An Overgrown City
CUT. Half awake and half in dreams / Seeing long forgotten scenes. [1]
Seven o'clock. Sunlight glitz through the curtains, passes through the android’s eyes and awakes them from their deep slumber. Out of the warm sheets and soft pillows into the bathroom, still half-conscious, the andy picks out their clothes from the wardrobe. Black shirt. Cuffed pants. Gray overcoat.
Satisfied with the reflection they continue to the kitchen, preparing for breakfast. Green tea with toast. Buttered fried eggs. Caesar salad. Pâté. The android eats slowly, simultaneously watching the scenery outside passing by, letting consciousness flow in gradually. After finishing, they put on a brown tie, tie the laces of their leather boots, and be ready for the trip.
CUT. And when the streets are quiet / We’ll walk down in silence. [2]
The andy leaves their apartment and starts walking down the street. Around them are buildings that used to be bustling with people but now are all abandoned.
Bookstores displaying stacks of yellowed-out books. Food stalls with empty shelves and dusty chairs and tables, visited occasionally by animals scavenging for food. Rows of concrete housing infested, covered by vines, mosses, plants. Sunlight lingering on the gray-out, eroding walls. Swarms of branches, leaves, flowers grows out from the windows, blooming excessively.
CUT. Gentlemen take Polaroids / They fall in love, they fall in love. [3]
The android take out a camera they have kept in the pocket of their overcoat and start taking photo of the scene surrounding them.
First photo. Packs of disused swan-boat aimlessly drifting across a lake.
Second photo. The interior of a once-bustling market now deserted, with all the shops and stalls still open, displaying items that no one will buy.
Third photo. A bus stop with signage that are completely erased of information, only three numbers “16”, “24” and “27” remain.
There are tens of thousands, maybe more, photos like these inside the andy’s collection, photos which capture lost moments of this derelict city and the haunting absence of its residents. For the andy, photography has an immense power, instilling on the constantly changing/decaying landscapes an eerie calmness and stillness that demands a halting of time.
CUT. Riding inter-city trains / Dressed in European Gray. [4]
The android go up the escalator leading to the metro station. Sunlight, refracted through the ornate stained glass on the ceiling, illuminating the space with a multitude of hues. Radiant Orange. Rosy Red. Aquatic Blue. The station is old, yet the floor and ceiling never taints, the steel structure never corrodes, the waiting seats are spotless, the plants are cut, trimmed and controlled, unlike their counterpart on the street.
The android gets on the train and seats themselves facing the windows. They look out the windows as the train continues to move. The sun reflecting a luscious green from the sea of ivy draping around high-rise buildings. Cats, dogs, raccoons roaming on grassland that used to be an overpass highway. Twinkling electric light striking from the windows of automated factories still in operations. Lines of pine trees wheezing along the train lines. So many mesmerizing images, the andy could only sit and watch as they pass through their eyes.
CUT. I was waiting by the screen / I couldn’t recognize my photograph / Me, I disconnected from you. [5]
From what the android have read, the metro system is an automated-cybernetic system, with feedback and control loops enforcing self-regulation, self-correction and self-repair. At midnight, hundreds of machines arrive at each station, do examinations, clean and repair broken component. The andy once saw the machines in action. The ruthless efficiency displayed as the machines did their jobs was an awe to behold.
Trillions of observed data and analysis being shared through a system of matrices made from electric signal and radio waves in the blink of an eye. Machinery moving in a chaotic yet coordinated path. Broken assemblages removed and replaced in seconds. Digitally calculated precision. No action wasted.
Plugging into the matrices, the android sensed themselves dissolving into the system. Instructions and data flowing through their electronic body, commanding them to act. Their consciousness succumbing to the ultimate agent, the circuit/cybernetic-feedback-system. Suddenly, communications breakdown. Disconnection by the metro-machine. Error message from the system: “DETECTING UNKNOWN CODES. DISENGAGE IMMEDIATELY.”
CUT. The crystal shimmer of a blue sea / Sun kissed beaches, but there’s no one there / We cry, we sigh, again we love. [6]
The train stops at the last station of the line. Outside, a swampy field of mangroves bush partially submerged in the glittering shine of the seafloor. Exiting the station, the andy decides to walk down the paved road that leads to an island not far from here.
