HUMANITIES ACTION LAB
The Humanities Action Lab (HAL) is a coalition of universities, issue organizations, and public spaces led from Rutgers University-Newark, that collaborate to produce community-curated public humanities projects on urgent social issues. Students and stakeholders in each city develop local chapters of international traveling exhibits, web projects, public programs, and other platforms for civic engagement, all made possible by our visionary supporters. Projects travel nationally and internationally to museums, public libraries, cultural centers, and other spaces in each of the communities that helped create them.
HAL’s third project, Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice, focuses on communities that bear the burden of climate change and environmental degradation. Talking Eyes produced a short documentary about the development of the project, told through several participating universities who tackled specific environmental justice issues impacting their communities.
CLIMATES OF INEQUALITY
Talking Eyes also developed toolkits instructing HAL participants in audio and 360 video recording. We researched and assembled 360 video kits, and created a manual of technical instructions and best practices. University participants borrowed the kits and returned them with their media, which we then edited into experiential pieces for the traveling exhibit and website. The audio toolkit instructed participants in best practices for capturing sound and conducting interviews, oral histories, and guided dialogues.
