31 December 2010

#7 - The Wildnerness Downtown


Okay, make sure you're reading this in Google's Chrome browser.

You don't have it? Go get it.

Now, check out a pretty damn cool Chrome Experiment: The work done around "The Wildnerness Downtown", based upon Arcade Fire's song, "We Used to Wait".

The Wildnerness Downtown

I loved music videos growing up. I was addicted to MuchMusic (boxes of videotapes in the basement confirm this) and I would sometimes hear a song and sketch out how I thought the video should go - for a brief time, I considered "Music Video Director" as a potential career (thankfully not too long).

I thought that pretty much everything has been done in the music + visual medium, but then I read about this project and downloaded Chrome solely for this experience.



The combination of integrating memories with modern technology blew my mind, and gave me pause as I looked at my old neighbourhood from old and new angles. The ability to interact with a music video is not something I had ever considered. Not only does it work, it gives each person a unique experience, evoking different memories and emotions.

The Wilderness Downtown makes me excited to see what creative minds will bring in the future, particularly when it comes to music.

2 comments:

TJ said...

Tried this and wasn't that impressed. There was only an overhead and street shot. Was yours somehow more impressive?

At first I didn't even recognize it as my neighborhood.

Alas.

Amanda said...

I loved this too (and the fact that song is KILLER good helped!) My dad was totally blown away. I think my Grandpa, who doesn't really 'get' computers or the internet couldn't even wrap his mind around how they 'did that'.