Maddie Johnson-Harwitz's Brief:

Our-Kendall is an interactive public art installation that is deployed in front of the Koch Institute in Kendall Square in order to engage and bring together the Kendall Square community in a unique way.  The installment is consisted of a large circular piece that is engraved with the pattern of cells under a microscope, to match the design sense of the gallery inside the Koch Institute. 

The purpose of this installation is to bring to life the people of Kendall Square and engage them in a community activity. Kendall is known for being a "cultural dead spot", as many of the people who live and work in Kendall spend their time behind closed doors and in offices. This project aims to connect and engage the people of Kendall to create a more lively and active community. In order to achieve this goal, the installation is an interactive piece that comes together with the work of many. The structure of the installation includes the engraved cells, with accompanying  holes where a cylindrical shape fits. Passerby are invited to interact with the installation by taking a cylindrical piece, and drawing a self portrait using only one stroke. As more and more cylinders are added, one will begin to see the faces of Kendall Square.

Tinna Grönfeldt's Brief:

''Our-Kendall'' is an interactive community art piece that aims to showcase the Kendall Square community. The piece is inspired by the already existing artwork displayed in Kendall but invites pedestrians to engage and co-create an art piece. 

Passersby draw themselves with one line onto a blank cylinder and place it into a circular wall. The wall has a cell-like design etched into it. In every cell, there is a hole for the cylinders to fit into, where the nucleus would be. Overtime as the wall fills up, it shows all the different people of Kendall in a unique and raw way. The piece located in front of the Koch Institute and is inspired by their gallery. This aims to infuse Kendall's culture into its community in a proactive way.

My Project, “My Name Is” is an exploration of the intersection of the past, present and future understanding of my name; Aoife. In making this moving picture and name tag frame, I wanted to take the viewer through the experience of having a name like mine: its origin, why it was given to me and the constant mispronunciations of it. My name can be found in the cross section between external identifiers and internal identity. I have never had the option of my name being an influential and important part of my identity because I have been told who I am or who I am supposed to be for my entire life. As this project is personal and tells my experience, this piece tells a story that many people all around the world can relate to. Because name pronunciation is extremely important to childhood development of confidence, especially for children of color, I knew that this would give a voice to those who are too afraid to speak up and correct. 

The therapist's office can be stressful. loud white noise, complete isolation, often very cold. The most stressful part of all? Talking. A lot of therapists struggle to connect with their patients because often patients find that it's hard to lay out their story in an understandable way. Sob Stories is a module - based board game that allows patients to lay out their stories in a tangible way and show their therapists how they progressed through them. Each module represents a different part of experiencing and processing bulling and together they make up a course that a marble can move through, these modules magnetize to each other to create a path. The patient can then explore their story with the marble, explaining it to the therapist along the way.