STAPLETON — A Staten Island graffiti artist has launched an art and technology project to get vital information to New Yorkers who need it most.
Kevin Mahoney, a founding member of Robots Will Kill, started the COM/MON Project that plans to put monitors that displays silver alerts, weather advisories and locations of shelters into storefront windows so homeless and disadvantaged people can stay informed.
"We're trying to bridge the data divide," Mahoney said.
"There's a disparity between what we have access to perpetually and what the disadvantaged in our community has access to. Our survival does not hinge on whether or not we can see Kim Kardashian's Twitter feed, but these people need to know where there are resources available to them."
Each terminal gets powered by a Raspberry Pi — a $30 Linux computer — that pulls data from the same central server set up by Mahoney, who works in IT. Aside from static information like locations of shelters, the server also pushes material posted on Twitter to the boxes.
Mahoney noticed that large companies constantly toss computer monitors that are outdated but still function perfectly. He collected some of them and built a wooden casing around them.
So far, Mahoney created a batch of seven COM/MONs — which stands for community monitors — and asked local artists like Chris RWK, Magie Serpica and Mike Shane to decorate the wooden shells.
"By making each casing unique, it's no longer just a public service they're doing, they're getting an art installation," Mahoney said.
He got the idea for the monitors during a hackathon hosted by Copenhagen-based Dreamups at the Staten Island MakerSpace in April. Afterwards, he decided the idea was too good to let die and has worked weekends ever since at the MakerSpace with local students Nicholas Devitto and Antoun Sawires to design and code the boxes.
While three stores in the North Shore already signed up to display a COM/MON, he's hosting a public unveiling of the project on Tuesday and hopes to find homes for the other four he made.
"With this first wave, it's really a proof of concept," Mahoney said. "I keep referring to this as an 'experiment in humanity.' By putting these out there what I'm really hoping to do is draw more attention to the project."
And since the Raspberry Pis can tell where they are in the world, Mahoney said the boxes can be set up anywhere around the country and pull up relevant data for that community.
He said he hopes eventually the monitors expand to other parts of the borough and city and, since it's easy for him to change what they display, thinks they can be useful as an information hub in natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy.
"We could get information to people in natural disasters potentially," he said. "The Red Cross had tents, and people a block and half over did not know that they were there."
The COM/MON Project's public launch party will be on Dec. 16 at the Staten Island Arts Culture Lounge at 7 p.m. For more information visit their website and Facebook page.
