thinkEAST will be a 24 acre affordable housing/artist space development in East Austin on the site of a former petroleum-storage ‘tank farm'. Two decades ago, in response to numerous health and environmental concerns, a grassroots neighborhood campaign achieved a remarkable victory in shutting down and relocating the fuel tanks. As part of the masterplanning process for thinkEAST, the Fusebox Festival organized a ‘living charette’ on the site to solicit input and prototype ideas. Our 25' diameter ‘tank’ installation, constructed on a shoestring budget, acted as both gateway and a storytelling device for the event. The inner walls were pasted with photocopies of original documentation from the relocation campaign, including photos, flyers, maps and legal rulings. Many visitors were neighborhood activists who had never seen the material assembled in one place before. A repeated request from them and other festival-goers was for a permanent version of the installation to be integrated into the new thinkEAST development.
