Symphony of a City

"What public art does for a city is it introduces a voice into the urban infrastructure that can communicate ideas that are not motivated by city politics or corporate interests. It's a voice of democracy." -- Nick Capasso, DeCordova Museum curator

As part of the Cyberarts Festival in late April and early May 2001, artists Liz Canner and John Ewing are taking on an ambitious high-tech public art project. "Symphony of a City" puts video of the lives of a group of racially and socially distinct Bostonians onto a huge four-way split screen image on the façade of City Hall and on the web at www.symphonyofacity.org. The videos are made by wearcams (wearable video cameras) with which participants will record their daily lives; the unedited footage will in turn be served up publicly as a collective eye onto the soul of the city. This public art for the new millennium stands in stark contrast to memorials of the past. Today, public art is as likely to take the form of an ephemeral projection as it is a permanent statue.

Click on the links below to see images and to read excerpts from interview transcripts.