FILM COMMENT
May/June 2010

SITE SPECIFICS: Abecedarium: NYC  (www.filmlinc.com/fcm/mj10/specifics.htm)

by Jesse P. Finnegan

Inspired by her children’s ubiquitous ABC picture books, not to mention the traditions of avant-garde alphabetizing, experimental mainstay Lynne Sachs concocted Abecedarium: NYC, an exquisite online corpse of cinematic cartography. Pearls of obscure vocabulary, ranging from “Audile” (one who thinks in sounds) to “Zenana” (in India and Pakistan, an area of the home reserved for women), serve as free-associative prompts for local artists. Clicking a particular letter reveals a corresponding interpretation culled from our fair metropolis. They’re typically short video works, aspiring to (and frequently transcending) a certain iMovie lyricism. The films are intimately observed audiovisual slivers, unfolding over a map that instantly scrolls to each work’s point of origin. Gotham emerges as a palimpsest of momentary glimpses and found poetics.

Sachs’s ever-ready eye is behind the lion’s share of entries: her “Foudroyant” response is a particularly potent rendition of the kaleidoscopic Coney Island film. David Gatten (“Rete”) and George Kuchar (“Pelagic”) contribute, respectively, a city symphony from leafily obstructed vantages and a poignant and peculiar visit to a Bronx funeral home. Beyond its homepage’s elegant interface, the project is meant to stand as an ongoing exploration through participatory blog threads and collaboration with other online media forums. Welcoming work from any and all who visit, the site (co-produced by artist/web designer Susan Agliata) aspires to be a perpetual atlas in progress, a sensorium of ever-accumulating coordinates. Abecedarium: NYC is rife with pockets of Web wonderment, serene handmade meditations, and, perhaps most intriguing, yet-to-be-realized potential.

Go to www.abecedariumnyc.com

© 2010 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center

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Here is a review of the interactive website I worked on btwn 2006 and 2008.  It was an amazing way to learn about the city. So far we have more than 300  creative videos, poems and photos posted from the public as well.

A HISTORY OF NEW YORK website describes Abecedarium:NYC: “A wonderful, continuously expanding site sponsored in part by New York Public Library: Abecedarium:NYC.  The whole thing seems designed to lead you down the path of hours spent exploring.  The perfect site for people who love words as much as they love New York.”

http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/2009/09/abecedariumnyc/

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Lynne Sachs and her daughters Maya and Noa create the Abecedarium:NYC Bibliomancy project

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Co-directed by Lynne Sachs and Susan Agliata with the support of the New York Public Library

Abecedarium:NYC is an interactive online exhibition that reflects on the history, geography, and culture – both above and below ground – of New York City through 26 unusual words. Using original video, animation, photography and sound, Abecedarium:NYC constructs visual relationships between these select words and specific locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.

Each word – whether it’s A for audile or Z for zenana – leads to a different short video and a location in the city that you may never have experienced before. In selenography (the study of the moon), amateur astronomers celebrate the wonders of the night sky at Staten Island’s Great Kills State Park. In open city (a metropolis without defense), the ruins of military installations throughout the five boroughs decay with time. Chatty teenagers in a Flushing, Queens cafe drink bubble tea in xenogenesis (the phenomenon of children markedly different from their parents). In diglot (a bilingual person), a Chinese accountant, Albanian baker, Palestinian falafel maker, Argentine film archivist and Cuban cigar maker speak candidly about their daily routines. In mofette (an opening in the earth from which carbon monoxide escapes) mysterious gases flow from gaps in the streets of Manhattan.

The experience of visiting Abecedarium:NYC is more than watching, listening and learning. Visitors to the project are invited to respond to existing content as well as to share their own experience of New York City by contributing original videos, soundscapes, photos or texts to the project Abecedarium:NYC Blog. As more users contribute, the project grows in size, scope and experience, and transforms into a destination for sharing and learning about every facet of the city.

See some of the Abecedarium:NYC word videos I’ve made at:

FOUDROYANT “Coney Island of the Mind”

Click here to view the embedded video.

