One beautiful mind can have a great impact on those around them, but when you bring collective (and equally beautiful) minds together, the results can be amazing. DoTank:Brooklyn is the perfect example; egalitarian in the truest of senses, with all eyes on improving the world around them for everybody to enjoy. Through various community-oriented projects, the DoTankers are working on making Brooklyn an even better place than it is now. If they can convince the ‘higher powers’ that laying grass down on Bedford Avenue, the main drag of hipster haven Williamsburg, was a good idea, we have absolute faith that they will achieve success in their mission to create change for the better.

Here the DoTankers explain the method behind their work in their own words:

Can you explain the meaning of the name ‘DoTank’?
If you’re familiar with the idea of a ‘Think Tank’, where people sit around and think about solutions to problems, well, we act, make, and do the solutions to the problems. We appended the name with ‘Brooklyn’ (DoTank:Brooklyn), to emphasize that we act locally. It also allows others to start their own ‘chapters’ in their own town.

Your website contains a pretty lengthy mission statement. Can you break down the essence of Do Tank for me in just a few simple sentences?
DoTank is a group of Urbanists, Urban Planners, Industrial Designers, Architects, and Technologists who seek to make rapid change in the urban environment. We’ve found that by actually doing things (even if its experimental), it can be impactful towards improving the urban environment.

How did the collective come together in the first place?
A few of us met while working in a city planning and community building non-profit in New York City. The idea of a ‘DoTank’ came up amongst us and I think we each felt compelled to be part of it for different reasons. One common thread running through each of us is a frustration with the formal city planning process of talking without acting. A second common thread is that many folks, including ourselves, are moving to New York City to live the most environmentally and socially responsible (and satisfying!) life possible.

I saw a chair with the words “DoTank” spray painted on it. What’s with that project?
We started with building chairs out of old shipping pallets and placing them anonymously around Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The plans for creating an Adirondack chair from used shipping pallets was created by one of DoTanker’s friends named Shelton Davis. He is an Industrial Designer based in Atlanta, and his project seemed a perfect way to deal with the major lack of outdoor sidewalk seating in Brooklyn. In Williamsburg, especially Bedford, there is such a fascinating, diverse, parade of people walking daily on the sidewalk however little places to site and observe it all. We addressed that with our first series of 5 chairs, placed throughout the neighborhood at social hubs.

Tell me about some of your exciting future projects.
We’re organizing New York City’s first-ever Nuit Blanche. A Nuit Blanche is a night-time electronic arts festival celebrating the magic of light, art, performance in public space. These have happened all over the world — in Paris, Barcelona, Toronto, LA, Atlanta, but never New York. This project will engage the multi-fasceted skills of DoTank, including urban planning, industrial design, technologists, and architecture.

What is the ultimate goal of DoTank?
Our goal is to continue to make change, have fun, as well as inspire others to DO as well. We each have personal motivations behind DoTank, some to save the world, others as weekend creative exercise. However, past that, we’re not completely sure, but I think being somewhat ‘nearsighted’ and project-based has been working for us. It keeps us humble and focused.

Can people get involved? If so, how?
People who want to be part of DoTank should consider themselves partners/collaborators. If you’re not sure what collaboration looks like, try working on a real project with your friends using everyone’s spare time. It’s actually a lot of sacrifice, a lot of fun, a lot of just grabbing for whatever you can do to make it work. Basically, we cannot tell others what to do because we’re all figuring it out for ourselves. We want people to reach out, tear off a piece, and say ‘I want to do ______’. In all cases so far, we’ve said YES to that. That’s how we work, and hope that others start doing the same!

More at dotankbrooklyn.org.




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