Author: Matthew Chak Sum

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Final Video Essay

[Field-Homework 3] Moulting City: Lee Wai Building, Pok Fu Lam Rd, Sai Wan

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Moulting City: Lee Wai Building, Pok Fu Lam Rd, Sai Wan 1.1 Subject Matter The subject of my video essay is a tenement building adjacent to the University of Hong Kong. It is the Lee Wai Building, my family home. The building is a typical tenement building that features commercial tenants on the ground floor and residential apartments in the higher floors, totalling in six floors. As with most tenement buildings, it has no elevator and tenants must use the stairwell for transportation. My grandmother began construction of the building in the early 70s, and our family lived there for

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Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Reading Response 2] Katarzyna Ancuta’s Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

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Ancuta presents in the passage the idea that ghosts in media are portrayed differently depending on the architectural backdrop. I am intrigued by this idea since it shows how different forms of housing setting can not only affect our daily lives, but more importantly, influence how we process the supernatural and extreme emotions like terror. I find it interesting that by altering the setting, the agency and motives of ghosts seemingly transform, the focus at times shifts to the architecture, its layout and features, rather than the story of the ghost itself. By analysing ghost movies that are set in

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Cat Links Uncategorized, Workshop 3: Designing the Video Essay

[Mood Board]: “Home” Matthew See

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Moodboard < CLICK FOR IMAGE I examined the tenement buildings of Hong Kong. I believe the use of colorful paints and toilet tiles in the majority of Hong Kong’s tenement buildings brings a unique style that I tried to capture in my Moodboard. I focused on presenting the material and texture of tenement buildings, the rusting gates, colorful tiles, and the corroding concrete are all things I chose to include.

Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Class Exercise – Moving house reflection] Matthew See

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I believe that the act of remembrance can materialise in many different ways. From the conduct of the family members, it seems that they are not as bothered by the act of desecration as I personally would. This topic relates to the culture of the locals, and in the grand scheme of things, a simple relocation of bones in order to benefit many others with a place to live seems like a good idea.

Cat Links Workshop 1: Building Sets, Spaces & the City + Costumes, Characters & Urban Situations

[Workshop 2 exercise] – Matthew See – Rain and windows

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I want to explore different perspectives under the rain. The protagonist’s, and an observer’s. Perhaps the observer is in a vehicle, looking at the protagonist behind a glass window, they are dry and safe, as the pouring rain trickles down their window. Perhaps the protagonist is enjoying the rain, a liberating and cleansing experience. (credits: stfeyes on reddit)

Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Reading Response] The Work Of Art In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility, And Other Writings On Media

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In the reading, Walter Benjamin presents the idea that technology, especially those related to reproducing and distributing art and media, has the ability to fundamentally alter the nature of art. Architecture is one of the most static and immovable forms of art, while it was not a subject of scrutiny in the reading, it can be a though provoking matter to be analysed using Benjamin’s ideas. I found an intriguing dichotomy between architecture (static, costly and permanent) and film (dynamic, easily distributable and transient), which can perfectly capture the transformative effect of media technology on art. A brief detour into

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