2021 Poster – Middle Ground Expanded

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.

Middle Ground Expanded (MGE), an interactive public placemaking project, showcases social-science concepts and transforms underutilized places into informal learning platforms. This broad implementation project is a collaboration between the Exploratorium, Urban Alchemy, San Francisco Recreation and Parks, and the San Francisco Public Library. Sixteen columns housing interactive, multilingual exhibits will help visitors explore how we think, feel, and interact with other people all within an immersive outdoor experience in the heart of the city.

Innovative social-science exhibits such as Unseen Stories, Making It in America, Sharing Faces, and the Pay It Forward Café allow passersby to investigate social interactions, stereotypes, generosity, and the ways in which humans come together and pull apart. These free, centrally located exhibitions will be facilitated by Urban Alchemy stewards, who encouraged local residents and visitors to explore their curiosity and biases toward the strangers around them.