Audio Tour

Anyplace, Brooklyn

By Samara Smith

Anyplace, Brooklyn, an audio walking tour of Downtown Brooklyn, premiered at Conflux, the annual New York Festival for Contemporary Psychogeography, in September, 2007. Participants described the experience as “eye-opening,” “multi-layered,” “complex,” “nuanced,” and “informative and thoughtful.”

“Part art project, part history lesson and part contemporary social criticism.”
(The Brooklyn Paper)

The audio walk mixed documentary sounds, interviews and guided observation to explore critical issues raised by New York City’s Downtown Brooklyn Development Plan including: public space, democracy, eminent domain, freedom of expression and privatization. Walkers explored two very distinct areas of downtown Brooklyn: the small business area on and around Fulton Mall, and the privately-owned-public-space called Metro Tech Commons. While experiencing these highly contrasted versions of public life in NYC, participants learned that the city passed the Downtown Brooklyn Development Plan to encourage more towering office and residential construction in the low-rise Fulton Mall area. Through narration and interviews with area residents, activists and shoppers, this audio walk asked participants to carefully observe public life in Downtown Brooklyn and to imagine the kind of public space and city they would like to see.

“Thank you for this experience. It was sublime… Social studies, local politics, and
race relations were all explored while examining buildings and neighborhoods I had previously only breezed through without really stopping to notice anything.
This audio walk made me think about my community in a richer, deeper way.“
– Participant Comment

Read more participant comments and reviews.

Public Experience:

Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY 2006 – 2007

Exhibition:

Conflux Festival, NY, NY, 2007

Presentations:

Artist Talk, Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro, NC, 2014.
Audio Tours and Civic Engagement, Syracuse University, NY (2008)
Expanding the Documentary: New Media and Digital Documentary, SUNY, Purchase, NY (2011)
The Urban Documentary: New Forms for New Cities, Visible Evidence 18, NYC, NY (2011)

LISTEN TO TOUR EXCERPTS HERE
(please use headphones)

Excerpt One

Excerpt Two