Category: 2020 Spring

Cat Links Lecture 2 Filming the Modern Asian City, Lecture 3 Filming the Asian City

[Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas]

Posted on u3583012

In the article, Ackbar Abbas examine the tradition and the traits of Hong Kong buildings. He first raises an interesting opinion of Frantz Fanon – “it is the colonialist who becomes defenders of native styles.” After nearly a century’s colonization, Western culture, especially British culture, is becoming an important part of Hong Kong’s tradition. That’s true, as the preservation of Hong Kong buildings offer by Chinese government is rather based on the disappearance of historical site. He also discusses some traits of Hong Kong building. It is an open city exposed to all styles and influence, and it constantly refreshes

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Cat Links Lecture 3 Filming the Asian City

Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas

Posted on dannywo5

Ackbar explores Hong Kong’s architectural conflict as a result of its Chinese and Colonial influences. Hong Kong’s storied history combined with rapid development as a bridge between East and West creates a cleavage in how one approaches the appreciation of the country’s architecture – is the past disappearing too quickly? An interesting point raised in the tutorial was why Ackbar narrowed in specifically on Hong Kong’s colonial architecture, its not like other countries (such as Africa or Indochina) had not been subject to having sections of their cities filled with distinct Colonial architecture. What makes Hong Kong difference is then

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Cat Links Lecture 2 The Post-War Asian City as Set

Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas

Posted on Ash

I pretty much appreciate the conception of ‘aesthetics of boredom’ mentioned in this article. I always feel empty and anxious when the feeling called ‘boredom’ hits me, and then I will drag something to do so that I can feel ‘filled.’ But Warhol is an artist who spends time investigating ‘boring’ things. I feel comforted knowing this. In the world, some people are bearing no effort to make their lives efficient, while some others are spending 1 second as 1 second and 1 minute as 1 minute, peacefully sitting with ‘time’ side by side. I guess that’s how the world

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Cat Links Lecture 2 The Post-War Asian City as Set

Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas

Posted on u3536247

Ackbar Abbas goes into detail about the “disappearance” of cities. From a cinematic perspective, film makers typically use architecture and the city as tools of story telling. For example, high density residential and industrial complex may be shown in western film to show a near dystopian future. This kind of visual representation may be shown without the film maker’s understanding of the complexity of the city. Most film makers choose to show a specific theme they wish to portray through architecture. This kind of interpretation without understanding can cause a global audience to form stigmas and misunderstandings of cities. From

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Cat Links 2021 Blog, Lecture 2 The Post-War Asian City as Set

[READING RESPONSE] ACKBAR ABBAS

Posted on shenao27

The author staged a somehow astonishing idea that the plausibly historical-responsible actions we have done over these modern days, to preserve historic sites, to weave ‘traditional’ elements into construction of new buildings, have actually gave rise to the atrophy and evaporation of history. From this elaborately-composed literature, there are two impressive observations toward why it is causing this that I would like to discuss about. One of the contributors to the ‘disappearance’, which has been brought forward by Abbas is that the unintended or unknowing casual paralleling of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ in the city in turn renders the image

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Cat Links Lecture 1 Architecture, Film & the Modern City, Lecture 1 Architecture, Film and the Modern City

Reading Response: Walter Benjamin

Posted on u3577139

I think we cannot look at the problem from a single angle. Walter Benjamin said in the article: captions become obligatory. From the perspective of art authors, adding captions to make it a mandatory requirement can express the author’s ideas more simply and clearly, so that these ideas can be accurately conveyed to the audience. From the perspective of the audience, captions can be used as a reference, but they do not necessarily follow the guidelines of captions to understand the work. As Shakespeare’s famous saying: “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.” I also think that

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Cat Links Lecture 1 Architecture, Film & the Modern City, Lecture 1 Architecture, Film and the Modern City

Reading Response: Roland Barthes AND Walter Benjamin

Posted on u3577281

The coordination of various senses To architectures and films,atmosphere is especially important. Films require the audiences to forget the world they are in and let their souls enter another body, so they change the light around you and use sound“to reinforce the lifelikeness of the anecdote”as ROLAND said.Is architecture only for visual aesthetics?I think we can learn something from films,think about more diverse sensory types in design. For example,in one building I saw,there was a blue pool, in which more than 200 porcelain bowls fluttered and collided with the current, making a clear sound. As for the reproduction of artworks,BENJAMIN

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Cat Links Lecture 1 Architecture, Film and the Modern City

[Reading Response: Walter Benjamin]

Posted on u3583012

I like Walter Benjamin’s explanation of the “aura” of artwork. According to him, aura appears when the artist first creates the artwork with their intended perspectives, but would disappear when the artist’s thought is misunderstood. This may caused due because the duplication of the artwork and viewer’s situations. The duplication of the artwork is merely the copy of the surface of the artwork, and is the blasphemy to the original aura of the artwork. Besides, if the audience views the artwork in a different situation compared to the artist, they may read the meaning behind the artwork differently. Yet, I

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Cat Links 2021 Blog, Lecture 1 Architecture, Film and the Modern City

Reading Response: Roland Barthes

Posted on zach1120

After reading the article, I would like to watch more films in the cinema. The feeling that enjoying a film inside the cinema suddenly come up to my mind during my reading. I really understand that what is the “Hypnosis” that Barthes said. Rendered by the light and sound from the film in the cinema, I can easily be hypnotized that “I am the main character.” When the hypnosis, I can just put down myself and enjoy being another one. Regrettably, I have already forgotten that feeling. Maybe I am not as free as a child just go and watch

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Cat Links 2021 Blog, Lecture 1 Architecture, Film and the Modern City

[READING RESPONSE] WALTER BENJAMIN

Posted on sumkie

Chan Sum Kie Dorcas u3579263 The new and innovative are what most captivated us, and what most captivates us generates the greatest reaction.  Technology has pushed reproducibility to its most extreme, it seems what Benjamin has observed in 1935 has been normalising, or even worsening over the past 90 something years. On the surface, art does seem to be losing its aura, its technicality to convenience.  Some of the most popular artists on social media pages mostly create 2-dimensional pieces such as illustrations, paintings, photographs.  The still, easily portable are what most people choose as a medium nowadays.  We no

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