Hard Times and Culture, Downey's last tape, was to be the first part of a series on the nexus of cultural creativity and economic, political and social forces. Downey subjectively documents periods in which economic hardships coincided with intensified creative output in the fine arts, literature and culture at large. Part One, Vienna 'fin-de-siècle' focuses on the Austro-Hungarian Empire one hundred years ago, when its decline interlocked closely with the emergence of modernism in the arts and psychoanalysis. Downey frames this program on Vienna with references to contemporary New York.