DETROIT, USA
Detroit, the most American of cities, the engine of the rapid growth of the US industrial might in the twentieth century is now a model for a dystopian take on the American dream. It was the change of fortune of the Motor City that was what we wanted to explore. What could we discover about how far we came and where we could go as a society? What did the city look and sound like beyond the destruction porn we see in the media? We also wanted to hear what people had to say about their city: what they remembered and why they feel the city is at this crossroad and could fall further or rise in another form.
Using the same random method we recorded 49 Waltzes, 147 locations, each with a 360 degree shot in Detroit. This time we added a documentary element: If there was a person standing on our selected corner, we interviewed that person about their city – and they expressed how they felt about the way it was and the way it is today. The viewer/listener could touch a location on a map on one screen and bring up either a 360 degree shot lasting 1’04” of that corner, or a local person talking.
49 Waltzes: Detroit premiered at BAC in 2013 and was exhibited at the Festival Internacional de Videoarte de Camaguey in Cuba in March 2015. It recently won Honorable Mention at the 2015 UFVA conference at American University in Washington, DC
49 Waltzes for the Motor City is a unique vehicle to reveal the many facets of Detroit present and past, and what might be its future as it struggles to emerge in a new form with a sense of its historical significance intact.
“At its heart, the comprehensive goal of Cosmopolis is to promote an intimate understanding of people and places, bridging the gap between the movement toward a monolithic global culture and a nagging historical antagonism between countries and their cultures. ”