You are not here.
By ZAK ROSEN [Transom] – About a year ago, a neighbor of mine told me about this guy Neil’s fake place project. She said that he was mapping a really expansive, detailed metro region on 17, huge poster boards. I was intrigued. I had heard Neil’s name several times before but hadn’t yet met him. Then finally he and I were introduced through mutual friends on a Saturday morning at Eastern Market, one of Detroit’s weekly farmers markets. I expressed interest in doing a story on his project and we exchanged numbers.
A few months later I went to his apartment to check out the maps and do some recording. I interviewed Neil for about 4-hours (none of that tape made it into the final cut), without really knowing what direction the story would go. All I knew at the time was that Neil’s vision was so inspiring and creative, that a conventional profile piece would NOT do him or his project justice. I understood that though his ideas were really eccentric and quirky, it was, more importantly, grounded in something that could be used for real-life application…
At some point I thought about how cool it might be to climb into Neil’s head, to get an idea of what he sees when he looks at his maps. Point to any area or intersection and Neil will seamlessly delve into the history of that block, that neighborhood, that business district, etc. It’s really amazing. None of the narratives that he so easily accesses in conversation are written down. It’s all in his head, working itself out as this organic, living thing.
Continued at Transom [with audio file] | Another view from Triple Canopy | More Chronicle & Notices.
