where to protect nurses and residents, visitors were prohibited. We delivered PPE to nurses during this time period every week, and one of the caregivers—who had lost both patients and staff—told us how isolated many of the residents felt. Unaccustomed to video calls, families whose loved ones were on the ground level were frequently seen waving, holding up their children, bringing balloons or hand-lettered signs to the windows. By deploying scissor lifts, which already have guard rails surrounding their platforms, construction projects that are on pause can lend their infrastructure to enabling face to face contact. Photo by author.
From Prosthetics for Right Now
Figure 15.3. Protest Platform, 2020. Reclaim the Streets, a collective known best in the mid-1990s for staging pedestrian takeovers of British motorways, sets up a tripod right away at each of their actions using extension ladders lashed together, frequently topped by a massive sound system and frequently an improvisational DJ at the controls of a sound system to inspire action before the police arrive. Adapting this logic and transforming it from a disruption of vehicular activity to a protection of protestors, this elevated perch enables peaceful protestors to see a great distance—serving both as a lookout and a visible coordinator. Photo by author.
From Prosthetics for Right Now
Figure 15.4. To Protect, 2020. Umbrellas in Hong Kong have been used quite effectively as a protection against the use of tear gas turned on peaceful protestors. Adding leaf blowers to the arsenal of household defenses against the excessive firepower deployed by authorities, protestors in Portland turned their garden tools to disperse the caustic substances away from the eyes of the marchers. To Protect transforms a bicycle into a pro-protest vehicle. Deploying a motorcycle windshield as a transparent barrier and a leaf blower mounted as a cannon, pedal-powered protectors can advance as a protective shield ahead of a line of marchers. Photo by author.
From Prosthetics for Right Now
Figure 15.5. Winter Light + Power, 2020. Have you tried to exercise at home or on your own? Good for you. With or without Zoom or YouTube, it can be a challenge. Winter Light and Power proposes hauling out and setting up the stationary bikes that are gathering dust in a basement corner onto a covered platform for those who may prefer a little healthy encouragement (or competition) that comes with physical presence. We can use each cycle to transfer the hub and pedal power to illuminate a chandelier, creating an illuminated beacon on Main Streets, in a park, a town green, and coax each of us out of isolation—yes, even when it is cold—and into a physically distant but socially connected communal utility. Take that, SoulCycle. Photo by author.
From Prosthetics for Right Now