Ground Report

"Street" is a video made by James Nares, an English artist living in New York City. He traveled by SUV around New York for a week in September 2011, with an unobtrusive high-speed camera. Later he edited 16 hours of imagery into 61 minutes, all in slow-motion. The Metropolitan premiered the video in New York. The music is by Thurston Moore, described as a friend of the artist on the wall text. It’s pretty, aimless, acoustic 12 string guitar, which continues throughout the video. The music in "Street" determines that we see a white hipster view of New York. Also, the slow-mo creates an irony — real people become half-humorous "types" (even solemn hipsters with bad posture). This is an anesthesized city, a city seen through iPod music. If it’s possible to gentrify art, Trevor has done so.