After re-reading the Lefebvre text, I took some time to relate it to my practice, and it has afforded me a useful period of reflection – I’m becoming more aware that it will be difficult to re-make Watermark here in Shanghai, but I’m not so bothered about that. It’s good to understand when a piece works well and why it wouldn’t work somewhere else so I can move on.
Lefebvre talks about the ‘Architecture of Stairs’ in relation to mediterranean cities built on escarpments. Shanghai isn’t built on escarpments, but it’s definitely got an architecture of different levels, linked by stairs and escalators. A lot of time spent above or below ground, a product of the need to accommodate so many people in a space.
It’s started me thinking about making a work that involves stairs, escalators etc. I’ve taken some smartphone videos and I’m going to play with them and see if an idea that I’ve got will work. I might need to return to the museum of urban planning to link it up with a statistic that I remember seeing there – it was about how the living area per capita has increased from 1979 to today – that’s got to be because of the increase in high-rise living in the last 20 years.
“To analyse a rhythm, you have to be out of it. Exteriority is necessary.” Henri Lefebvre, Writings on Cities.
I’ve been re-reading the Lefebvre text in the light of my visit to People’s Square on Sunday. This sentence just stood out for me in relation to the idea of a residency – for me a residency, however short, is an opportunity to dedicate time and thought to my practice, in a new space. A place where I am on the outside looking in.
I suppose this is why I feel I produce more interesting work when I’m working away from home – I’m not in the same routine as everyone else here, so can observe and make comment on it, whereas at home I am part of the rhythm and the routine, so find it more difficult to make work in this vein.
Maybe at home I need to figure out ways of working so that I am on the exterior.
People’s Square in Shanghai is not as I imagined it. I bunked off from the app workshop yesterday, as I was feeling that my month here was disappearing fast and I hadn’t really started any of my own research yet. In my proposal I suggested that I would like to recreate Watermark (www.claireweetman.co.uk/watermark.html) in a public place in Shanghai such as People’s Square. Having been there, and having had some time since writing the proposal to understand watermark better, I now know that it’s not the right place. I think that Watermark works well because everything fits together; the paving stones are already laid in the directions that people cross the square, there are only 2 basic trajectories that people take, and most importantly, people are mainly using the space for transit.
In the plaza I found in People’s Square yesterday (it was Sunday – that might be important) there was a surprising air of stillness. I eventually found the most open part of the square (most of it is meandering paths through green park) and found that most people in the square weren’t moving.
I was reading Writing on cities by Henri Lefebvre whilst I was in Istanbul back in September, and he writes about ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of cities, and the differences between Mediterranean and Oceanic cities – how they are affected by tides or not, and how this affects the pace of life in the city. Cities governed by the sun, or by a cycle of tides. It’s made me wonder more about how my work differs in different places – how the movement that I document is different, what affects it and how that manifests itself in my work.
My head is buzzing with conflicts, questions and possibilities for my work – which is a great outcome for a residency I think!
I’ve started a visual blog of my arrows. You’ll find it here: findingmywayinshanghai.tumblr.com
It’s where I’m going to collect all of my images of arrows and any notes that I make as my thought process for the time being.
The digital app workshop started today, I’ve been with the rest of the group at a great Public Art centre at Gucun Park in Shanghai. I’m in a group with 2 BA students in Digital Art, 2 MA students with backgrounds in printmaking and graphic design and 3 of the tutors from Shanghai University who have skills in programming, digital technologies and visual art.
The brief is to design a smartphone app that makes use of GPS. We are working with the idea of locating Public Art works, but incorprating a playful element of following a trail and collecting pieces of a jigsaw along the way. I’ve managed to incorporate elements of my practice into the project – and hopefully in addition to this collaborative piece of work, I will learn something that I can use in my own practice.
Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I’ll be able to go out with the students I’m working with and see some public art so that we can incorporate it into the presentation of the app in an exhibition on the 14th November.
I’m off out now to go and meet an artist from Linz who is here on a 3 month residency – the director of the Atelierhaus Salzamt put us in touch when he found out that we were both going to be in Shanghai. We’ve never met, but have both been in residence at Salzamt at different times, so we have at least one thing in common.
Finding a way, meeting new people, experiencing new practices.
I’ve already started a mini piece of research whilst I’ve been here in Shanghai. Immediately on arriving at the airport, I started noticing the use of arrows on the floor to direct the flow of people through spaces – two-way arrows that light up to indicate direction; arrows directing you to a fire exit; coloured arrows to indicate the correct metro line; arrows to show where to get off and where to get on to a train.
I’ve been taking photographs of these arrows as I see them. I’m keeping my eyes open for arrows and will continue this throughout the residency. I’m already thinking about printing the photographs and installing them on the floor, or the possibilities of drawing arrows into spaces where they wouldn’t be to see how they affect the movement of people through that space. I think some observation of people in relation to the arrows that already exist is required first.
There’s an international workshop (http://www.alllan.com/2012workshop/index.htm) being held at the university about experimental apps, digital technologies and art. I’ve given a short introduction to my practice today and have heard from practitioners from Shanghai, Melbourne, Salford, and MIT. The workshop proper starts on Tuesday, when I’ll be working with Professors and students from Shanghai university – the theme for the workshop is using GPS, so I’m wondering whether my arrows project will fit in with that, or whether there is another aspect of my practice that I can apply GPS to on this occasion.
Lots of new people with exciting practices to work alongside!
