相信只需不阻止公屋住戶在其每層走廊或大堂放置幾張椅子，就能促進鄰居的交流和使社區恢復生氣
I have a habit of jogging in park or playground after dinner. Tonight, at first, two old men walked with different speed and certain distance, but then, say just several minutes later, they walked side by side with similar speed and started chatting. I “secretly” listened to what they are talking about. Ha! Trivial but relaxing chatting about recent heavy raining and typhoon.Thursday, June 26, 2008
Notes on Walter Benjamin
Notes on article about Walter Benjamin’s notion of Allegory and Symbol, Fragmentary, and Representing the Other
l Benjamin addressed Allegory over symbol
l Reject German Literature of highly symbolic
l Regard Allegory as fragmentary which is closing to the flashing-moment nature of reality experience
l Symbol as Beauty and Eternality, which both are artificial
l Allegory as inner reality of symbol
l The entity and harmony of Symbol is based on the repressing its counterpart Allegory
l Interested in the difference between parts and its counterpart entity
l The fragmentary between allegory and the reality
l Visual technology, film and photography
l 19C photography preserved a space of reality, similar to what the psycho-analyst called the unconscious (optical unconscious?)
l the world and space in photo, as “other”, which is different from human empirical world, beyond human consciousness
l how to represent the “other”
l “other” as unconscious, but “the Other” as association of symbolic system that suggested by psycho-analysis
l Benjamin’s “the Other” explores the alienating of granted order, time and linguistic system
l Symbolic arts function as integrate (associate or making connection of) empirical (phenomenal?) world and ethic world, material world and transcend world, beauty and ritual experience as well
l (For Ancient Greek Mythology)Man-nature-god are belonged to different levels of experience, but they are never stopped to exchange, transform and translate to each other
l image and divinity
l Symbolic Arts can only reach the Aesthetics, but doing nothing with the History
l The fullness of Aesthetics is used to compensate the lacking of existence, and the formalist harmony function as compensating the fragmentary of History.
l When the illusion of entity embedded in Symbol loses its aura, history become fragmentary
l Both (history and symbol, or symbol and allegory?) are system which is generated by image and symbols
l For symbolic arts, certain symbols are upgraded and sublime as entity of divinity
l Without (the god of ) naming (language), world does not exist
l The Harmony of symbolic arts is an imaginary (Ideal) harmony
l Symbol as Ideal
l Allegory admit the lacking of human being
l Melancholy as alienation of human-nature-god, lacking of transcendence (divinity)
l The Other as Melancholic object which travel and do not belong to the space and time between the empirical world and transcend world
l Melancholy as both of lacking and being too much, destroying and construction
l Allegory as new reality of symbol
l The Other as against socialization
l Symbol employs reality effect on illusion, while allegory reveals the nature of illusion (similar to self-reflexive ethnography, don’t pretend to be objective, address the existence of authorship)
l Illusion supports (governs) the entity of symbolic order
l (fragmentation VS continuity) similar to (allegory VS symbol and History)
(P. 182)
Drafted research schedule
26June2008
Corridor in Public Housing
1st stage: Experience and Practice ()
Why Practice comes first: In order to avoid interfere experience, prevent I from only see and empathize what theories tell, but allow discovery and thus unexpected outcome is welcomed
Attitude: I may prefer the attitude inspired by the essence of eastern performing and acting (indeed it is quite phenomenology which interests experience over any metaphysical thinking), that is, the attitude of both involving (the environment or activities) and observing (others, and sometimes more importantly, the observer him/herself, whatever behavior and inner, like the state of meditation)
(With regard to the notion of meditation, I may introduce one of most influential master, Osho, later. )
June ~ July
Aug ~ Sept
Oct ~ Dec Further project in
2nd stage: Theoretical research enhancing
Jan ~ Feb Theory and Thesis
March ~ Apirl Video with performance, Thesis
May ~ June Exhibition
(In BLUE) ~~ terminology need to be explained and explored
Drafted / Brain-stormed Proposal:
Project Title:
Corridor in public housing
Inspiration:
The urban planning of HKSAR (especially those 10 years) makes me sick, torturing me. The over-high building ignores surrounding environment (including trees, old building, old streets, heritage, community activity and etc.), with some even over the level of mountain. I don’t think I am full of nostalgia.