NOSOGEOGRAPHY

NOSOGEOGRAPHY:   Gowanus Canal on Earth Day

SELENOGRAPHY “Moon Watching in the Big Apple”

UMBEL “Umbels in Brooklyn”

YASHMAK “The Veil in New York City”

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Abecedarium:NYC
an interactive online exhibition exploring New York City through words and images

supported and launched by the New York Public Library

www.nypl.org/abecedariumnyc

Reflect on the history, geography, and culture – both above and below ground –  of New York City through 26 unusual words. Abecedarium: NYC is an interactive online exhibition that uses original video, animation, photography and sound to create relationships between these words and locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Share your own vision of New York by creating a video, a soundscape, a photo or written interpretation of a word and uploading your work to the exhibition.

Participants:

Lynne Sachs – co-director and NYU Film Dep’t faculty
Susan Agliata – co-director
Erik Schurink – visual artist – collaborator
Sofia Gallisa – collaborator and 2008 UGFTV graduate
Florica Vlad – collaborator and ITP Graduate Student

Each word – whether it’s A for audile or Z for zenana – leads to a different short video and a location in the city that you may never have experienced before.  In selenography (the study of the moon), amateur astronomers celebrate the wonders of the night sky at Staten Island’s Great Kills State Park. In open city (a metropolis without defense), the ruins of military installations throughout the five boroughs decay with time.   Chatty teenagers in a Flushing, Queens cafe drink bubble tea in xenogenesis (the phenomenon of children markedly different from their parents). In diglot (a bilingual person), a Chinese accountant, Albanian baker, Palestinian falafel maker, Argentine film archivist and Cuban cigar maker speak candidly about their daily routines.  In mofette (an opening in the earth from which carbon monoxide escapes) mysterious gases flow from gaps in the streets of Manhattan.

The experience of visiting Abecedarium:NYC is more than watching, listening and learning. Visitors to the project are invited  to share their own experience of New York City by contributing original videos, soundscapes, photos or texts to the project blog.  As more users contribute, the project grows in size, scope and experience, and transforms into a destination for sharing and learning about every facet of the city.

Produced with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts. the New York Public Library and the McDowell Colony.

www.nypl.org/abecedariumnyc

I think the most exciting part of this project is the blog. Check it out.
Blog>>http://blog.abecedariumnyc.com

Review on Rhizome >>>>
(http://rhizome.org/editorial/fp/blog.php/766)

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2. Abecedarium: NYC photos [caption id="attachment_286" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lynne Sachs and her daughters Maya...
3. History of NYC reviews Abecedarium:NYC A HISTORY OF NEW YORK website describes Abecedarium:NYC: “A wonderful,...

THE HOUSE OF DRAFTS/ DOM PROMAHA
www.house-of-drafts.org

House of Drafts/ Dom Promaha is a virtual apartment building inhabited by the imaginary characters created by eight Bosnian and two American media artists.  Our characters have refused the opportunities of exile and instead have chosen to stay in Sarajevo.  We invite you to enter this apartment building through our website or by watching the tape as a way of meeting the characters who live here.

This building relies on an architecture comprised of images, sounds and text.  The project as a whole is shaped by our autobiographical experiences as they are filtered through poetic reflections, original music, and video.  From a performance artist who moonlights as a de-miner, to a cinematographer who uses his camera to turn a decaying Sarajevo into a bustling Bangkok, to a traveler caught by the inferno of a burning library  — the website and corresponding video represent our ruminations on a city and its inhabitants during and after a period of war.  On the website you are invited not only to enter and explore our House of Drafts but also to participate by leaving your own writing and images on the walls of the space.

Created by Jeanne C. Finley (San Francisco) and Lynne Sachs (New York) with the participation of Larisa Hasanbegovic, Adla  Isanovic, Timur Makarevic, Tvico Muhidin, Alma Suljevic and  Enes Zlater (Sarjevo, Bosnia Herzogovina).

Web site consultation and development donated by Teri Rueb.

Supported by ArtsLink, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art and Women Make Movies. The House of Drafts videotape is available by contacting either Jeanne or Lynne by email through the site address.

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