9y40, The Sound Of A Narrated New York

9y40

What is needed to properly narrate a city? For a writer the highest ambition in this respect should be to quote and reproduce the truest “voice” of the city itself. Daniel J Wilson’s project began with the process of getting a yellow cab license in New York and working for a month of night shifts (from 5pm – 5am). He was secretly recording every conversation he had, collecting tens of hours of captures. Now the artist is presenting the final piece in the same environment, a working taxi, where people can enjoy his narrative of stolen sampling during their ride. The taxi still retains its public role in driving people around in a variety of conditions, and so it can be considered a sort of public place, where the narration, made through dialogues, is continued in a fragmentary manner. Wilson as a taxi driver becomes then the scriptwriter, verbally designing backgrounds and situations, where the passengers will unconsciously ride.

9Y40: Process

On Becoming a NYC Hack