‘Art for Time Travelers: a 4D Video Sculpture of the Lower Manhattan Shoreline through Time, Extracted from Archival Movie Footage‘ by Robert Bowen

This unique work functions as an instrument to view the city, as it examines the iconic geopolitical landscape of lower Manhattan in ways not previously experienced. One day in 1903, the filmmaker, J.B. Smith, on assignment for the Thomas A. Edison Co. of West Orange, NJ, took a boat ride around Lower Manhattan. This project takes off from a digital stereoscopic conversion of what Smith saw, what he didn’t see, what we see now, what’s missing, and what’s been added since. Think of it as a 4D diachronic moving panoramagram, a cinema of variation for both eyes, and where more than one timeframe can be perceived simultaneously. It relates to the tradition of the montage city film, but it encompasses all timeframes. By varying the modes of perception we experience trans-temporal drift, and a heightened sense of the sculptural and geopolitical volumes that we inhabit. New York as the iconic sky scraper city is revealed to be a panopticon of varied urban renewals culminating in postmodern hyperspace, geopolitical tragedies, and the entropic effects of climate change.

This installation is derived from the upcoming film, Recovering Lost Architectural & Cinematic Volumes of Lower Manhattan (1903-2015); A Sonic Stereoscopic Space-Time Performance Work that will premiere in early 2016.

On Saturday September 26, @4pm  Robert Bowen will give a talk about the process of creating this 4D video sculpture from Archival footage.