For my final ACTLab project I decided that I needed to do a performance piece of some sort.
My previous Disruptive Technologies projects lacked the soul I was often proud of in my previous ACTLab projects, so I decided to think of a sort of technology that I could embrace as a more narrative and artistic project.
I decided that Cities are a disruptive part of friendships and relationships. Being able to step back and look at how a city has affected your life is something that I thought was pretty unique and something we had not really discussed.
I filmed my performance, but the camera stopped filming during the it.
What you see below is the video I projected while I read the poem/ text below.
The video is shot around various parts of Austin.
The audio/music is custom recorded for this project.
"Cities"
this city is killing me she said.
and she said it and she meant it.
she said it and she felt it.
because these friends were her friends due to location and happenstance.
and that says a great deal about everything that's happened.
Cities. Boundaries.
Locations and views.
Between skyscrapers and friendships
she found hardships.
But everyone could always fall back
and blame it on mistakes
or ill informed decisions.
But my vision has changed and I think it might be the way the sun falls over these buildings.
When was the last time you ventured out to see an uninterrupted sunset?
When was the last time you tried to forget all these peer invented struggles?
Maybe I'll blame whatever city I'm in.
Or blame location because my investigative nature wanes often.
It seems like you might be able to.
To you know, blame it on technology.
Claim that our human nature has changed...
But maybe change in itself is human nature.
We are all connected now in some way.
Everyone is.
I know where my brother is right now.
You know who your sister is dating and how.
But when everything goes down and when all is said and done
I want to know why this pattern persists.
Maybe because life IS patterns.
The way these cities streets sprawl out because of some urban plan.
Some urban planning went into the way the streets fell over land
and we now have these fields of concrete.
I want you to see that
I think these cities change people.
Different homes result in different hopes.
Different goals.
Slide past midnight filling stations
and past toll booths.
Past these markers and you might find some truth.
Because in the same way that every city is the same,
every city is different.
We have each had a different human experience.
We have formed different relationships with different people.
But at this moment there cataloging groups that find us having common bonds.
We see this tendency to organize all around us.
We are in the same class.
The same grade.
The same college.
The same zip code.
The same region.
The same state.
The same country.
But right now.
Right now.
We are sharing this moment.
So when she said that this city was killing her...
What did she mean?
Its an open debate.
It is for each individual to decide if where they are at this moment is the moment they want to be in.
It is our human nature to change.
To grow and learn.
Maybe running away IS the answer?
We are all conditioned to believe that to quit is to fail, so how can that be?
She said it with confidence.
That mundane days and fights were the reason she was leaving.
Tonight.
Tonight she swore she would feel different.
I feel different.
4 years ago I was not here.
4 years ago I couldn't have dreamt this because I hadn't lived it.
Any of it.
But this moment is already something that cannot be changed and is simultaneously created and disrupted by its surroundings.
Not just the buildings and the skyline, but a cities inhabitants.
A city's center.
So she woke up and tripped down the stairs.
And stumbled past schoolyards.
Drove straight out of town.
And she cried.
And it was not winter anymore.
But you see these patterns are emerging,
and every season is different.
And every season is the same.
So what?
She left the city.
But not really.
Subtle changes were never reversed.
Her friendships on either side of the dividing line
knew that.
And where one city has clogged streets,
another has tattered phone lines that can't reach home.
It is all patterns.
And it is all beautiful.
-- Carter Francis
2008 for ACTLab Studios
I will be recording a spoken word recording of the Poem to be played in conjunction with the video shortly.
contact: c.francis@mail.utexas.edu