In light of globalization, people , information and things are interconnected, chained together, making things convenient. Good as it might seems, interconnectivity chains people to a fast paced lifestyle, information flashes before their eyes, blurring their sight and focus. This leads us to a question – interconnectivity, good or bad?
Space: mall (Festival Walk)
Topic: interconnectivity: structural & visual
Objective: interconnectivity—good or bad?
Research
Total no. of escalators: 35 (based on floor plan)
Net width of each escalator: 1.17 m
No. of escalators investigated: 5 (located at the mall center)
Numbering escalators: from lowest to top
Stopwatch: Time escalator duration individually (assuming one stands still) & time shortest walk duration from one escalator to another (average teenager walking speed)
Visual count: Count the shops seen from a person with height 1.74m on an escalator from upwards and downwards directions (a head tilt of 90 degrees to the right and left at maximum, no limit to upwards and downwards head tilt)
Couple count: 3 trials were taken for each escalator, number of couples were count on the escalator in 1 minute, then an average was taken for each escalator (corr to the 1 decimal place)
| No. of escalator | 1st trial | 2nd trial | 3rd trial | Average |
| 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4.7 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2.3 |
| 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| No. of/ between escalator(s) | Time(s) | Upwards visual shop count | Downwards visual shop count | Average couples per min (pair) |
| 1 | 20 | 14 | 11 | 2 |
| 1->2 | 55 | |||
| 2 | 31 | 14 | 14 | 6 |
| 2->3 | 27 | |||
| 3 | 30 | 17 | 19 | 4.7 |
| 3->4 | 34 | |||
| 4 | 20 | 13 | 14 | 2.3 |
| 4->5 | 30 | |||
| 5 | 20 | 11 | 12 | 1 |
Storyboard
Description:
The design of modern shopping malls focusses much on providing a stunning visual experience to people. This research focuses on the escalators, analysing it in both visual and structural connectivity as well as its users.
Visual connectivity
The diagonal positioning and placement of the escalators enable users to access many view points to the mall, increasing exposure of shops to the customer, potentially initiating more business.
Structural connectivity
The duration of the escalator and walk time between escalators is also a factor determining how much shops people can see, thus time is also included in the research.
Users
Shopping mall is a good place for couples to hang out. More importantly, escalators could be seen as a “still staircase”, which the step perfectly balances the height difference between males and females, it thus became a space where couples interact. It is often seen where the female would position herself a step about her partner. Thus couples on escalators were also researched.
Narration
Using the visual, structural connectivity and a love relationship as a starting point, this video films the male protagonist viewing his partner from an escalator (no.3) with different perspectives. To resonate the structural connectivity aforementioned, the male protagonist walked across a series of shops from an escalator to another. While the male protagonist was too busy looking, the two protagonist bypassed each other. Their common ring was used to symbolizing their relationship. Before he could react, she was already gone. Despite how hard the male protagonist tried to catch up the female protagonist, she disappeared in the mall.
The opening and closing scenes having the male protagonist sitting on the escalator is used to create a flashback for the story.
Reflections:
Going back to the objective: interconnectivity—good or bad?
The design of modern shopping malls enables users to have many viewing points and angles, to follow the modern pace of lifestyle, shops and goods flashes across your eyes, just like how the male protagonist was looking here and there in the video. It gives us a quick glimpse of all the options in a really short time, and pack us with dozens of information, making things convenient, just like how people scroll Instagram feeds. However, this kind of interconnectivity made people easily distracted and lost focus on what they are looking at, turns out that they might miss something important. In the climax of the video, the male protagonist was desperately looking at every shop on every floor, while not realizing that his partner was just next to him, and of course, the opportunity won’t come back. Interconnectivity can be applied to information flow, social issues and even relationships. Are we getting all the information we see? How many hours are people drifting each day? Is there a limit to socializing? Should we focus more on the things that are really important as well as the people that matters to us most?
The title is Chain City as “chain” symbolizes how people and things are interconnected and chained together, as well as how this “chain” chains people to the modern lifestyle and restricts them to find their own living pace. Is interconnectivity good or bad? Perhaps seeking a balance would be the answer.
Credits to:
Directed by JEFF LI, DORCAS CHAN, JOSEPH WONG
Acted by DORCAS CHAN, JOSEPH WONG
Music composed by JAY CHOU
Music played by FEI WANG
References
[1] C. Zhou (2009) Sandbody interconnectivity architecture and development characteristics of meandering river and braided river deposits——a case study of Qinhuangdao 32-6O ilfield, Bohai area
[2] M. Grubbauer (2008) Images of office architecture in the media – the paradigm of urban competitiveness and global interconnectivity
[3] J. K. Lee (2004) A comparison shopping architecture over multiple malls: the meta-mall architecture
[4] L. Sklair (2010) Iconic architecture and the culture-ideology of consumerism
[5] N. Banerjee (2012) A Study on The Attractiveness Dimensions of Shopping Malls-An Indian Perspective
[6] A. Orben (2020) Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative view of reviews and key studies
[7] B. C. McHugh (2018) When social media traumatizes teens
[8] M. McNutt (2020) Science Institutions for a Complex, Fast-Paced World
[9] S. L. McCoy (2005) Aging in a fast-paced world: Rapid speech and its effect on understanding
[10] 2046 (2004) Hong Kong romantic drama film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai
Jing Hymn Joseph Wong, 3035792779
I like how you spotted out the characteristics of structural hence visual connectivity of these kinds of huge shopping malls that exist in basically everywhere around Hong Kong. And upon the topic of chain and connectivity, one thing that has popped out in my mind while watching was the idea of “chain stores”, and how these repetitively occurring stores with the same business nature or the same brand could to a certain extent show the demand and desire of people nowadays, thus how these brands and business markets have dominated or even monopolized the market in Hong Kong.
I really like the topic and the way you filmed your video essay. Indeed, in Hong Kong we are surrounded by these chain store and shopping malls. Some of us perhaps even live above a shopping complex. Shopping malls have deeply rooted into our lives and the design behind the malls have magnificence into our living structure. Festival Walk, the mall you filmed in is a brilliant representation of the issue of connectivity to me. The zigzaging escalators are fascinating and confusing at the same time. Escalators in malls often not only connect different levels and they are deliberately designed to maximize the exposure of different stores in the mall. Also, great detailed research you have done!
All aspects are addressed and presented with competent depth. I appreciate the rigorous research you have done in preparation for filming. You were able to adequately identify the most critical aspects of the theme/place and present a competently articulated analysis and interpretation of the topic. It is rather innovative in regard to methodologies and use of research and/or fieldwork materials. There could be a stronger connection between your research and video, but you maintained a good control of techniques and organisation of the form/content. I love the choice of shots to show the visual bombardment at malls and difficulty to locate Dorcas. The written and verbal articulation are of competent academic standard, and adequately integrated into the overall presentation. It would benefit if you illustrate where you filmed or the route on the axonometric you attached. Although I am still impartial in “chain city” as your title, it is a good story of separation and connection through the interconnectivity of the escalators.