Profile: Robin Lasser

Robin_Lasser

By Kaitlynn Magnuson

Bringing a new perspective to urban planning, Professor of Art Robin Lasser recently teamed up with artists Trena Noval and Genevieve Hastings to create a public, interactive mobile kiosk entitled Our Lives in This Place. The kiosk displays twenty-eight postcards that spotlight project participants and their dreams for the city’s future on the front; on the back of the postcards are a series of questions prompting responses from city residents. Our Lives in This Place travelled throughout the East Santa Clara corridor for three months, collecting stories from residents that would help the city of San José shape an urban village plan for the next few decades.

By incorporating art and public interaction into the city planning process, Lasser and her collaborators created a civic intervention that was both approachable and welcoming to the members of the community. “We, as artists, brought emotional content to something that might otherwise be a dry situation,” Lasser remarked. “And I think it not only helped the community recognize each other, but also brought attention to the ways residents can help shape the future of their neighborhoods.”

The intertwining of art and social engagement gave Lasser a unique perspective and opportunity to interact with community members in a way she hadn’t before. “As a professor working over twenty-five years here at the university, I felt I really hadn’t had an opportunity to engage in my own community outside of the university,” Lasser noted. “To get to know the businesses, to get to know the residents…I took this project on as a challenge.”

And for Lasser, this challenge ultimately was a success. The artists’ input allowed the city to gather an abundance of ideas, inspiration, and impressions while increasing awareness of how individual residents, working together, can take responsibility for the future of the communities that we call home. Bridging the gap between the people and the city, Our Lives in This Place speaks to the power of individuals coming together to create a future, as well as to the power of artists working in public spaces to effect positive change.