I can see my house from here

We used to waste hours just walking around/We used to wait/All those wasted lives in the wilderness downtown

Songs are places. This song is your place. The one you grew up in. The one you have left behind. The one you are running away from. Or towards?

Arcade Fire’s song “We Used To Wait“, from their latest album “The Suburbs” (highly acclaimed by well established magazines, such as Uncut, Mojo and so many others, and by alternative digital websites and blogs, such as Pitchfork and Gorilla vs Bear) is a haunting tune about the no man’s land that is memory.

“The Wilderness Downtown”, directed by Chris Milk, is an interactive interpretation of the song, where a faceless man (me? you?) is running around the streets of his/her childhood*. By entering your childhood address,  a narrative unfolds, revealing beautifully rendered images and videos of your hometown. Choreographed windows, custom-rendered maps, flocking birds and growing trees create a personalised scenery. At the end, you can make amends with your past, writing a beautifully typefaced note to the person you once were, only to see it incorporated in the video.

*prerequisites: this is a Chrome Experiment, so you need to view it through Google home. Also the experience will be better if your neighborhood is mapped on Google Street Viewer of Google Maps.

We used to wait
We used to waste hours just walking around
We used to wait
All those wasted lives in the wilderness downtown