Interactive display on homelessness highlights experience through art

Projected on blue tarps were photographs of those experiencing homelessness and some of the items they carried.

10/10/19

Griffin Sendek | Photo Editor

Division of Mission Identity and Center for Community Engaged Teaching and Research collaborated with Light of Life Rescue Mission to bring an interactive display of homelessness to Towers MPR.

The purpose of the display was to give a tactile demonstration of what the homeless experience is in the city.

Playing on a loop was the short-film documentary Eye of the Needle, which delineates the opioid epidemic in Pittsburgh.

“How so much of this is drug-related is very eye-opening,” pharmacy major Madison Henry said.

Inside the tent, guests would find a mess of clothing and empty food wrappers. The display gave an accurate glimpse of what living under such harsh conditions might be like.
With only a few tarps, scattered leaves and garbage strewn about, the Towers MPR was completely transformed and almost unrecognizable.

Isabella Gamboa, another pharmacy major, voiced the fact that there is an unspoken word among retail pharmacists handing over syringes, knowing full well they will be used for illicit drugs.

“If you do not give it to them, they’ll find them somewhere else,” Gamboa said.