Photographers love urban decay. We see endless images of ruins from cities like Detroit, Flint, and Gary. Once-charming downtown areas in many cities and towns have been boarded up and abandoned. Dying American towns and cities can either be the remnants of suburban flight, or the symptoms of a nation in decline. 

In Frayed Cities, I wanted to explore images and sounds from dying cities. Using the idea of city planning and blueprints of buildings as a springboard into the video, I developed sketch drawings of people and cities. Through animating these sketches, I attempted to create an abstract narrative that explores the fact that there are no plans in place to reverse urban blight or aid the people who may be stuck living in these areas. With this in mind, I composed the music with sounds derived from crowds, construction/destruction, closing/opening doors, and other sources.