Connecting communities

BOSTON. Roxbury’s Dudley Square and Coolidge Corner in Brookline are connected by a 15-minute, 2.4 mile ride on the 66 bus. Thanks to a new installation by Boston artist John Ewing, that distance will be bridged until tomorrow.

“Virtual Street Corners” places videoconferencing devices in two locations to allow people from the two racially and socio-economically distinct neighborhoods to engage in “dialogues surrounding race, resources and education,” says Ewing.

Because of the public nature of the project, Ewing enlisted legal, financial and technical help from the Berwick Research Institute and Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts to install two screens — approximately the size of two fell-length mirrors — with cameras and microphones to allow passers-by to see and hear what is going on in the opposite neighborhood while they broadcast their own image and sounds.

Though Ewing sees the program as a pilot for other cultural juxtapositions, he hopes to highlight issues of self-segregation and class disparities within a small geographic span.

Ewing also hopes to spark a dialogue on the history of the neighborhoods, but admits that it has been difficult to encourage people to move beyond fascination with the project and “get them to be more engaged.”