How a city changes in two centuries

Charlotte, North Carolina

Cities change and grow all the time, and while we may notice the odd construction project, we don't really see how a city is constantly evolving.

However, visual artist Rob Carter has developed a unique and entertaining way of showing the 200 year history of a city on video, using uses stop-motion animation, time-lapse video and large format photographs... in nine minutes.

Using the city of Charlotte, North Carolina as an exammaple, he, in his short film Metropolis, charts its growth starting with the city's first house in the 1700s.

According to Carter, the city is one of the fastest growing urban areas in the U.S., mostly due to a massive influx of major banks that led to a mass architectural and population expansion - one that shows no sign of slowing post-financial crisis.

Metropolis by Rob Carter - Last 3 minutes from Rob Carter on Vimeo.

In his words, "Metropolis is a quirky and very abridged narrative history of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. It uses stop motion video animation to physically manipulate aerial still images of the city (both real and fictional), creating a landscape in constant motion. Starting around 1755 on a Native American trading path, the viewer is presented with the building of the first house in Charlotte. From there we see the town develop through the historic dismissal of the English, to the prosperity made by the discovery of gold and the subsequent roots of the building of the multitude of churches that the city is famous for. Now the landscape turns white with cotton, and the modern city is ‘born', with a more detailed re-creation of the economic boom and surprising architectural transformation that has occurred in the past 20 years."

"Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, primarily due to the continuing influx of the banking community, resulting in an unusually fast architectural and population expansion that shows no sign of faltering despite the current economic climate. However, this new downtown Metropolis is therefore subject to the whim of the market and the interest of the giant corporations that choose to do business there. Made entirely from images printed on paper, the animation literally represents this sped up urban planners dream, but suggests the frailty of that dream, however concrete it may feel on the ground today. Ultimately the video continues the city development into an imagined hubristic future, of more and more skyscrapers and sports arenas and into a bleak environmental future. It is an extreme representation of the already serious water shortages that face many expanding American cities today; but this is less a warning, as much as a statement of our paper thin significance no matter how many monuments of steel, glass and concrete we build."

Click here to see more of Rob Carter's work.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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