As a member of REMAP, the UCLA Center for Research in Engineering, Media, and Performance, my time was split between heading the design needs of the Hollywood project and co-facilitating community workshops with LeConte middle school and GLEH, The Gay and Lesbian Elder House.

In total we collaborated with over 60 people from the Hollywood area. We often explained that Hollywood Blvd is a field of stars, and they were making a constellation that was an expressive self portrait of their relationship to the space. The points in their constellations could be any form of media, photo, sound, video, drawing, etc etc. Each of these points were then geo-tagged with their respective GPS location and made available via a mobile tablet device that festival goers would checkout. With over 7000 photos, and nearly a hundred hours of video and sound clips, and dozens of hand drawn maps (all created by the community members) festival goers could explore the content by walking around Hollywood Blvd and using a keyword menu to focus on their interest.





REMAP's relationship with the various community groups is on going. With the goal of equipping them with the technology and skills they need to express themselves. In hindsight the Hollywood project reaffirmed, at least for myself, that the empowerment of non-artists is a legitimate creative strategy.