(left: pencil rubbing of a biscuit made from Switzerland;
right: a postcard from a friend)
*
conversation with mom
(mom: m ; winnie: w)
w: mom, do we have anything at home made in Switzerland?
m: army knives, watches… why ask?
w: assignment. anything you don’t mind me playing with, like something you won’t be upset if i… accidentally break it.
m: no? wait… the biscuits i bought weeks before seems to be from somewhere in Europe… check if it’s Switzerland.
w: is ikea from Switzerland?
m: it is from Sweden. Sweden and Switzerland is different.
w: is Switzerland famous for making cool electronics?
m: i guess you mean Germany…
w: …opps.
*
3 thoughts on “switerzerland at home”
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What I find interesting here is the comparison of an image that comes from the context of tourism – people traveling somewhere and sending pictures home to document their trip – and a commercial item – the fact that with the industrialization it became mandatory to identify the origins of products. These are two channels that seem to be at an advantage. How does that limit our perspective? And what do we miss that way?
@Birk : It’s shaping an Image and let its shape set until we break it again with decamping, visiting these places on our own. I think, what we miss the most, is the real “soul” of the environment, the people living there. It’s strange and funny that a knife, sharp and well construed../designed.. empowers itself to carry on in our empirical knowledge.
@winnie: Your conversation makes me laugh! ;D
@Birk:
@Joanna:
Sorry for the late reply and thank you for the nice comments. I think what is missing, looking at these items right now, is an uniqueness. Both the postcard and the biscuit are mechanically produced in a huge quantity and every replica of them is very similar, if not the same. However, different from the biscuit, the postcard at the back provides a space for people to write, which perhaps allows a little room for that person, who has been to that place, to interpret the place in his/her own manner.
Joanna’s reply reminds me that actually, residents of that place seldom send postcards to someone else(not matter to locals or foreigners). For example, I have never send a HK postcard to a friend who lives in HK as well, but if we come to the idea that writing postcards is mostly a reflection towards that place…. I don’t actually feel that idea is weird, after all.