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St. Louis City Hospital: A History

Concert at City Hospital

2004; Written and performed by Michael R. Allen; Taped by Amanda Allen; Edited by David Sladky.

The short video Concert at City Hospital considers the aesthetics of chance and the ways in which urban decay supports spontaneous creation.

Taped over the course of several spring days in 2002, the video is the result of an improvised concert that involves a writer, a piano dumped just outside of the then-new fence surrounding the abandoned City Hospital, a wrecking crew unaware of their own participation and, of course, the buildings of the hospital themselves.

The "concert" begins with introductory comments by Michael R. Allen, and proceeds to involve his making sounds with an old piano that lies on its side next to the impressive buildings of the hospital. The piano playing is briefly interrupted by the harsh reality of the in-progress demolition of the Malcolm Bliss Psychiatric Center building. During Allen's playing of the piano, many ambient sounds interact with those he is making: sirens, traffic sounds, noises from the doors of active buildings and so forth.

The concert moves on to a reading of Allen's monologue "Synchronic Myth," and returns to images of the workers ending their workday at the Malcolm Bliss demolition.

Concert at City Hospital had its debut on April 22, 2004 at the First Annual Southwestern Illinois College Film and Video Festival.

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