Influenced by the modernist and avant garde movements at the turn of the 20th Century, artists began to embrace a new form of expression – the documentary film – to capture the ultimate human achievement: the modern city. Films that emerged from this artistic style captured both individual cities (such as Walter Ruttman’s Berlin: Symphony of a City) and imagined urban spaces created from parts of many cities (such as Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera). Regardless, underlying themes came to light: the films tend to focus on humans interacting within man-made environments, the films were meticulously constructed in the editing studio, and the films often offered political or social commentary on life within these urban spaces. These films utilize clips much like a symphony uses notes to build melody, harmony, or dissonance. While each note might hold an individual tone of beauty, it is the collection of notes and clips that construct meaning, and merit the work a piece of art.
The Eye Enters Life project re-imagines the city symphony in a modern capacity. Using footage shot across five continents, we were driven to ask: what would modern urban spaces look like next to each other? Would we recognize difference or would we recognize sameness? Would harmony or dissonance prevail? Using any recording devices available – video camcorders, SLRs, cell phones, point-and-shoots – shooters explored the themes of humanism in the urban spaces around them. All footage was uploaded to a common vimeo page where collaborators could instantaneously see what footage was shot in Nice, Beijing, Cadiz, St. Petersburg, Capetown, Reykjavik. The One Day on Earth Project is a similar experiment that created a unique geo-tagged video archive as well as an upcoming feature film. Similarly, the UNsceneDC project is a similar geo-tagged video archive concentrated on one city.
The Global City Symphony Film premiered in February 2012 at the Global Film Festival in Williamsburg, Virginia.