NO POWER

Among the events and circumstances during my stay in this great city, I find somehow interesting to talk about how life was when the hurricane Sandy strongly hit the East Coast of the United States at the end of last October. As most of the people may know, New York was one of the main affected cities and, as usual, tireless protagonist for the media. The undeniable urban- cinematographic-street profile works even better in circumstances such as these. As an alternative, I would strongly recommend to take a look at the phantasmagoric photographic work of Iwan Baan, who seemed to be in the right place at the right time.

Just to note, I had the fortune or misfortune to live another hurricane in first person too, this one happened in August 2011 and was named as Irene following, of course, the feminine-naming American tradition in regards to hurricanes. With an important difference in magnitude, paradoxically during the 2011 pre-hurricane, the media coverage was bigger, and long before it happened everyone was talking about it and making personal forecasts. Inside the elevator, on the streets, in the supermarket, especially in the supermarket where commodities were sold out in hours. New York and its extreme consumerism.
 

Plan of the MTA published by New York Times of active and inactive lines.

During the most recent hurricane, and in my case helped with the lack of TV and internet in my Brooklyn apartment, the autism was total. Basically we knew of an impending shut down of the entire transport and communication service of MTA system 3 hours before it happened. And, if I remember correctly, the closing of the bridges occurred just few hours later. We can say that from 18:00 pm on Sunday, October 28th of 2012 Manhattan was isolated from the rest of the city.  The rest of the city from the rest of state. And so on.  We were cut off in a succession of potential scales, issue that was as interesting as worrying.
 

Extracted scene from the movie "Abre los Ojos", deserted Gran Vía.

In those uncertain times, a voluntary state of siege is produced. The city is paralyzed, it generates a distortion in the rhythms, and for many days everyone look at the MTA maps desperately, now transformed on living documents, more shifting and more capricious than ever. And unreliable, indeed. Some lines such as the L were suspended for weeks.
 

Tuesday morning in a desert Times Square. Photography © Jorge Martín.

The fascinating thing about the question, is not only to be aware of the transcendental role that communication networks plays in the cities, but also the amount of possibilities they offer, becoming essential the alternative paths. At that time, the question was not knowing about how long it took you to get to work, but how to arrive indeed. The viability of walking, recovering the primitive use of bridges that link Manhattan with "everything else" was undoubtedly one of the most recommended ways. Of course, being aware that once you got inside Southern Manhattan you had no electricity, no telephone line or any coverage.
 

South View of Manhattan from the bridge Williamsburg.

I guess the city was ready for a possible shut down of the transportation lines, but no one was prepared to have no phone signal, no coverage, and no way to charge their phones. Noteworthy is the murky business of people that with spontaneous electrical generators gathering piles of people at the busiest corners. If you had wanted to charge your phone anywhere to the South of 34th st. the best thing to do, would have been to ask where was the closest American Apparel or Starbucks.

Perhaps we could say that without a need of anesthesia, Manhattan slept for a while, and obviously making not allusion to the material losses of the coastal flooded areas, nothing happened, absolutely nothing. The Seagram Building, the Empire State, and Central Park were still in the same place and days later all the street embellishments and paraphernalia of Thanksgiving and Christmas were properly placed and ready to be plugged.
 

Design of great Sebastian Errazuriz Sandy Relief I love NY t-shirt.
 

IN TREATMENT - METALOCUS.

DIRECTOR: JOSÉ JUAN BARBA. COORDINATION: INÉS LALUETA. ORGANIZATION: INÉS LALUETA, PEDRO NAVARRO. GUESTS SECOND SEASON: JOSÉ JUAN BARBA, JAVIER SANCHO, FRANCISCO PELAEZ, MICHAEL MORADIELLOS, MELISSA SCHUMACHER, VERÓNICA ROSERO, AINHOA MARTÍN.