[bioundgrd] Fwd: REMINDER: TONIGHT! FEMA TRAILER CHALLENGE LAUNCH

[Janice Chang]

>From: Jae Rhim Lee <jrlee at MIT.EDU>
>To: fematrailerchallenge at MIT.EDU
>Subject: REMINDER: TONIGHT! FEMA TRAILER CHALLENGE LAUNCH
>Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:38:05 -0400
>
>
>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.
>
>MIT Students: What would you do with 94,000 surplus FEMA Trailers?  
>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.
>
>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.
>
>Date: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008
>Time: 7:30-9:30pm
>Location: MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, Bush Room, 
>Building 10, Room 105
>Dinner provided.
>
>**See the MIT FEMA Trailer, pre-transformation, in the Student 
>Center Plaza, across from 77 Mass. Avenue, on October 29, 2008, all 
>day.
>**FEMA Trailer Project featured on MIT's Homepage...http://mit.edu
>
>For more information please visit http://fematrailer.mit.edu/ or 
>contact fematrailerchallenge at mit.edu.
>
>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.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The MIT FEMA Trailer Project
>
>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:
>     -health concerns due to formaldehyde off-gassing in the trailers 
>(at the center of a class-action lawsuit against FEMA and trailer 
>manufacturers)
>     -spikes in documented mental health problems in residents of trailer parks
>     -the lack of affordable housing in many regions of the Gulf 
>Coast available to residents moving out of trailers
>     -thousands of idle surplus trailers currently sitting in rented 
>parking lots across the country.
>
>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:
>     -The MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge, a campus-wide competition 
>produce collaboratively by the MIT Visual Arts Program and the MIT 
>Public Service Center
>     -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
>
>The goals and directives of the MIT FEMA Trailer Project are:
>
>1. Investigate the environmental, political, and social issues 
>related to FEMA Trailers.
>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.
>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.
>4. 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.
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------
>
>MIT Visual Arts Program
>Department of Architecture
>Jae Rhim Lee, SMVisS '06
>Visiting Lecturer
>Office: 617-324-3855
>Fax: 617.253.3977
>Mobile: 770-841-7842
>jrlee at mit.edu
>265 Massachusetts Ave., N51-319
>Cambridge, MA 02139
>http://web.mit.edu/jrlee/www/
>http://web.mit.edu/fematrailerproject/www/
>
>further information and news
>http://web.mit.edu/vap
>
>
>
>
>
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