The Park Bench
Google Earth Studio, Google Map, After Effects, Twotone, Touch Designer, Arduino, Photoshop
data credits
NYPD Parks Crime Statistics CSV, NYPost.com, CBSNews.com, ABC7NY.com, AMNY.com, News.Yahoo.com, Pix11.com, Newsweek.com, Audacy.com, Brooklyneagle.com, Dailymail.com, Newsbreak.com
Parks are imagined as places of rest and escape — yet they are also sites where crime quietly recurs. Rather than treating these incidents as random disturbances, the project asks what they reveal about the places where they happen. The park bench becomes a focal point: a piece of public furniture so ordinary it turns invisible, yet one that concentrates a consistent pattern of incidents shaped by lighting, foot traffic, and the presence or absence of community. Each incident is not an anomaly, but a data point connected to a larger story about how New York's green spaces are built, used, and neglected.