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10/29/08,</title></head><body>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>From: Jae Rhim Lee
<jrlee@MIT.EDU></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Subject: MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge
Launch: 7:30pm, 10/29/08, 10-105</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:21:56
-0400</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
The MIT FEMA Trailer Project is pleased to announce the launch of the
MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge, a campus-wide competition sponsored by the
MIT Visual Arts Program and the MIT Public Service Center.<br>
<br>
MIT Students: What would you do with 94,000 surplus FEMA
Trailers? <br>
Join the MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge and propose alternative uses for
thousands of surplus FEMA Trailers. Open to current MIT
students, the MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge will offer monetary awards to
up to three winners and a chance for all participants to be included
in a publication submitted to FEMA and other interested parties.<br>
<br>
At the launch, you will learn about FEMA Trailers and the MIT FEMA
Trailer Project, learn how to submit a project to the Challenge,
network with others interested in submitting a proposal, and talk to
FEMA Trailer Challenge staff over a light dinner.<br>
<br>
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008<br>
Time: 7:30-9:30pm<br>
Location: MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, Bush Room,
Building 10, Room 105<br>
Dinner provided.<br>
<br>
**See the MIT FEMA Trailer, pre-transformation, in the Student Center
Plaza, across from 77 Mass. Avenue, on October 29, 2008, all day.<br>
<br>
For more information please visit http://fematrailer.mit.edu/ or
contact fematrailerchallenge@mit.edu.<br>
<br>
The MIT FEMA Trailer Project is made possible by the generous
financial support of the MIT Council for the Arts, the MIT Public
Service Center, the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, and the
gift of an anonymous donor.<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
<br>
The MIT FEMA Trailer Project<br>
<br>
In the fall of 2005, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
purchased approximately 145,000 travel trailers and mobile homes to
house Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Since
their deployment, the trailers have been tied to a host of issues,
including:<br>
-health concerns due to formaldehyde off-gassing in
the trailers (at the center of a class-action lawsuit against FEMA and
trailer manufacturers)<br>
-spikes in documented mental health problems in
residents of trailer parks<br>
-the lack of affordable housing in many regions of
the Gulf Coast available to residents moving out of trailers<br>
-thousands of idle surplus trailers currently
sitting in rented parking lots across the country.<br>
<br>
As such, the FEMA Trailer has come to symbolize many of the
environmental, social, economic, and administrative challenges
associated with temporary disaster housing. The goal of the MIT
FEMA Trailer Project is to catalyze positive change in these areas and
develop alternative solutions for FEMA Trailers through two
vehicles:<br>
-The MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge, a campus-wide
competition produce collaboratively by the MIT Visual Arts Program and
the MIT Public Service Center<br>
-Course 4.365, Advanced Projects in Visual Arts:
The MIT FEMA Trailer Project, taught by Visiting Lecturer Jae Rhim Lee
in the MIT Visual Arts Program<br>
<br>
The goals and directives of the MIT FEMA Trailer Project are:<br>
<br>
1. Investigate the environmental, political, and social issues related
to FEMA Trailers.<br>
2. Formulate feasible, socially conscious, and innovative alternative
uses for the 94,000+ surplus FEMA Trailers through the MIT FEMA
Trailer Challenge. The MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge invites
members of the MIT Community to submit projects which propose
alternative uses for the thousands of surplus FEMA Travel Trailers
used as temporary disaster housing in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane
Katrina in August 2005. Winning projects will receive monetary
awards and will be considered for inclusion in a publication.<br>
3. Compile and publish a document with technologies applicable to FEMA
Trailers and ideas for alternative uses of surplus trailers generated
by the Challenge, course projects, and from outside MIT.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Transform a single FEMA trailer currently
located at MIT into an alternative vehicle which will be donated to a
community or non-profit organization, as part of the Transdisciplinary
Art Course "Advanced Projects in Visual Arts: The MIT FEMA
Trailer Project." The course applies environmental justice
and permaculture principles in the conceptualization and re-design of
the trailer.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
P Please consider the environment before printing this email<br>
<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
MIT Visual Arts Program<br>
Department of Architecture<br>
Jae Rhim Lee, SMVisS '06<br>
Visiting Lecturer<br>
Office: 617-324-3855<br>
Fax: 617.253.3977<br>
Mobile: 770-841-7842<br>
jrlee@mit.edu<br>
265 Massachusetts Ave., N52-337<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
http://web.mit.edu/jrlee/www/<br>
http://web.mit.edu/fematrailerproject/www/<br>
<br>
further information and news</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>http://web.mit.edu/vap<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite><img
src="cid:p06100504c5265bbd2b77@[18.79.4.170].1.0" width="1011"
height="677"></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="+1"
color="#FA2000"><br></font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Webdings" size="+2"
color="#008000">P</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2"
color="#000099"> </font><font face="Verdana" size="-2"
color="#008000">Please consider the environment before printing this
email</font></blockquote>
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color="#008000"><br></font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><b><br>
----------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
MIT Visual</b> Arts Program<br>
Department of Architecture<br>
Jae Rhim Lee, SMVisS '06<br>
Visiting Lecturer<br>
Office: 617-324-3855<br>
Fax: 617.253.3977<br>
Mobile: 770-841-7842<br>
<a href="mailto:jrlee@mit.edu">jrlee@mit.edu</a><br>
265 Massachusetts Ave., N52-337<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
<a
href="http://web.mit.edu/jrlee/www">http://web.mit.edu/jrlee/www/</a
></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href="http://web.mit.edu/fematrailerproject/www/"
>http://web.mit.edu/fematrailerproject/www/</a></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
further information and news</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href="http://web.mit.edu/vap">http://web.mit.edu/vap</a></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
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