As a space of inevitable flux and evolution, the city often seems to exist outside of itself at times. Journeys through the spaces of this city are inextricably bound with memory. Experiences unfold in a place and become part of the history and mythology of that space.
Public mythology like the memory of the World Trade Center. Or private mythology. Remembering the bench where she sat and cried when she received the news of her mother’s death and from then on, quietly acknowledging the power that this bench has as she walks by on her commute.
Memory feeds mythology. And mythology, in more ways than I think we would like to admit, is part of what feeds the outsider’s fascination with New York City. It is certainly what fed mine prior to my journey here.
Time is the continuum in which memory and mythology are synthesized and carried forward. And film, as filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky described in his text Sculpting in Time, is truly the medium of time.
Film is memory imprinted. It is time imprinted. Film is unique in that it creates an index—a lived document of light and shadow—that when exhibited, allows for the experiencing of a memory in actual time. One could say that it is the closest that we might come to re-experiencing a lived memory.
For this reason, the filmic documents that characterize and crystallize our memories of a forever-changing city become crucial waypoints in a study of the way the city existed in past times, but also in how and why certain spaces become imbued with meaning that transcends generations. It is information that we need as we decide and shape the way that the city continues to be remembered and mythologized.
In my course at Jefferson Market Library, Ephemeral New York, Ephemeral Image, we will dive into The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ extensive 16mm film collections as a way of beginning a conversation that surrounds not only the history of New York City, but also how and why these historical documents can (and do) change and reconstruct our perception and remembrance of the city’s pasts and give us insight into how we might conceive of documenting the future.
Matt Whitman is an American film and video artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently part-time faculty at Parsons the New School for Design. Whitman holds an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design and a Master of Arts degree in Media Studies from The New School for Public Engagement.
