WISE WORDS

We recorded interviews with five women from diverse backgrounds (including immigrants from Haiti, the Philippines, and Taiwan, among other places), focusing on their experiences of building a new life in an unfamiliar city. We wanted to share these stories in an intimate setting, so we built tiers of wooden boxes that we placed in small groups, creating a “community of cubes” that mimics a social gathering. Some of these cubes house the screens that play the interviews, while others appear etched with photographs from the women’s lives, and still others contain small objects of sentimental value to the interviewees. When the viewer touches a particular object, the corresponding interview is triggered to play, fostering a connection between the listener and the speaker. We kept the playback volume of the recordings intentionally low, ensuring that none of the voices compete with each other, and prompting the listener to lean in and pay close attention to the stories being shared.