English text of Blind Spot

The voice-over of Blind Spot – Eindhoven is in Dutch. To make sure that English-language visitors can follow what is said, we have a location-by-location English version of the text.

1. Introduction

We are all in transition, no?
In transition between yesterday and tomorrow
Between the past and the future
What we were and what we will be
Who we are and who we mean to be

The crazy fleetingness of now, this, today, here, us

It’s exhausting
It’s thrilling
It’s privilege
It’s appalling
It’s wonderful
Its full of wonder
It’s hopeful
Its full of hope
It’s exhausting

I’m looking around me
Are you looking around you?

We love to remember yesterday
We often guess at tomorrow
But now – now is so hard to pin down, so hard to know, so hard to really see

What can we see?

A bridge, a road, a them, an us, a now, a then

Who built this bridge? Who made this?
Who decided to build it?
Who designed it? Who created the budget?
Who drove the trucks?
Who tightened the screws?
Who painted it?
Who declared it safe?
Who opened it?

And when?

Who will use it today?
To what, or from what, will they be travelling?

Do they know I have seen them? That I cared for just a moment?

And then, in a few or many days or months from now…

Who will take it down?
Who will sign its death warrant?
Who will strike the first blow?
Where will its broken parts be taken to?
And will anything ever occupy that space, up there, again?

We’re looking back, looking beyond, looking in, looking ahead. From here, from now.

Who made any of this?
Who planted those? When?
Who designed these?
Who laid this ground?
Who picked up the trash I dropped yesterday?
Who decided that this was what this, and this, and now – should be like?

What an extraordinary species we are..

Smart
Incredible
Collaborative
Visionary
Bold
Brave
Ground-breaking
Beautiful
Loving
Capable of such altruism…
And so fucking stupid

Just look
Look out
Look back
Look beyond

2. Walk between location one (ramp) and two (stairs)

Lets build this bridge between us, they said
It’s complicated, they said
It will take planning
And money
And connected thinking
And faith
But we can do it
It will be beautiful
It will be cool
It will be worth it

It will be a symbol of how we can come together
It will speak of bringing the old to the new
Of how beauty can be found in unexpected places
It will invite people to look up, look beyond, look further
It will speak of what we can do
And that we actually do it.

One day, it might even bring people together
It might even get danced on
Or danced to
Or danced for
Or danced near
Or danced at

3. Walk between location 2 (stairs) and 3 (courtyard)

Look, look out, look beyond, look around, look across the street, look over here, look over there, look down the road and up the lane, look at the windows, look through the windows, look inwards, look outwards, look ahead, look back… and actually see.
What do you choose to see? What do you choose to not see?
And listen! Listen. Can you hear your breath? Your heartbeat. Your clothing. The breeze. The people. The traffic. The city. The nation. Yesterday. Tomorrow. And now?

They are washing our windows
Making our sandwiches
Cleaning our streets
Tending our gardens
Pouring our wine
Teaching our children
Healing our sick
Helping our elderly
Training our scientists
Training our engineers
Training our technologists
Driving our trains
Delivering our goods
Saving our lives
Hearing our prayers
Holding our hands
Wiping our butts
Fixing our cars
Fixing our bikes
Fixing our souls
Building our televisions
Making our chips
Imagining our futures
Writing our stories
Taking our photos
Painting our murals
Making us laugh
And dancing… dancing! That’s so sweet!
(Shall we dance?)
Look, look here, there is dancing. We are dancing!

4. Walk between location 4 (viaduct) and 5 (Evoluon)

Look. Look! Look at us.
Walking here, today, together.
Taking time, making time, carving space. Seeing.
What a piece of work are we.

Look how amazing we are – look at all the things we can do, build, create – Together
Look at all the things we can survive, withstand, lose and grow from – Together
Look at all the things we can remember
And all the things we can imagine
All the things we can learn
And all the things we can change – if we choose to

What an incredible species we are.

And yet how foolish we can be
Building walls and boundaries and divisions
Closing doors and turning our backs
Turning cash into cash into cash

As if this can go on forever
As if it belongs to us
As if this is our god-given right
As if the future can sustain this present
As if we don’t owe those that went before us, and those that will come after us, everything

We are the best of things
We are the worst of things
We know such wisdom and such foolishness
Such belief and despair
Such light and darkness
With everything before us
So much behind us
And nothingness lying in wait.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

Look at us.
We must treasure this
We mustn’t waste it
We must thank our gods, our stars, our luck, our selves
Thank those that went before, who built us our today
And those that stand amongst us in this present
In this now.
These experts
These innovators
These workers
These guests
And these friends
It takes a city to build a city
And it takes a now to forge a tomorrow.
And this is ours.