4.8 • 27.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2019
⏱️ 62 minutes
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0:00.0 | This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. |
0:05.4 | I don't trust anyone who doesn't love a good map. Even something as everyday and |
0:10.4 | basic as a Rand McNally Road Atlas could occupy me for hours in the backseat of a hot car. |
0:17.0 | But if you want my eyes to literally dilate with excitement, show me a 3D physical scale model of a city. |
0:24.0 | There's one of these in San Francisco, a 41 by 37 foot scale model of the city |
0:29.0 | that was created in the late 1930s and then lost for decades. |
0:34.0 | It was recently unearthed, refurbished, and distributed in pieces to neighborhood libraries. |
0:39.0 | I had heard about this crazy model years ago, some cryptic allusion to it, maybe in the |
0:46.1 | Chronicle, they just said there was this enormous scale model of San Francisco |
0:52.3 | that once was on display briefly and then vanished. |
0:57.0 | The idea that there was a miniature world is something just so irresistible to your child-like brain. |
1:03.5 | This model of the city is a tangible 3D roadmap through time and space, |
1:09.0 | triggering stories from San Francisco's past, realities of the present, and visions of the future. |
1:15.2 | These stories were collected by the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nicki Silva, and produced |
1:20.0 | into the gorgeous audio collage we're going to play for you today. Here's |
1:24.1 | Nicki Silva. Our story begins with this gigantic handmade model made up of |
1:29.3 | over 6,000 tiny carved buildings and bridges forgotten for almost 80 years. |
1:35.8 | It involves artists, curators, poets, planners, and a mega collaboration between SF-moma and 29 branches of the San Francisco Public Library. |
1:46.9 | This object has become the catalyst for over 100 public programs throughout San Francisco. |
1:53.1 | It's activated bicycle tours. |
1:55.6 | It's lured in thousands of locals and tourists |
1:58.1 | and historians triggered people's memories |
... |
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