May 10 & 11 5pm-9pm
Spring Show 2005
721 Broadway
at Waverly Place
4th Floor
South Elevators
New York, NY 10003
For additional
information email
itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
or call 212.998.1880
| Decay Tour | ||
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| Author(s): | Thomas Ainslie | |
| Instructor: | D'Arcangelo, Gideon Greer, Heather |
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| Class: | New Interfaces for Musical Expression: Tools for the Remix Final Project Seminar |
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| URL: | http://www.decaytour.com | |
| Keywords: | video, documentary, live, performance, max/msp/jitter, jitter, installation, detroit, urban decay, decay, adandoned, exploration | |
| A live-performance video documentary exploring abandoned spaces in Detroit, Michigan. | ||
| A video installation exploring urban decay in which the user assembles documentary video footage on the fly with an interface contructed from items acquired in a deserted automobile factory. I think it’s possible to create a documentary experience with variations unique to each specific instance of viewing. The challenge of something like this is to stay true to the thematic elements of the content, and not to let the subject matter be lost to the form in which it is presented. | ||
| Personal Statement: | My interest in the Detroit landscape begins with my affinity for electronic music. When I discovered the world of Detroit techno, and realized the ruins of the city seemed to be fostering creativity, that was “a moment” for me.
In high school I began to explore the city with friends. These explorations most often occurred during late night weekend hours. We would drive to parties located in abandoned factories and warehouses, routinely driving through decrepit neighborhoods and industrial wastelands to get there. These journeys represented an extreme contrast to the suburban comfort I was living in. At around the same time I was getting heavily involved with video production through my school. However, it wasn’t until a few years later that I combined the two interests with a video piece about the Heidelberg Project in Detroit. The Heidelberg Project is a neighborhood art installation put together by Tyree Guyton. He decorated an abandoned city block in one of Detroit’s most rundown areas with salvaged objects and trash, also painting his signature polka dots on the structures and nearby trees. Upon seeing the Heidelberg Project in person, I was once again awed that a ruined city such as Detroit could inspire artists in such unique ways. The Heidelberg Project literally grew out of the city’s ruins, changing the depressed street into Detroit’s second biggest tourist attraction (until the mayor deemed it a blemish and attempted to bulldoze the block). Both Detroit Techno and the Heidelberg Project sprouted from a similar idea: making the most out of available resources. The original musicians who made techno a worldwide phenomenon created their songs on throwaway synthesizers and drum machines that they had found in pawn and thrift shops around the city. While other musicians considered these instruments obsolete and dated, a few resourceful individuals utilized them in order to give birth to an entirely new genre of music. Thinking about this, I realize that my favorite artwork seems to be that which appropriates artifacts of the past. My favorite musical genres are electronic and hip-hop, both of which are heavily influenced by the practice of sampling. The Heidelberg Project takes left-behind personal items from abandoned homes and displays them where anyone can see. So it seems that recontextualization (if that’s a word) comprises a large part of my interests. During the Fall of 2004, I returned to Detroit with the goal of collecting video footage of abandoned structures within the city. Over the course of three days my friend Scott and I climbed into a number of abandoned structures: houses, a church, factories, and an apartment complex. Each location housed countless artifacts left behind by previous residents and workers. Although these structures had been sitting empty for as long as decades, the memories of the occupants permeated the musty atmospheres. I returned to New York with about 6 hours of raw footage, mostly of interiors, and was immediately overwhelmed by the volume of video I had. Along with the footage I shot myself, I had also found an old VHS cassette and a spool of 16mm film in one of the empty auto factories. This footage became the foundation for the Decay Tour. | |