If you’ve been reading along, you probably know I don’t think Ann Arbor is much of a cool city anymore. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t hate the place at all, even if I adore ann arbor is overrated. In truth, I think it’s a great place to live and a great place to raise kids. But it’s not cool - it’s not hip, it’s not trendy, it’s not cutting edge. Ann Arbor isn’t creating trends any more, it’s just slurping them up from elsewhere. There used to be some great subversive and creative energy around, but since they chased out the artists and downtown became so expensive that the cool little independent stores and restaurants had to leave, it’s all moved to points east and elsewhere. There is nothing edgy, nothing new, nothing that hasn’t been market-tested to death to insure its commercial viability in this town anymore. And don’t get me started on the chocolate shops. (Have you counted the number of ice cream and chocolate shops in downtown? What is this, Mackinac Island?)

So you can imagine my skepticism at finding out about the city’s plans to submit grant applications to the Cool Cities Initiative. What sort of conservative-in-liberal’s-clothing plan was this going to be? Some new and pseduo-clever way to monetize the Creative Class?

I am happy to report that I was bowled over by the proposals. They knocked my socks off. Either or both of them might actually work to give the city a bit of a cool infusion.

One proposal involves a public art work to be installed on the side of the Maynard Street parking structure (over the road, facing Liberty Street). The work has been been developed by a team of students at the UM School of Art and Design who made me feel proud to be an alum myself. The proposed sculpture would be made of LED light tubes and steel tubes in a sort of abstract, unidirectional starburst shape. The tubes would be connected to a computer which would vary their color and light according to the pitch of sounds generated by passers-by. There would be a directional mic which would pick up tones when someone stands in a certain designated spot and talks or sings or whistles or whatnot. It’s simple and clever and it was clear from the presentation that a lot of thought has gone into the project.

I think it would be a great addition to the State Street area. One of my very favorite, maybe even my absolute favorite, sculptures in town is the Cube, largely because it is an everchanging shape in its little plaza and the changes come from human interaction. Even if the plaza is empty, when the cube is spinning, you know that someone has recently passed through. That’s art to me, and this proposed sculpture has the potential to be the same, very best kind of urban art: interactive art.

In addition to that proposal, the Michigan Theater is proposing to remodel some areas of its lobby and mezzanine to create ‘video lounges’ in order to promote the concept of microcinema. And - AND! - there is talk of getting a digital projector as well. CinemaSlam - local microcinema at its best, if I don’t say so myself - would benefit from a new projector so much. Needless to say, this was all very exciting to me as well.

Films are being made all over southeast Michigan, with no real center of gravity in any one place. With a proper microcinema commitment at a venue like the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor could have the potential to become that missing focal point for independent filmmaking in Michigan. We have the legacy of the Ann Arbor Film Festival in experimental film with us already, why not build on that and make Ann Arbor into a welcoming and attractive place for all kinds of independent filmmakers? Video and filmmaking are becoming accessible to so many more people because equipment and editing suites have trickled down into the ‘prosumer’ market. Facilitating that creative energy, which can now come from many, many kinds of people, instead of only an established and well-funded elite, is thrilling. Not to mention, cool.

What makes a city cool is not the safe, market-tested, commerically-viable stuff. It’s the new stuff, the independent and experimental stuff, the stuff that pushes the boundaries and challenges people to (gasp) think. A committment to that kind of energy, if these proposals are successful, is exactly the kind of thing that has the potential to make Ann Arbor cool again.