As they trek along the track, various things enter their vision. Large rusty tractors solitary residing on dried-up agricultural fields. Water vats from shrimp farm now tainted with a mossy green. Ragged fishing nets lying in the front yard of derelict houses. Cracked ceramic pots and chipped china sitting on the sidewalk table. Sand-filled deck chairs and torn-up beach umbrellas sporadically appearing across the coastline.
It’s raining. Only a drizzle. Yet already, a misty fog has surrounded the entire beach.
The andy likes the rain. It allows for their senses to become heightened, letting them be more aware of their surroundings.
THE EROTICS OF SENSATIONS. The sound of leaves ruffling. Seagulls squeaking at each other. The roaring of waves crashing into the shores. The salt smell coming from the ocean. The scent of grasses and leaves diffusing through the rains. The engrossing smell of wooden boats withering away.
THE ABSURDITIES OF TOUCH. The fineness of sand grains slipping through their fingers. The wetness of rain sticking to their hair. The coldness of wind brushing through their front and back. The free flow of water caressing through their body. The dampness of wood sipping into your hand. The roughness of tree trunks scaring their palm.
SENSORY OVERLOADS. Electric signals rummaging through the android, overwhelming their perceptual-consciousness system. Tears start flowing through the andy’s eyes, their whole body shivers in an awe/dread state. And yet, the android enjoys these aching moments, where their body is intensified/sublimated by the great machinery of the Sea. Joy, desire and pain coalesce into one thing. JOUISSANCE.
CUT. He felt a distant kind of longing / Another scene began. [7]
After the rain, the android finds themselves back at the station, waiting for the train to arrive. Their next destination is an old archive where films from the human age are preserved to perfect conditions. Shelves of film stocks, cassettes, CDs neatly organized according to category and name. Rows of computer servers storing digital movies. Next by, a dusty room containing projectors, displays and cameras from various periods. Going further, a cinema room.
The film starts rolling. Transient scenes appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. Long shots that imprint themselves on the viewer’s unconscious. Cuts and edits constructing meaning/affects/emotions from raw footage. Characters talking, moving under the dusty light of the projectors. Old dreams and desires surfacing again on the screen, projecting back to the viewing participants. The android sense an aching melancholy, a longing for those dazzling people so close yet so far.
CUT. Take the lovebird / Kiss the stranger / Leave the trailer / Take the car /Feel the sound rushing over you / QED. [8]
Exiting the cinema, the android proceed to go the art borough near the riverside of the city. It used to be the epicenter of culture in the city. People from all corners gathered around this area to see the newest and most novel ways to do art/fashion/music.
Dancing and clubbing to machinic beats of the synth. Photograph themselves in frivolous dress and intricate make-up pattern. Constructing abstract structures out of old B-52 scraps left from the war. Filming themselves constructing, building, subjecting to a new vision, a new concept, a new idea.
The smile on their face, the joy of the new from those dreamers and desire-machines are long gone, only their artifacts remain, displaying themselves through the dusty windows of ruinous buildings.
CUT. The ghosts of my life / Blew wilder than the wind. 9
The android decides to venture through the endless empty concrete housings on the street, searching for other artifacts that humans left behind. A fraying photo album containing all the intimate events of its inhabitants, all their birthdays, wedding, and anniversaries. A decrepit wardrobe full of clothes imbue in the smells of their owners. A painting of a beautiful young girl wearing a light gold dress, enjoying a sip of tea as she gazed to the horizon. All these things make the andy feel a strange closeness to the residence of the city. Ghosts that left traces of the city.
Already evening, stars in the night twinkling in the darkness of the streets. The android go back to their apartments to prepare dinner and a good night sleeps.
Inspirations: The Quiet Man (John Foxx), Replica (Tubeway Army), Usuzumi no Hate (Iwamune Haruo).
Reference: [1]: Like An Angel Passing Through My Room (The Visitors – ABBA)
[2]: Just For A Moment (Systems Of Romance – Ultravox)
[3]: Gentlemen Take Polaroids (Gentlemen Take Polaroids – Japan)
[4]: Hiroshima Mon Amour (Ha! Ha! Ha! – Ultravox)
[5]: Me, I Disconnect From You (Replica – Tubeway Army)
[6]: Again We Love (The Anvil – Visage)
[7]: A New Kind Of Man (Metamatic – John Foxx)
[8]: Zero As A Limit (Reproduction – The Human League)