When we move through a city, we each find different significances, a shopper sees through windows, a driver notices signs, while plumbers, groundsmen and electricians see networks of systems that most people are oblivious to. In this video the significance of attainable routes, of trackways, supports and trajectories is almost tangible.
Of course Danny McCatskill is a real specialist - and has a great folowing amongst bmx enthusiasts, but he has also made a profession out of an intimate understanding and knowledge of cityscape terrain. He scrutinises every corner, bump and post with an almost visceral sense. Those that would complain about his activities should consider how much more involved in the fabric of the city he is than most pedestrians could ever be, in his mind every space becomes a leap and every rail a balanced track.
I would love to see the out-takes from this video, to see exactly how planned and surveyed each of these complex set-pieces is.
Funny that you get a real sense of enjoyment of the built environment from him, that he seems to delight in exactly the same elements that urban planners and cityscape designers find exciting too. Having seen some designers get excited about a sequence of revetments, or the intersecting falls of paving combined with flights of steps, it is good to know that the bmx'ers are perhaps their most appreciative audience.
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