I start experiencing and understanding how urban planning (or with smaller scale, architecture) determines our behavior and thinking. I will prefer the smaller scale, and lively spatial analysis of street (or corridors), over the big scale of urban planning. Attempt to reveal the ideology which governs the structure of urban planning.
1st draft:
still narrowing down the research focus
Hk and
Public space / house-used space --- how they use their space
Wet market/ supermarket
Ethnographic research
Video recording as research material
Thick description / micro-narrative / optical unconscious / analysis after filming
The power to still frame
The medium specificity / uniqueness of cinematic form over textual language
Start from below / micro / daily-practice, over big theory / grand-narrative / macro-like ideology
Regard research as process of discovery, instead of reinforcing pre-conception (otherwise, I will see only what I want and expect)
Discovery as Alienation (Bertolt Brecht)
Thus, conclusion will never be drawn before the research project
(For those are written in BLUE, are less relevant now to my project, and it maybe just for reference)
Thank for the “helpful” public housing policy of HKSAR, the strict security policy likely alienate the space of housing and street. The highly monitoring eye of security guards, the security blocking/wall(?), and even photo/video recording is not welcomed within the space of public housing.
I believe that social understanding and trust is much more important and useful than the deadly strict security policy. With regard to柏齊 (an local activist photographer), the level of social harmony, security and understanding varies directly with how often the residence themselves (NOT the security guards and companies hired by the government) use the space where they are living in and near by. When they are using the space, not only they are “taken advantages” from the space for their activities, but also “give their efforts” to monitor and take care for the space where they are enjoying. For example, as 柏齊 shared, in Shan Shi Po, an old district of Hong Kong, an old wood craftsman uses the space outside and near his shop (後巷)for making his wood-craft. Some may condemn the craftsman as illegally occupation of the public space, but if we step back and think again, the old craftsman has also served for monitoring and clearing the space. He used, therefore his eye help to watch out for any incident happened in this particular space.
Concept:
Public space (more specific: street / public estate (housing) corridor公屋走廊 (maybe even more specific for only chuk yuen estate) / the use of space )
Highest floor view (山線)
Ethnographic research for creative intervention (e.g. public exhibition / the research thesis may be sent as review(?) document to the planning department of HKSAR)
Key words:
Public space, space politics, use of space, documentary, ethnography, performance, poor theatre, Grotowski, alienation, Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin, Peter Brook,
How the project may get started:
Drifting in the public housing (Walter Benjamin?)
Photo/video recording in friends’ public housing, and invite them to join my project as well.
Spatial analysis can be possible only if we engage and involve in the space where we analyze.
Aim:
Boost social trust
As sharing
Monitor the urban planning (no more building higher than the line of mountain, which is against the international law)
Methodology:
My approach may be like:
Practice/experience ---à negotiation ß--Theory / Ideology
Dialectics of practice and theory
Research attitude:
Regard research as process of discovery, instead of reinforcing pre-conception. Otherwise, I will see only what I want and expect.
Media chosen:
Things can be narrated and discussed only if it is mediated (e.g. become words, photos, video and etc).
Film and photo
(1) Photo / performance / video Exhibition: site-specific
Photo may be posted on the site where was captured in the photo (e.g. I take a photo of a playground, from unusual perspective of a 19-floor public estate building, and then this photo will be posted on somewhere of the playground)
(2) 1st level of video documentation:
for observing how the residence uses the space, tend to reduce the disturbance of the space
2nd level of video with performance:
interfere the space with “performance (art)” (may not be performing arts, but live art / happenings something that cannot be expected, and focus on how body reveal the living space, e.g. use body to visualize a space in where the ceiling is unusually higher than any other floor’s ceiling)
Local artists/ group who (may) interested in the issue:
(I think I will interview them)
柏齊 (activist local photographer, former social worker, interest in urban planning)
8a (local activist NGO)
Inmedia (Independent Media of
Distribution and funding:
(If recourse is available, say funding from University)
Research will be wasteful if it cannot be distributed and reach the public.
Money will be needed for the distribution, say making hard copies (or more cheaply, online distribution, but it seems less attractive)
Blog and archive for the photos
Reference suggested:
Situational International
Benjamin
Flesh and City (which about space politics from the time of ancient Greek)
The Empty Space (written by Peter Brook)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)