Personal stories from and about the area known as ‘Blood Alley’ in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside have been gathered and documented. The area has been chosen for its long, often constructed, history, and as a microcosmic example of a neighborhood in transition: a Single Room Occupancy hotel and shelter stands across the alley from a new condo development with boutiques and restaurants on the ground floor. Nine of these stories were adapted into short videos by a team of film and theatre artists. The videos download onsite into the 2nd Story app developed by media artist and creative coder Jesse Scott, making it possible for visitors to discover these hidden stories for themselves.
Our interest is in cultivating human connections in fragmenting times: using the ancient power of storytelling together with our portable powerful technologies. In association with PHS Community Services and the SFU Office of Community Engagement, we’ve created an artistic experience unlike any other, and a set of tools we can take to other places.
The more than sixty stories gathered during the project are being collected in a DVD and will be uploaded to the web on our YouTube archive.