Reading Response: Barthes, R. and Benjamin, W.

To begin with the response after reading the chapter written by Ronald Barthes, I did not think about the functions and effects that theaters brought to me before. Specifically speaking, the vibe, darkness, size of the screen, audio and visual technologies all play essential role in making people more concentrated and enjoyed on the film. According to Ronald, darkness represents a “twilight reverie” that results in cinematic trance and the loss of worldliness. When I stepped into the cinema and theaters, the darkness will attract all my attentions on the screen. Additionally, turning to the passage written by Walter Benjamin,

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Reading Response: Walter Benjamin

With the onset of rapid technological development, the production and dissemination of myriad forms of artwork have been done through the use of technology, manipulating an original piece of artwork. According to Walter Benjamin, this act contributes to the loss of the essence of originality: the artwork’s uniqueness or an ‘aura.’ Although the author depicts this as a negative outcome, I believe the manipulation of originality by utilizing different tools and skill sets allows for diverse interpretations. Moreover, the increased accessibility due to the advancement in the mediums through which the artwork can be shared and viewed enables the masses

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[Video Essay] Hybrid City

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/RYcMjUZFiRs   Concept Hypethral spaces like sidewalks are the circulatory system of walkable cities like Hong Kong. They provide an access point, a platform, like blank pages of a notebook, to fill in one’s experiences of the city. However, they seem to encapsulate a series of dichotomies- not hidden but not the focal object, open, unsheltered but restricting accessibility and routes, used by everyone but outside one’s ownership. They are public, but everyone narrates their private route, weaving in and out, sewing their traipsing experience into a communal urban fabric. Each narrative flows together, creating the mesh

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Tram stopping.

Stopping tram stop                            Xu Ruihang 3035945845 My final assignment topic is tram stop/bus stop. According to Dalian daily newspaper (2022), Dalian is the only city that never stopped the tram operation in China mainland. The Dalian tram was sketched out by Russians in 1903, and the earliest tram line in China was built in Dalian by Japanese from 1905 to 1909. The hole tram and tram stop witnessed the history of the city, including both the prosperity and the decline. Therefore, I compared the tram stop with

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Slow City – Mall

https://youtu.be/Cc-IL_Bc1iI Directed by:LIU Haitian 3035844314 Script: Tianjin, a city with a long history and rich culture, the way of life here is gradually slowing down. During the pandemic, there are no more people in the bustling city center. There are rows and rows of tall buildings and some new fashion elements. Shopping malls, once crowded and noisy, are now soothing and reassuring. A variety of fine jewelry stores, cosmetics stores, goods in full view. And instead of fighting, people walked at their own pace, a throwback to decades ago. Malls, once crowded and noisy, are now reassuring. A variety of

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[Video Essay] Subdivided City

Video link: https://youtu.be/esBqM0uby-I Site: Overhead bridge Director: Zimeng Fan One side of the bridge stands for the clean, peaceful, and beautiful side of the city, and the other side stands for demolition, crisis, and ugly side of the city. The bridge has such a short distance yet displays the two faces of the city and connects them together. The contrast between the two sides represent is the view of people. Depending on how we look at the bridge, we get different views. Just like people, depending on how we treat and look at things that is happening around us, the

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[Video Essay] Public city

Public City–MTR Passage Theme Intensive developments in Hong Kong are driven by the shortage of buildable land pressure and the ever-increasing population. The city development could be described and presented in a compact manner. The urban architecture needed to be linked and consolidated by mixed-use comprehensive public transportation in order to provide the daily life of citizens with high-efficiency mobility. Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is part of the system, which is positioned at the underground levels. Instead of an isolated building that simply transits people from the street to the underground for commuting or traveling purposes, the interior of the

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[Field-Homework 3] Disappearing City

Video Footage: What kind of place you are living in? (video1) Is it clean and full of green like this? (video2) photo3 Or crowded and dense like this?(video4) photo5 photo6 (script:Or this) photo9364,photo9372(script:Have you ever seen housing estate like this?) 9369, 9368,9367,9365 (script: This is an old housing region, located in the old town of the city. The old, the center.There is no safeguard, or garden, or even flat road and wide street.) 9373 and 9387 left and right(script: Compared with the environment of a modern housing estate, that clean and full of light, when you walk in, the hallway of the old

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[Field-Homework 3] Information City: Elevator Advertisement

  Theme and Subject At the time I got the theme “elevator”, the first thing that came up to mind is the repeated advertisements shown in the elevator in the apartment I live now. the question is whether advertisements are popular in each elevator around the city and what information are they conveying? In fact, elevator advertisement has been widespread over a short period during these years, and it is a new trend of advertisement (Elevator advertising, 2022). The reason for the installation of advertisements broad in the elevator is mainly because the elevator is becoming public transportation inside high-rise

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[Field-Homework 3] Management City

    Title: Management City Site: MTR Passage “MTR passage is a semi-public space with management.” — Initial Analysis Hong Kong is a high-rise and high-density city, facing challenge of the shortage of buildable land and pressure of the rapid urbanization rate. Therefore, underground spaces, such as MTR passage, were developed to support the city life with high-efficiency mobility, mitigating congestion and pursuing high profits. As an increasing number of people rely on the railway system, the MTR passage is a place that people frequently access, connecting the station entrance and train and crossing the paid and free area. Like

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