Today I got lost in the city.
To search for the pieces of an unfamiliar place.
I found something. I changed it to what I imagine it to be.
I never heard the sound of the water. In the hustle and bustle.
But now I do.
Author: allison
colors
Hi Morena,
To focus on something more abstract, more about the perceptions,
here is something I wrote when I think about Zurich.
lighten up the air in my mind,
the perpetual bright space of white,
sparse clouds shiver, and cold is bitter.
in a thousand lines of the city,
I’m wearing the colors inside out,
and the face of the city fades to grey.
Not sure if this is any close to the reality.
But I’ve heard a lot about the color in the winter of Zurich: grey.
Low saturation, unlike Hong Kong.
Our plan changed. We are now on the way to something more conceptual and abstract, through a very simple element: color. We are trying to make some collages to picture the scenery of an unfamiliar place, maybe it never exists.
Assignment 3 Allison
I imagine the images to be an unstable flicker or a fleeting reflection that merges two very different locations and turn it into somewhere new. Speaking of reflections, here are a little more of Hong Kong I want to share with you, these are taken recently by photographing window reflections:)
I want to create ambiguous visions of a new space that is not very obvious to tell which part is in Zurich and which part is in Hong Kong, maybe both or maybe none. Also I’m very interested in exploring the concept of “time”, in the frame of specific spaces.
I think it will be great if my partner and I can track the visual clues, meaning some particular details of the cities that we decide to explore together, and maybe collect lights or sounds from both sides. I would also like to develop a common project if she is interested in photography/video art/sound installation, we can also experiment with visual and audio together.
And lastly, I wrote something recently that has me thinking about how we can (or cannot) deal with the idea of time/memory.
Time is captured in a cage.
It doesn’t stop, but it can’t fly anymore.
It ticks forwards and then backwards, the moment reserves.
It doesn’t go to the future, but it can’t be changed anymore.
It moves faster and then slower, and we see blurs.
Time is captured in a cage, and it is out of focus.
Assignment 2
- At the rooftop of a building in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
- Part of my room
- The street at night
I like to explore Hong Kong at night more than during the daytime, it gives me a very different feeling. It is more fun for me to follow the lights after sundown, and sometimes silence is the loudest sound echoing in the dark.
- A place where I feel uncomfortable, a lively place, a relaxed place
I’m not local. The streets in Hong Kong are always full of people, sometimes I feel a bit disturbed that I can’t walk at my own pace because of the crowds, but at the same time there are so many things happening on the streets for me to observe. Hong Kong itself is indeed lively, in a complex way.
- A thing that is relevant for me
I take a lot of photos with my film camera, in color as well as in black and white. Films are something really important to me as they are more tangible, and because of the physicality of the latent image on them that really excites me. Also I like the smell of films.
- How I do things
Cooling down the chemical with iced vodka in the fridge. (didn’t belong to me I just borrowed for a while)
Out in the woods at the border between Inner Mongolia and Russia, shooting stars but forgot to bring tripod, and then there was beer tripod, which didn’t really help. (they rolled away with the camera)
Switzerland
In my imaginary Switzerland, the water is clear. The reflection of the architectures shines toward the sky, pierces through cold blue, and it’s shattered when the wind blows.
And there’s fondue.
