All contents related to 2019 CCHU course are placed and archive here.

Category: 2019 Blog

Cat Links Uncategorized, Workshops 1

Workshop Interview (Carman Liu)

Posted on Yong Hyun

Image from office(2015 Hong Kong film) Question : Is there a reason for using vertical designs for the film? Carman Liu : We were actually thinking about the… we decided a spiral staircase that is usually utilized in a very grand design where you have a chandelier in the middle. So, we decided that we wanted to make it more minimal. This kind of radioactive design was what we concluded on and tried these kinds of vertical railings and all these vertical screens, but not an actual wall in order to match the shape of the chandelier. Interviewee : Carman

Continue readingWorkshop Interview (Carman Liu)

Cat Links Workshops 1

Workshop Interview (Kenrick Wong)

Posted on Wenjun

Image from Kenrick Wong, Frame at Mirador Mansion Question: I would like to know more about your physical model of this masonry. How does it help to frame the building in the film? Is there anything you couldn’t understand from the real building so that you have to make a physical model? Kenrick: I think in reality, if you imagine different programs that can be rearranged with time, it is hard to interpret by just filming them in the actual world. The using of physical model is quite subtle in the film, but this kind of frame (hanging out for

Continue readingWorkshop Interview (Kenrick Wong)

Cat Links Workshops 1

Workshop Interview (Kenrick Wong)

Posted on Saima

Question: You mentioned the clothes hanging outside the courtyard and how that affected your shot of the mansions. I was wondering how important you think the role of nature and community is when framing a shot, and whether their involvement is integral to it? Kenrick Wong: I think these roles are quite significant as primarily without these kinds of objects, the architecture of the building is just a shell, with no content in it. I think that’s interesting — when I have to go on a journey at different times, during the day or at night, the clothes or any objects

Continue readingWorkshop Interview (Kenrick Wong)

Cat Links Workshops 1

Workshop Interview 1

Posted on Shuran

Interviewee: Carman Liu Date: 13/02/2019 Yang Shuran Freya: The styles of the two clips, The Office (2015) and The Grandmaster (2013), are quite different. The former one is more modern and relaxing, and the later one is more ancient and serious, and both of them use the skills of framing. I wonder how the frame can affect the atmospheres in the movies? Are there any underlying general architectural principles or rules about framing that help the atmosphere creation?   Carman Liu: For The Office, from the beginning, they already designed all the sets. Everything is supposed to be minimum and

Continue readingWorkshop Interview 1

Cat Links Workshops 1

Wong Kar-wai and William Chang: How art makes a film

Posted on Yuhui

If we look at Wong Kar-wai’s films, it is easy to find that they are generally in a rather distinct style. Dream-like atmospheres, spare in dialogue and the display of unspoken feelings all contribute to Wong Kar-wai’s unique style. Not following conventions, Wong Kar-wai’s films focus more on modern aesthetics rather than story telling. When I first watched his film Chungking Express, I felt lost after the end of the film, but visually satisfied with all those artistic scenes. When I asked the question about how Wong Kar-wai’s personal style influence the architectural setting, I was surprised that Carman Liu’s

Continue readingWong Kar-wai and William Chang: How art makes a film

Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City

Film and photography: From mass production to work of art

Posted on Ziquan

From Walter Benjamin’s critique “The work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility”, the author speculates on the development of photography and film techniques while judging their credibility to be called “art” by making antithesis and juxtaposition with traditional art forms and lithography. By the quote “The whole sphere of authenticity eludes technological-and of course not only technological- reproduction”, (p21) the mass reproducibility and mass dissemination of film is defining the new landscape of the concept of authenticity, which no longer represents uniqueness, but as a unique mental reception for every audience, any moments, any situations. To me, technology

Continue readingFilm and photography: From mass production to work of art

Cat Links Everyday Spaces as Narrative

Let the reel time go beyond the real time

Posted on Lan

In her essay, Architects of time: Reel Images from Warhol To Tsai Ming-Liang, Italian scholar Giuliana Bruno tries to explore the connection of space and time in the post-modernism films. By examining several films from Andy Warhol and Tsai Ming-Liang, she regards these films as they “come to “architect” the very mood of inner life—a landscape of temps mort, a geology of passage. “and they also reveal one of the characteristics of the modernity, “A radical temporal refashioning of subjectivity”. Taking Warhol’s Empire (1964) as an example, she explains how the atmosphere reconstructs the architecture with the continuous interaction of

Continue readingLet the reel time go beyond the real time

Cat Links Filming the Modern Asian City

Fill that Void – Let Architecture Times

Posted on Mei Ting

“We become aware of void as we fill it (Porchia, 1943).” No matter are we glimpsing at, passing through or sheltered by architecture, it is often regarded as nothing as compared to the complexity of life we are housed. However, by breaking the general sensory provoking approach, Andy Warhol presented the 8 hours-movie: Empire (1964) to film stationary skyscraper with the juxtaposition of variance brought by time. As the building takes the lead throughout the movie, it brings touchable urban movement and subtle climate changes to the front. Though qualification of Empire as a movie was in question, it is

Continue readingFill that Void – Let Architecture Times

Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City

Atmosphere of Darkness in Theatre

Posted on Soyeon

Roland Barthes, the author of ‘The Rustle of Language’, depicted the atmosphere and feelings aroused from the theatre in a third person point of view. “He” always feel that the theatre itself has ‘the classic conditions of hypnosis’, of which making the audience to “dream”. The author mentioned the Brechtian alienation-effect, which involves using the theatrical technique to provoke the audience attention. The argument states that there are various elements go in and out of hypnosis, and all those elements have confluences with the arts, culture and history. Here the author investigates how the darkness of the theatre inside has

Continue readingAtmosphere of Darkness in Theatre

Cat Links Architecture, Film + The Modern City

Beijing 798 as Space of Disappearance

Posted on Jieming

In his book chapter “Building on Disappearance: Hong Kong architecture and colonial space”, Abbas conceptualizes the notion of “disappearance” in an insightful way. To him, the disappearance of Hong Kong architecture takes place at two levels. At the first level of disappearance, the city “reinvents itself every few years” due to the “domination of marketplace”. Buildings and spaces in Hong Kong, however monumental, are subject to demolition and destruction as soon as they become not profitable enough. This ever-changing city landscape reminds us of Karl Marx’s famous comment on capitalism, a system under which “everything that is solid melts into

Continue readingBeijing 798 as Space of Disappearance