Sentient City

About

Sentient City is a video piece that transects London, shot between Hackney Road in the east and Walworth Road in the south, with a narrative that juxtaposes the personal, economic and political processes of the city. A 30 minute slow tracking shot of the street records a night scene that is at times mundane and others cinematic, it records the transitions within the city, from social housing, to corporate HQ's, Tower Bridge to the Elephant and Castle shopping center. This meditative visual image, like looking from the window of a taxi, is accompanied by a narration that explores the multiple processes at work in the city, from banking and property to personal experience. It creates another cross section between a variety of disciplines exploring the processes of the city and ourselves, and how they are complicit in each other. Sentient City is the product of a year long project including collaborations with the Social Geographer Martine Drozdz and Ethnographer Dr Kristen Eglinton, aswell as public engagement with the New Hanbury Project to explore the transitional space between ourselves and our city. Paradise, a limited edition photo book of images of the city without text will also be launched. Architrope is a multi-disciplinary practice founded by Tom Wolseley and was formed to create and explore transitional spaces and their relationship to more organised structures of understanding. Architrope is based in CABINet - a project space converted from shipping container, situated in Fairchild's Garden, an urban park in Hackney, London. Using a variety of media and disciplins Architrope investigates our desire to identify with the physical landscape around us and often collaborates with other artists, curators, professional and the public on its projects. The whole project is intended as a catalyst to regenerate Fairchild's Garden on Hackney Road, engaging local communities and consulting them on the garden's future development. The first project, Alive in the City, was a collaboration with clients of The New Hanbury Project, a charity supporting people with addiction issues. Participants were equipped with simple mobile phone technology and invited to aurally and visually document their present day experiences and past memories of the city. Sentient City is supported by Arts Council England and London Borough of Hackney.