Category: 2024 Blog

Cat Links Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response] M. Christine Boyer: “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities”

Posted on hsching

    In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape that we live in,  significant aspects of our identity reflect upon our connections and experiences within our community-buildings. In her article “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities,” written by M. Christine Boyer, she explores how these technologies transform our understanding of identity, raising concerns about potential losses of identity and how a place turns into placelessness. Traditionally,  our sense of belonging is deeply rooted within the environment through historical, cultural, and personal interactions. However, virtually, the perception of a place becomes abstract, diminishing its tangible authenticity.      Boyer mentions the key

Continue reading[Reading Response] M. Christine Boyer: “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities”

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response] Oh No, There Goes Tokyo_Zhao Meijing

Posted on u3612699

Reading response 2 Oh No, There Goes Tokyo: Recreational Apocalypse and the City in Postwar Japanese Popular Culture Zhao Meijing 3036126991 This article mainly discusses the reasons and functions of the disaster culture in Japan from post-World War II to today. Tokyo has been permanently destroyed in many artworks. It mirrored Tokyo’s historical vulnerability to catastrophe, especially the trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the post-World War II period, the Japanese regarded life as complete insecurity. The successful resistance to monsters was the escape from failure in history. However, repeating the catastrophe made audiences less concerned about the reality. On

Continue reading[Reading Response] Oh No, There Goes Tokyo_Zhao Meijing

Cat Links Lecture 6: Housing Stories

Reading response 2-Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Posted on issacltc

Lee Tsz Chun 3036066373 This book explores the intersection of urban environments, Asian ghosts’ narratives, and some cultural belief in Asia. Asian culture had believed that ghosts and humans have always been a part of the universe. The article had highlighted an interesting point that Asian horror movie often happened in an apartment like Apt mentioned in it. The article contrasts them with the Western horror movie, stating the difference of living space Asian living place are often crowded and intensive, and people seldom had conversions with neighborhood. They represent the loneliness in Asian urban style and implies the cultural

Continue readingReading response 2-Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response 2] The Imaginary Real World of Cyber-Cities

Posted on Dorothy

I believe that both Machine Cities and CyberCities have emerged to create technologically advanced and connected urban environments. I will discuss how they affect people’s lives mainly from my perspective and personal experience. As the architectural space of the Machine City can accommodate and integrate advanced intelligent transportation technologies, I think this will improve our daily lives to a great extent. For example, I often suffer from traffic congestion, which negatively affects both my mood and efficiency. When urban space can accommodate an efficient traffic management system, our time can be saved. Also, reducing traffic congestion can reduce automobile emissions, which

Continue reading[Reading Response 2] The Imaginary Real World of Cyber-Cities

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

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

Posted on u3595219

The article mainly talks about the relationship between people, buildings, and ghosts in Asian cities, and a part of it is dedicated to ghosts in China.  What I’m most interested in is why people created the concept of ‘ghosts.’ In fact, until now, humans have not figured out whether there are ghosts after death. So, how was the “ghost” thing created? In the article, the author offers his answer: shaped to a large extent by underlying animistic beliefs and practices that continue to inform popular interpretations of official religious and philosophical doctrines in the region, ghosts, and humans have always

Continue reading[Reading Response 2] Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City, by Katarzyna Ancuta

Cat Links Lecture 5: Urban Infrastructure as Event

[Reading Response 2] Infrastructural Tourism by Shannon Mattern

Posted on u3626046

Yueming LI [3036260462] The article mentioned the definition of infrastructure and poses thoughts about the Interconnectivity of systems, wirelessness of infrastructures, and choices by users. An example of infrastructure for systems is electronic light, often seen at the surface or object level by users such as on the wall or the ceiling, often with no thought about the wires behind it that were embedded into the walls, and how they connect to the electricity station from home.    In terms of choices made by users, and their impact on the environment. One may choose to send electronic files to save

Continue reading[Reading Response 2] Infrastructural Tourism by Shannon Mattern

Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers, Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading Response 2] : Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance

Posted on u3627545

Abbas’s composition regarding the disappearance of historical buildings in Hong Kong raises concerns about preservation and integration. The “disappearance” is implied as a substitution for another, starting from waves of Chinese immigration and economic development changing the city into a vast network of interconnected architectural systems. The external horizontal pressures contributed to local and merely local places being demolished for vertical high-rise buildings. This is the case of the Shek Kip Mei, the first public housing estate to counter an urban crisis from the government acquiring valuable land. Simultaneously, these new spaces serve multiple purposes, mixing commercial and residential use.

Continue reading[Reading Response 2] : Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2]: Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Posted on Carina

In “Asian Ghosts and Cities”, Katarzyna Ancuta argued that the due to the loneliness of modern urban life, creating an environment that have a haunted norm. He also considered the specifics of different Asian cities and cultures, for example, Korea and Japan, theirs ghost films often reflect the urban isolation. In contrast, ghost stories are created by the dense living environments and rapid modernization in places such as Hong Kong, which leave no room for the dead, forcing ghosts to enter urban living spaces. In the urban space, architecture has been influenced by neoliberal urbanism. So it is no longer

Continue reading[Reading Response 2]: Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response] M. Christine Boyer: “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities”

Posted on hong0418

Nowadays, social media platforms have become an essential part of our lives and can be used as synonyms to describe our identity. Therefore, the book “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities” Author by M. Christine Boyer can help us to know how these phenomena change our understanding to the real world and the imaginary worlds. From the book, Boyer mainly explores how movies and media influence our views on life and the world. Boyer also defined “CyberCities” as a virtual space within computer networks, she explained how CyberCities blurs the boundaries between physical and virtual reality, and how CyberCities provide

Continue reading[Reading Response] M. Christine Boyer: “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities”

Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[Reading response] Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance

Posted on u3617927

The essay “Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance” by Ackbar Abbas delves into the relationship between architecture and the disappearance of Hong Kong culture. Due to its post-colonial context, the architecture of Hong Kong is a combination of many styles, ranging from “colonial, modernism to post-modernism”. While diversity communicates inclusivity and heterogeneity, it also makes Hong Kong an ‘open city’. Abbas puts it succinctly – Hong Kong has a ‘floating identity’ where it doesn’t have its own style. Hong Kong’s uniquely fluid identity has ramifications on cultural conservation. For instance, the lack of a clear definition makes it

Continue reading[Reading response] Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance