Structural Patterns

As I traverse the city from day to day, commuting to work or running errands or out alone or with friends, there are always interesting moments on the streets of NYC. The vast majority of us merely keep our eyes straight ahead focused on our tasks or destinations, ignoring the personal realities of the strangers around us. Generally, I find inspiration in public life and try to remain open to whatever maybe going on around me. Unfortunately, at times observing life can be very upsetting. However, generally, there’s plenty to celebrate, so I’ve started a video series capturing the pleasurable or unexpected in urban life.

It was late and I didn’t want to miss the train that I heard arrive, otherwise I was itching to join that guy and dance along, following his quebradita to the drone.

This is the latest animated loop inspired by traversing the city. Whether walking or on public transit, observations of urban life trigger visual ideas that are rendered as brief animations. Audio accompanying the animations are recordings from urban walks as well as interviews with NYC residents. The audio accompanying this animation is from a brief excerpt from an extended interview with my 86 year old neighbor Louise.

Go to rmz.nyc to see the entire series, click on the central image to go from one to the next. Through the combination of animation, WebGL, web video and audio as well as various javascript libraries such as p5.js and three.js, the browser is employed as a canvas.