Connection City

Connection City
Director: Siew Ming Ho Iwan

Lobby is a space used to connect two places. Examples of lobby include hotel lobby, train lobby in MTR and lift lobby. Lift lobby is the most common one among the three and having the least distance to most of Hong Kong people. It performs different functions namely embellishment, community common space and passageway from ground to upper floors.

In housing estates in Hong Kong, it is very common to have security guards in lobby to monitor the building. These security guards work long hours every day to safeguard residents there. Greetings and interactions with security guards show respect and recognition to them as this behavior symbolizes coexistence and acceptance. As mentioned, security guards play important role in daily lives of estate residents in Hong Kong. However, they do not attract much people’s attention. To accredit to these crucial yet underrated people, one of the main focus of this video is to bring spotlights to them. Throughout this filming and research, the extent of acceptance of residents to guards and pattern of people’s behavior can be drawn. Greetings and interactions include both verbal and non-verbal communications. In this case, non-verbal communications will include nodding and hand gestures.

For method of filming, the angle taken was in seats in the lobby. In order not to infringe privacy, face of residents will not be filmed. Their lower body will be filmed instead. As it is practically difficult for me to do the filming and counting at the same time. So, one assistant is invited to sit inside the lobby and count. The filming was actually a secret one. So, I pretended watching my phone and kept a natural pose in order not be discovered. The filming process was quite thrilling though not being long as I was feared of being caught.

Quantitative research – For easy categorization, 4 types and 2 sub-types of interactions are observed. The four types are no interaction, head movement like nodding, hand movement like waving and lasting verbal interactions. While the two sub-types derived from no interaction, they are looked at/ did not look at the guard respectively. This can help distinguish whether the ignoring act is active or not.

Qualitative research – A short interview was also conducted with a security guard (Mr. Leung) to know more about the interactions between him and residents. He was really friendly and helpful. 5 questions were about personal experience of Mr. Leung. To facilitate the interview, simple questions were asked. The shooting of video is by another assistant. As this can show the interactive elements between me and Mr. Leung during the interview.

Results

Quantitative – Most people did not greet their guard. Only one person spoke but all other gestures were not seen. People were ignorant but may not be intended because they do not look at the guard. So, no conclusions could be made regarding friendliness of the community.

Quantitative – Most people greet their guard. All waving, nodding and speaking are prevalent. So, people were accepting and friendly

Overall review

The field filming ended up unsuccessful as not much people presented in the lobby in that timeslot. So, no large sampling could be done and no reliable patterns could be drawn. Also, there had been time constraints. The filming in each lobby cannot be so long as it would attract people’s attention and be discovered. So the clips were rather short and discrete.While the interview was successful. The interviewee (Mr. Leung) was really helpful and answered all questions. No problem was encountered during the filming. So, the Cantonese interview clip was later put into the video with addition of English subtitles.

Lastly, there was severe contradictions between quantitative and qualitative research. The possible errors were listed in the end of the video. Overall the research objective was not accomplished.

Reflection

This project and the guard topic are really interesting. I am a polite person who would greet security guard and cleaners when I passed by them. However, I wonder is it a usual practice in my community or in whole Hong Kong. With this opportunity to research on lobby, I therefore would like to know more about interactive issues in it. Besides, there had been a great difference between expected results and reality. I expected that differentiation between gestures could be done but turned out in vain. Most residents ignored the guard with no eye contact which meant they were passively ignorant. It is therefore realized that on-site fieldwork will have unpredictable outcomes. So, the goal should be less ambitious.

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