Los Angeles, CA
Sacrifice Zone
Los Angeles (SZLA) is an immersive and interactive environmental justice experience.
Los Angeles is home to America’s largest port complex (which is also the biggest source of air pollution in the L.A. basin), hosts the largest active urban oil field in the world (with a third of L.A. residents living within a mile of an oil-drilling site), and houses countless manufacturing facilities that release toxic chemicals into the air and water every day. Sacrifice Zone: Los Angeles (SZLA) is an immersive and interactive environmental justice experience merging exhibition, performance, and activism created by filmmaker and USC professor Michael Bodie and playwright and USC professor Paula Cizmar. Using multimedia-enriched documentary theatre and film storytelling, SZLA sheds light on the damaging effects of decades of industrial pollution on South Los Angeles communities by transforming the Otis Booth Pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County into a home along the I-710 Corridor that is besieged by health risks. SZLA’s immersive experience incorporates community interviews, interactive media, audio soundscapes, and production design to show the challenges of families living in these “sacrifice zones”—the places in our city devastated by ongoing environmental pollution. During seven live performances directed by Fran de Leon with production design by Sibyl Wickersheimer, costume design by Ann Closs-Farley, olfactory design by Elizabeth Ramsey, and interactive design by Luke Quezada, the exhibit will be brought to life. Audiences will bear witness to a family preparing for their matriarch’s birthday. As the story unfolds, attendees have the freedom to explore the household in the order of their choosing, going at their own pace while learning about the issues faced by the communities in these neighborhoods and what we can do to address them.
Audience Role
Audiences will bear witness to a family preparing for their matriarch’s birthday. As the story unfolds, attendees have the freedom to explore the household in the order of their choosing, going at their own pace while learning about the issues faced by the communities in these neighborhoods and what we can do to address them.
Ages: All ages
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1
Events
3
Years on EI
About University of Southern California
We support and create work that builds upon USC’s commitment to addressing society’s most pressing issues. Our projects span a wide range of art forms to address systemic oppression and social issues including homelessness, mass incarceration, sustainability, educational inequity, arts access, healthcare, and multiple forms of violence. We deliver on our mission by annually funding arts projects that are co-led by community partners and USC personnel, directly producing our own projects in partnership with organizations and activists, and acting as a connecting hub for individuals and organizations within and beyond USC, seeding the ground for future collaborations. By prioritizing artwork that is the result of collaboration, Arts in Action inspires the formation of new relationships with community partners around a shared desire for social change. We also provide opportunities for USC students to acquire meaningful experiences and further develop their artistic practice in ways that are difficult to replicate in the classroom.