Skip to main content
Browse by:
GROUP

Hine Fellow Artist Talk by MFA|EDA Alum Nick Pilarski

Image from the Brownsville Game Labs docu-game Fireflies
Thursday, February 02, 2023
5:00 pm
Nick Pilarski

Is it possible for a documentary work not only to expose, but also to heal the wounds of a community? This was the question and challenge recent Duke MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts graduate Nick Pilarski ('15) faced as a Lewis Hine Fellow in Brownsville, New York, working at a justice center situated in the middle of longtime antagonistic housing projects and their rival gangs.

In response, Pilarski worked with residents to co-create Fireflies: A Brownsville Story, a "docu-game" that visualizes and gives spacial form to oral histories in which residents navigate Brownsville, Brooklyn, through extended reality technology. Fireflies was made in the Brownsville Game Lab to document community need and increase understanding and connection between youth fragmented by real-world conflict.

In his Hine Fellow Artist Talk at the MFA|EDA Shop Lab, Pilarski will talk discuss co-creation in interactive documentary, including Fireflies, and other documentary placemaking projects.

See link for more information

Contact: Ted Mott