Juliet Helmke traces the origins and prospects of a genre of art that aims to educate and more effectively influence consumer behavior through the reinterpretation of ecological data.

In the first in a series of profiles of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts, Caitlin Blanchfield reports on how a robust network of community-based groups in Corona, Queens, has put local cultural vitality and institutional partnerships to work in reclaiming a public space for neighborhood use.

An artist, community organizer, and social entrepreneur discusses museum-community partnerships, crowdfunding public art, and emerging trends in socially engaged creative projects.

Paul Parkhill discusses an ambitious initiative to develop affordable workspace for artists, touching on issues of real estate economics, neighborhood stabilization, and the evolving needs of a diverse urban workforce.

On every wall are blasts of color reaching one, two or even three stories above the curb.

We are all to an extent on display to each other, but we pretend not to notice, and do not to attempt to bridge the narrow spatial but chasm-like psychological gaps between buildings.

Christopher Payne -- whose photographs have documented abandoned structures, obsolete industrial processes, and American craftsmanship -- discusses photography's potential to remind us of our disappearing histories.

One series of photographs by Peter Baker, caught my attention for its acute sensitivity to the interplay between individuals and the built environment.