symphony of a City

by Karen Werner

Another core theme addressed by Symphony of a City is community building.

On April 27th, four Bostonians will wear head cameras, offering various perspectives on what it means to be a community builder. In addition to presenting these varied images, Symphony of a City's Web site will provide background information about the projects and organizations in which the community builders are involved. The website also will provide an on-line bulletin board for viewers to discuss their own ideas and experiences of community building and to interact with the camera wearers.

What are some definitions of a community builder?

	Someone who builds bridges across race, gender, and/or class lines
	Someone who works in a neighborhood to make it a healthy, vital place
	Someone who is passionate and has a deep understanding about an issue
	Someone who has articulated an inclusive vision of a future
	Someone who is receptive, good at listening and able to facilitate potentially divisive conversations
	Someone who enhances or creates a sense of connection
	Someone who values people over economic gain
	Someone who inspires people to overcome their fears

While viewing the footage generated by the four community builders, consider whether or not these definitions are accurate. What else does community building entail? How do the four community builders navigate this role differently? Do the community builders seem to be working alone or with others? Are they collaborators?

In the book, Leading Minds: Anatomy of Leadership, Harvard University educator Howard Gardner defines leaders as "individuals who significantly influence the thoughts, behaviors, and/or feelings of others" (Gardner, p. 6). In what ways is leadership, according to this definition, the same as and/or different from community building?

Community builders, like artists, are indebted to their imaginations.

They work from a particular vision or sensibility. They need to believe in this vision or sensibility, seek support for it, commit to it, and realize it, amidst great challenges. Community building, like art-making, also requires a leap of faith. And both community builders and artists inspire others to notice their own visions, however outlandish they may seem, and try to make them real.

To what extent is Symphony of a City a model of community building? Through the use of new technologies, the artists, Liz Canner and John Ewing, hope to create bridges across race, gender, and/or class lines and to enhance a sense of connection in Boston. How do we know whether Symphony of a City is successful in these regards? More generally, how do we evaluate an interdisciplinary, interactive art project like Symphony of a City? Do we evaluate it according to formal, aesthetic standards as an we would a painting? Or according to the quality of the interchange, connection, and dialogue that occurs between viewers and creators? Or according to its impact on a particular political or social issue?

"Activism requires the harmonics of a full orchestra rather than the singularity of a solo performance."

- Patricia Phillips, writer

Collaboration is an integral part of the creation and meaning of Symphony of a City: the project's directors, Liz Canner, a videomaker and John Ewing, a muralist, want to raise awareness and create dialogue about issues such as housing and community leadership in Boston. The collaboration has led to an innovative mix of documentary-making and mural painting - a sort of video projection mural. To pull this idea off, the creators have sought out the expertise and resources of technophiles, a physicist, web and graphic designers, scholars, a range of community organizers, government administrators, journalists, arts funders, and publicists. The project will come to life when the camera wearers, audience, and website visitors interact. As in a symphony, the whole of this project is greater than its parts.

We must dialogue and collaborate with artists...as well as with political activists, educators, lawyers, journalists, cultural critics, and social scientists. The old schism between artists and academics must be resolved once and for all....Artists need the intellectual rigor of academics and [academics] need [artists] skills to popularize issues

- (Gomez-Pena, 1995, p.103- 104).

Collaboration is essential to most community building efforts, as we see in Symphony of a City. An effective community builder draws on the skills and resources of others. Some community builders inspire collaborators to transcend professional and bureaucratic barriers, inviting them to move in uncommon ways, outside hierarchies and specializations. This involves risk but also allows for surprising innovations and solutions. Is interdisciplinary collaboration - a confusion and harmonizing of specific roles and talents - a good way to respond to a city's challenges?

Further reading on these issues can be found in Resources



	Further exploration of the issues.



	Using the project in your classroom.