CAMD Day
Events of the Day
City of Boston Participatory Budgeting Project Showcase
The Center for Design collaborates with the City of Boston for the Office of Participatory Budgeting’s Ideas in Action initiative, which allows Boston residents to decide how to spend a part of the City’s budget. This collaboration involves the co-creation of a deliberative community conversation toolkit for use by community partner organizations within the City to host idea generation workshops, prioritizing needs from community members. Community members are empowered to distill priorities relevant to their neighborhoods so that the City can translate them into project proposals to better serve its communities.
In this showcase, members of the Center for Design research team and the City of Boston's Office of Participatory Budgeting walked visitors through many elements of the initiative, such as the community conversation toolkit and the results of the initiative's inaugural cycle.
Director, Office of Participatory Budgeting,
City of Boston
Assistant Professor, Art + Design, CAMD; Core Faculty, Center for Design
Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist, Office of Participatory Budgeting, City of Boston
Interdisciplinary Design & Media PhD Student, CAMD
Senior Finance and Operations Manager, Office of Participatory Budgeting, City of Boston
Information Designer and Web Developer
Photos by Asher Ben-Dashan.
“Our Energy Nexus” Exhibit Presentation
Our Energy Nexus is an interactive installation that reimagines energy as a collective force that can shape our world. It blends real-time air quality data with poetic computation and a focus on user experience and interaction. Each visitor is invited to contribute their warmth as energy, captured through non-contact thermal sensors, which is transformed into a unique star in the sky. Each star added reduces the representation of pollution, offering a reflection about how small-scale actions can contribute to broader impact. As the air pollution recedes, the stars shine brighter, revealing the potential of our shared energy. Often, our individual actions alone may feel small or insignificant. but when joined with others we realize the strength we hold together. The stars accumulate and swirl in an ever-evolving nexus, showing all that connects us and holds us together through our actions.
This installation was commissioned by Lexus International for Milan Design Week. It was also displayed during the 2025 Information+ Conference. Members of the research team installed the exhibition in the Center for Design for visitors to explore, and led a presentation to discuss the design and technical process behind the work.
Professor, Art + Design, CAMD; Founding Director, Center for Design
Interdisciplinary Design & Media PhD Student, CAMD
Student, BS in Computer Science and Design, Khoury College of Computer Sciences and CAMD
Photos by Asher Ben-Dashan.