Category: 2020 Spring

Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

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“Frontier” and “bridges” are two opposing terms mentioned in the extract of the practice of everyday life by Michel de Certeau. “Frontier” relates to separation, whether it is a physical separation between two nations by rivers or ocean. For instance, Taiwan and mainland China are separated by the ocean. Or an intangible Imaginate separation between races, for example the conflict between Black and White in the United States. It all relates a  form of boundaries between two elements. However the term “Bridge” refers to connection or a sense of togetherness. By the meaning of the word, it meant to connect

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Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

[READING RESPONSE] DE CERTEAU, M

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This article explores how narrative structures could create spatial scheme in terms of how each story at core is a travel story and a spatial practice. The author argues that space could create narrative through providing a theater of actions and actuating a contradiction between frontiers and bridges. The author starts by enunciating several ambiguous terms, like “place” and “space”, or “map” and “tour”. Whereas “space” is composed of when various mobile elements intersects with each other, a “place” is an instantaneous configuration of position, which implies stability. One thing I find especially intriguing for me is how stories could

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Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3591979@connect.hku.hk

This article gave me an initial understanding of the connection between place and space. Place is a geographical location that exists objectively, while space is more related to human activity. For example, if a movement from one place to another occurs, creating a new experience, this transforms the location into a space. This is similar to the relationship with sites on a map and tours. When a person is involved in a static location, they will compose a dynamic space from which the story emerges. The story provides the space to authorize characters to carry out specific actions within it.

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Cat Links Lecture 5 Urban Infrastructure as Event

Reading Response: Michel de Certeau

Posted on u3594910@connect.hku.hk

The difference between space and place is: place implies an indication of stability. In contradistinction to the place, it has thus none of the univocity or stability of a “proper”. I personally think that in most cases the extent of space is greater than the extent of place Larger, while places are more specific by comparison. So to a certain extent space includes place. However, the author believes: stories thus carry out a labor that constantly transforms places into places or spaces into places. Then the author uses a comparison between tour and map to analyze the difference between tour

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Cat Links Lecture 4 Everyday Spaces as Narrative

Reading response: Nezar AlSayyad

Posted on mathur2@connect.hku.hk

Author AlSayyad presents different layers of observation of the city in the modern world, especially in a time where mass surveillance and mediums like film are available to the masses. He elaborates on the “gaze” and how the notion of viewing and observing both people occupying the city and the actual concrete infrastructure captures the mundanity of life, generating a new archetype of experiencing space. A feature of the article that I found really interesting was the consideration of different gazes such as the token ‘male gaze’ inspiring power imbalance and a different “modern sexual economy.”    Using examples from

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

Reading response: Ackbar Abbas

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Hong Kong’s architecture, as argued in the extract “Building on disappearance” is constantly reinvented, allowing it to keep up with the changing times and meet the needs of the economy and society. Negatively, it has not succeeded in building up a recognizable city image for Hong Kong.    One way to prevent history from disappearing and to build up the image of a cultural city was mentioned in the extract. This involves preserving old Hong Kong buildings. Since I arrived in Hong Kong, I have become aware of how Hong Kong is divided into two parts: the modern skyscrapers and

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Cat Links Lecture 4 Everyday Spaces as Narrative

Reading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

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In the extract of cinema urbanism, Nezar ALSayyad has carried out three films that illustrate the evolution of voyeurism. And how it has raised further social problems such as privacy, gender equality and power.      Modern surveillance has always been a controversial topic. It avoids “peeping Tom” behaviors (it monitors criminal behaviors), yet itself is a “peeping tom” that is widely available for powerful authorities. As mentioned in all three films, powerful authorities, usually males, have the access. Which has led the problem to transform from power inequality to gender inequality, as women at this point are being objectified.

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

Cat Links Lecture 4 Everyday Spaces as Narrative

Reading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

Posted on u3585397@connect.hku.hk

In the extract of cinema urbanism, Nezar ALSayyad has carried out three films that illustrate the evolution of voyeurism. And how it has raised further social problems such as privacy, gender equality and power.    Modern surveillance has always been a controversial topic. It avoids “peeping Tom” behaviors (it monitors criminal behaviors), yet itself is a “peeping tom” that is widely available for powerful authorities. As mentioned in all three films, powerful authorities, usually males, have the access. Which has led the problem to transform from power inequality to gender inequality, as women at this point are being objectified. This

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

Cat Links Lecture 4 Everyday Spaces as Narrative

Reading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

Posted on u3592376@connect.hku.hk

This article introduced an emerging trend of modernity which is voyeuristic modernity. With the technological advancement, abundance of electronic surveillance has appeared. Therefore, many of movies not only record the imaging, but also depict how is the lifestyle of a city, by observing pedestrians, buildings and so on. Urban cities can be featured by voyeur at various degree. for example. In the movie of Rear Window,  Jeff, as a main character, observed his neighbour, Thorwald, in order to investigate the unfolded murder case through the rear window. We can thereby feel the atmosphere of the movie instead of being told

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Cat Links Lecture 4 Everyday Spaces as Narrative

[READING RESPONSE] NEZAR ALSAYYAD

Posted on u3591819@connect.hku.hk

The article examines the relationship between voyeurism and urban society amid widespread surveillance systems through films Rear Window, Silver, and The End of Violence. These films demonstrate the altered use of camera lens during distinctive urban periods and geographic spaces. One thing I find in common of all these films is the power inequality arise when a person or a group of people, usually males, could gain access to view, interpret, or even interfere with affairs of others being watched. Even so, women being viewed in films are sometimes willing to be objectified, which further empowered the individuals who control

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