My project is here to bring awareness to a major underlying problem within the community of Fordham/University Heights. The lack of fresh and sustainable foods in these community is the reason for many major problems such as Obesity. Obesity is much higher in this community compared to the city average. This is because low income communities are not able to afford fresh foods, and cater to places such as fast foods and processed meals in supermarkets. Using a little bit of poetry and music, I tried to make a prototype of a video format in which I express the problems and provide solutions in order for people to be assessable to these problems.
The video starts off with asking people one question, What is the biggest problem you see in your community? A lot of people have different responses, but quite a lot of people talk about health. Then it shifts into showing how the community looks, but the visuals isn’t the important part. It’s the message. I try to speak in poems in order to try to persuade the user into understanding these problems. At the same time, I use gospel music in the background. This is very crucial because a majority of people that live in Fordham/University are christian. They even have a giant church in the intersection between these two places. Using Gospel music is something that can reel them in and gain their attraction.
This project made me understand that the reasons for a lot of problems are due to awareness. There are many solutions, but not many people know them. People use art as a way to attract the viewers attention, which creates an effective way for people to find out what you're producing.
