A first click on the NYT’s website lets users play in “Mud” as Feist narrates a rhyming interactive video that lets users explore the city like a pop-up book. The history of urban dwelling unfolds in a lively archive of still photographs and animation. Users can then explore different elements of the city by clicking into parenthetical rabbit holes that tell additional stories about the vertical landscape. A click following the iconic Dakotas, for example, whisks one from NYC to the Tower of Babel.
“Highrise” writer/director Katerina Cizek, who also directs
the NFB HIGHRISE project of which this is a part,
narrates the second chapter, “Concrete”. Chapter 2 is an impressive visual
study of the social currents that come with changes to the urban landscape. The
motion of the pictures creates a sense of the city as a work of progress—and as
a source of anxiety and vertigo, which captures the mix of “idealism and destruction”
noted within the playful narration.
Part 3, “Glass,” is narrated by singer Cold Specks. “Glass”
explores the aesthetic and ideological character of city living. “Urban jungles
are made of glass,” she muses, “but what do they conceal?” The inevitable gentrification
of cities continues the relationship of idealism and destruction noted in “Concrete,”
as luxury condominiums push citizens of the lower class into tiny spaces. But
not all vertical living need be such a headache, the story goes.
Finally, “Home” offers a montage of photographs submitted by
users cut together in a musical montage that evokes how urban dwellers from
around the globe interact with their environment. “A History of the Highrise”
is a thoughtful exploration of a city at your fingertips: for all the flaws of
the concrete jungle, the photographs pulled from the Morgue show an environment
with far more life and energy than any snapshot of suburban sprawl. It’s a game
of New York stories, really, as each pop-up window lets users look into a life
of the city they might not have considered before. “Highrise” is a tour worth
taking (it takes about twenty minutes) as each interactive sequence reveals the
character of urban environments that one might not appreciate or grasp simply
by admiring the architecture.
The series is now available on the NYT
website and will be available on the NFB website in November.
City folk, click away!
City folk, click away!