Public Toilet- How privacy coexist with public
Theme description:
The public toilet is special among the public places, which is actually an extension of private space. It enquires the city to consider how to share a place which should have been private. I use the topic “private city” to make a contrast with “public toilet.”
Beck (2016) stated that many people still suffer some degree of anxiety about going to the bathroom. In fact, openness and privacy create an unpleasant conflict in the toilet. Our unique behavior stems from a complex feeling of shame, self-awareness, imagination, and gender roles. In a sense, it is mainly about boundaries – the toilet cubicles that physically isolate us and the social boundaries that we create. Alexander Kira (1976) wrote that “Most of our feelings about the body, sex, elimination, privacy, and cleanliness are magnified in this context of ‘publicness,’ for the fact of publicness, with its inevitable territorial violations and loss of privacy, increases our apprehensions.”While most toilets outside of private rooms are designed for simultaneous occupants, more and more citizens seek privacy in them.
In the video, I discussed people’s toileting psychology and tried to present how people’s need for private space being satisfied under the pandemic. The role public toilet plays in fighting against the virus is stressed.
Method of Research:
I searched for the news published by the government and visited public toilets at different sites.
My visiting list：
Hong Kong Culture Center, Auditoria https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b1cgpkVPprFFDB0eADQ6MNi5TRSTzvq6/view?usp=sharing
Hong Kong Space Museumhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/18xXgvpnrUM4ry8D8H1MgcNYyN5zDRHnD/view?usp=sharing
Hill Road Garden Public Toilethttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1BgCMSUYqrgsCi7qKBOxdBGOU_LfF1lLi/view?usp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oix0dL2z5_b4FWpXbomgnMMrEnG9g2TD/view?usp=sharing
Water Street Public Toilet (closed)https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FIUFEFa9-kfMHBEMNMdb1tw5EH8YSR4q/view?usp=sharing
Public Toilet in MTR https://drive.google.com/file/d/10apzGsDDaGLcevBR40ga4s7RlKTRYfA6/view?usp=sharing
Public toilet in HKU main library
Documentation and making of the video:
I made a comparison between people using toilets in and outside the home to show the subtle psychological change. Watch one’s phone, reading books, putting on lipstick, washing fruit are all very private actions that give a sense of comfort. Then I speed up the video shot in a public toilet to create a sense of anxiety. Viewers can see that to what extent the pandemic’s effect on the normal operation of public toilet and how different toilet handle the issue. At last, I used a metaphor-I place the camera behind a roll of paper. Pandemic is just like the roll paper. Is it easy to blur our eyes and cause panic, but if you can ”focus” the right things, the solution would be clear. In the camera, there are my same toothbrush, fruit and me. The private space won’t be destroyed in public.
Objectives and reflections:
The news report stated that in response to COVID-19, effective measures had been taken in public toilets at different stages, including enhanced disinfection and automatic induction toilet basin sterilizer. However, according to my observation, the hygienic measure is still incomplete to a large extent. They all post warnings on the wall or bathroom doors, but the effectiveness heavily relies on people’s consciousness. The Water Street Public Toilet is fully closed; hence nobody is using it anymore. Only two toilets among five have touchless hand sanitizer. Some toilets’ door handle and faucet knobs create hidden chances for the spread of the virus. The Hill Road Garden toilet even only uses a plastic bottle without a lid to hold the sanitizer. The one in the opera house owns the perfect facilities, including the indicator lights above the stalls, sensor faucet and sanitizer, induction washing set, and soft background music. It can be observed that people there are most eased. Women stand in a line consciously and quietly. Some reapply makeup and some tidy up their clothes. They are least affected by the pandemic. In fact, the citizen’s sense of security is not only about protecting our own privacy, but is also related to the unwillingness of violating other’s privacy. It can be concluded that apart from strengthening people’s awareness of their personal health, the toilet should build adequate sanitary facilities. Moreover, people should take responsibility as eligible citizens under this pandemic.
References
Beattie, V., & Thomson, S. J. (2007, June). Lifting the lid on the use of content analysis to investigate intellectual capital disclosures. In Accounting forum (Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 129-163). No longer published by Elsevier.
Beck, J., (2014, April) The Private Lives of Public Bathrooms. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/the-private-lives-of-public-bathrooms/360497/
Greed, C. (2006). The role of the public toilet: pathogen transmitter or health facilitator?. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 27(2), 127-139.
香港01.（2021，May). 抗疫有廁？｜公廁疫情下仍遍地「黃金」 清潔工自白：有苦自己知https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E6%9C%83%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/609677/%E6%8A%97%E7%96%AB%E6%9C%89%E5%BB%81-%E5%85%AC%E5%BB%81%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85%E4%B8%8B%E4%BB%8D%E9%81%8D%E5%9C%B0-%E9%BB%83%E9%87%91-%E6%B8%85%E6%BD%94%E5%B7%A5%E8%87%AA%E7%99%BD-%E6%9C%89%E8%8B%A6%E8%87%AA%E5%B7%B1%E7%9F%A5
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