This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors' experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University's usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Columbia University Website Cookie Notice
The Bronx is a site of recurring violence, where its resident’s voice has been suppressed in the past and remains unheard today. Civicspeak catalyses local repair tools by translating the Bronx’s soundscape into a spatialized platform. Repurposing found materials on site, the project uses digital and physical interfaces to bring socio-political discourse back into the public sphere. Hacking infrastructures of transportation and land, the elements of this platform operate within the Bronx’s system. The project transforms the public’s input into repossession of their borough through the purchase of communally owned property that residents then having voting rights over. This wealth is generated by the tolling of the Cross Bronx Expressway to fund these protocols of repair. As land becomes scarcer over the next century, Civicspeak captures the value of the land and keeps it within the Bronx for its residents.