Apartment in controlling city
The implication of Covid-19 regulations on our space and freedom
What if one day when you wake up, realizing you are no longer free, confined? What if you can no longer be yourself in our apartments, where we should be the most comfortable? What if our freedom and our space are being taken away a little by little, would you ever notice? Yet, these questions are not hypothetical during the lockdown under the pandemic. Social distancing policies and regulations obligate the people staying in their apartments. As the pandemic goes on, stricter policies are introduced to the city. Behaving as told and imprisoned, do we still live in our apartment or the prison. The government seizes our freedom and space gradually, yet we take it and accept it until we realize we are not free in this controlling city.
Spending most of our time in our apartment, barely interacting with the outside, we become frustrated about being at home for days, for weeks, for months. The pandemic asks the relationship between us, our apartment, and the city, also questioning the over-extending power of the government, which invades our space and freedom. Has the city become more manipulating, which over-govern our behaviors, even when we are in our apartment? However seemingly conspiratorial, it is reflected during the Covid-19 pandemic, not just here in Hong Kong but everywhere else.
Before filming, I read how apocalyptic films devastate the audience by the structure of the storytelling. The video essay is a conceptual conspiracy film that begins hopefully and ends abruptly in an unpredictable and apocalyptic ending, trying to destroy viewers in two minutes gradually. The film is not just fiction but a report or a documentation on the implication of Covid-19 restriction on our space and freedom to resonate with the viewers meanwhile.
Through locking myself in my apartment for days to simulate the situation of quarantine, I recorded activities that I would do on a daily basis and, as time goes, documented the changes – would I behave differently? Would I see my apartment, as well as myself in the apartment and the city from another perspective? How do I feel about the apartment and the city? These are the questions I constantly asked myself during the simulation.
On top of that, windows and curtains are two crucial elements in my film as they are the connectors between the inside and the outside, also between me and the city during the pandemic. Natural sunlight penetrates through them into my apartment and my space, allegorizing hope, and freedom.
During the filmmaking, I reckon that conceptualizing visuals in films helps us to rethink and understand the city better. I believe film can always do more than mere entertaining but expressing, documenting, or even warning.
* The news audio is adapted from CNA. Hong Kong to impose first COVID-19 lockdown in virus-hit district: Report. Retrieved May 17, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84F9Yn7H2oo.
Bibliography:
- Prakash, G. (2010). Noir urbanisms: Dystopic images of the modern city. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Harris, S. (2010). Conspiracy, surveillance, and the spatial turn in the Bourne Trilogy. In Globalization, Violence and the Visual Culture of Cities, edited by Lindner, C. O.X.: Routledge.
- The Giver, directed by Phillip Noyce (2014; Walden Media; 2021)
- Borja Santos “(Re)Defining Freedom: Covid-19”, IE Insights, 29 April 2021
- Violet Law “‘Weaponised’ COVID restrictions stifle Hong Kong’s freedom”, Aljazeera, 3 April 2021
Bosco Yeung Ho Lam
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Very interesting concept. I like the fact that the video stayed abstract enough to be up for personal interpretation, but giving enough audio and visual clues to piece the narrative of ‘drastic measures’ imposed onto the citizens. Appreciate that you kept the content about how you go about your daily life, swapping between colour and black and white, of your physical actions and your inner thoughts. Great content overall.
I love the concept of the slow creeping insanity that the character feels as the days go on and on. The cuts become quicker and perspectives become more dynamic. I think this could also represent the days flying by as the pandemic persists, as well as our attention spans becoming shorter due to a large amount of internet usage. I like the shot to end the video where the character sort of calms himself down after opening to curtains to connect himself with the world again. Personally, I think that you increase the variety of filters as the feelings intensify, instead of just a black and white filter. I feel like this could represent the different emotions we go through during such a time, and make viewers feel the intensity of the character’s emotions even better. Overall, great work!
Hat’s off for locking yourself up in your room! How many days did you lock yourself up, to be exact? I had to do the 21-days quarantine upon my arrival in HK last winter. By the end of the first week, I started to run out of activities (and a little bit of sanity, which, in your case, I assume shown by the glimpse of B/W static). So, what have you discovered through your lockdown? Is there anything surprising/unexpected? Did you keep a journal of your quarantine? It is a powerful tool for research! You might surprise yourself with how many discoveries you encounter along the way. You could write them down as part of the research/reflection in your essay. That way, you could share your processes and your findings with the audience.
Btw, I was very curious: what’s written on the post-its?