Cherry Blossoms addresses the disparity between human suffering and the perception of that suffering. The project starts in a backpack outfitted with a small microcontroller and a GPS unit. Recent news of bombings in Iraq are downloaded to the unit every night, with their relative location superimposed on a map of Boston. If a wearer walks into a space in Boston that correlates to a site of violence in Baghdad, the backpack detonates an air cloud of confetti. Looking like a mixture between smoke, shrapnel and the white blossoms of a cherry tree, the explosion completely engulfs the wearer. Each piece of confetti is inscribed with the name of a civilian who died in the war, and the circumstances of their death. With Cherry Blossoms human loss resonates beyond the boundary of conflict.
September 11th showed us we're vulnerable. We are not immune to terrorism; we are part of the battleground. But its horror also showed us our strength. That a city scared to death can be courageous. We all can be heroes. To keep us safe, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority told us to look for signs of danger, and report them. We think we should also look for signs of courage. We call them hero reports. http://heroreports.org/.