Index 19: Jae Shin and Damon Rich

Robert Machover and Norman Fruchter’s 1966 film “Troublemakers” documents failed attempts of New Left activists to start a “community union” in Newark, New Jersey in the northeast United States, a city then on the verge of becoming an icon of Black Power movements and a scapegoat for the so-called Urban Crisis. Jae Shin and Damon Rich, partners of the design studio Hector, have lived and worked for seven year in the same city, which is still alive with living legacies of community organizing and still beset by financial predation and uneven investments. Have troublemakers learned anything in 50 years?

The evening features a discussion and screening of “Troublemakers” along with a selection of works by Hector and partners including “Who$e Money Is It Anyway?”, “Public Housing Television”, “Predatory Tales”, “Backyards & Big Plans”, “Building Code Stakeholders”, and “Garbage Problems”.

Hector is an urban design, planning and civic arts studio that works in various areas including architecture, plans, urban designs, public installations, exhibitions and publications. The office uses the agency of design to make things happen. Recent projects include an interpretive riverfront park, a memorial for an eco-feminist nun, a municipal bicycle rack and an advocacy plan for the reconstruction of an urban highway interchange.