THE MODEL CITY
(Sam Meech, Tom Rea Smith, 2008)

A little film about a big city.
A monster film about a miniature city.

a film by Sam Meech
Music by Amos (Tom Rea Smith)
Production Assistant - Neringa Plange
Commissioned by BBC Big Screen, Liverpool as part of 'Sizemology', curated by Bren O'Callaghan

The Model City is an experimental short film project about the City of Liverpool, past present and future. It is an unusual investigation into the design and scale of our urban environment, exploring the architectural models that have attempted to shape our vision of what the city could be. This moribidly playful film reveals a vision of a city so big that the people look like insects and a city so small that even insects begin to dwarf the architecture. This is Liverpool seen from both a micro and macro perspective at once.

Models are a playground of ideas for the city planners and architects. The Model City allows us to think about what happens once these models are forgotten… dust gathers, time moves on, but the people and the buildings stay the same. There may be new inhabitants too… baby spiders hatch in the rooftop of Clayton Square Shopping Centre, giant stick insects cling to the anglican cathedral, a millipede traverses the Albert Docks, whilst a plague of locusts descends on the new Liverpool One development.

This is an absurd look at how architecture and scale affects the freedom to explore those spaces typically defined as 'private' or off-limits; the narrow paths of public access, accessible perhaps only to the wealthy and how private ownership is balanced against public freedom.

Produced by Luden AV in Partnership with the BBC Big Screen, The Model City is a unique site-specific film project. The final film was orginally screened in the heart of the City Centre on the BBC Big Screen in Clayton Square, where viewers where were encouraged to think about the scale of the city, both onscreen and immediately around them. The work was commissioned as part of the SIZEMOLOGY programme, put together by curator Bren O'Callaghan, and featured alongside works by Alex Pearl, Pipillotti Rist, Eva Lee, Hiraki Sawa, and Eric Olofson.

Selected Screenings

June 2008 – 'SIZEMOLOGY' - BBC Big Screen, Liverpool, UK

September 2008 – 'Local Heroes' @ A Small Cinema, View Two Gallery, Liverpool, UK

June 2009 - Glastonbury festival, UK