It is Day 13, and today I have mainly been drawing and cutting my second woodcut board in the studio so I do not have a lot of daily information to tell you.
Whilst doing this I have reflected on my progress so far in relation to my project plan I submitted to the arts council.
For week 1 I had the following goals –
1)Photography and drawing of local digital and physical architecture.
2)Internet navigation interviews.
3)Blog documentation.
I feel I have undertaken necessary research of architecture locally (which is not traditional, and has been constructed in the past 10-15 years), and have sourced the Ciqikou traditional town, and created a series of drawings from social networking sites that I have discussed with locals. There is another site I will visit later this week, but as I am relying on YanYan’s assistant for help I have had to wait until she was available. I feel however, that I have more than enough information to work with for now. Navigating is a little difficult, as no travel information is in provided in English so you have to try and remember or match up the characters when getting from A to B.
As I mentioned previously, 99% of traditional architecture in the local area has been demolished to rebuild new tall buildings, many full of apartments. Although I was aware of the development, the scale and speed of this has surprised me enormously. My original proposal focused on the controlled grid pattern of the traditional town, but such towns are very few and far between now. I was interested in how the traditional town layout controlled access to the city by high walls, keeping the most important people and places within the centre of the town, within another walled area. I was also interested in how this related to the control by the top of the hierarchy, or government, as control of movement on-line is controlled by the PRC.
Researching into censorship has been both clear cut and difficult, and some of the information I have sourced I have decided not post on-line for now. As it stands the censorship on-line is the way it is – for most days here I cannot access Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Posterous and any other UK based user generated content website. However, on one occasion, I could access Wikipedia, and today I could access YouTube for an hour or so. Research and discussion has gleaned that as soon as the sites became popular in China, they were cut by government. Through discussion, I have sourced Chinese only equivalents of all of the above, where you must have a Chinese name and details to register. Many of the younger people I have discussed this with, just believe that you cant get it in China, like it is country specific product, such as a local speciality (this obviously goes against the libertarian ideology of the internet as a space without walls and divides). The strict rules on censorship reflects ‘real’ life rules upon creativity and free speech.
The research into navigation has also been difficult, as my Mandarin is very limited, and the people who have been translating or have been communicating with in English has been limited, or it has at times in been difficult to grasp abstract ideas. These are also sensitive issues, that people are hesitant to discuss.
Writing on the blog has provided a suitable and welcome place to reflect, outwith peers here, and conversation with friends, family and peers at home.
In Week 2 I hoped to achieve the following:
1) Attend Woodblock Printing Workshops
2) Source materials and meet with artists
I have managed to do both, although I think my approach to woodcut is different and less methodical to the Chinese approach. Sourcing materials has been convenient, due to the many shops. Meeting with artists has been constant and ongoing, and a few are now coming to my studio to see works in progress, and it seems to be a positive response which is good.
Tonight I went for HotPot again with Wan Jung – I ate intestines and throat – I think the jury is still out!
