GMU:On Psychogeography and Architecture/Projektideen/Chen

<<Weimar Impressions>>

1.1 Design Requirements

"Using subjective and objective knowledge and production tools (e.g. city walks, photography, writing, video, readings, performance, archive, dérive), this module will explore, analyse and describe the urban cityscape of Weimar and question the historical and social awareness given by some chosen architectural spaces. Through artistic answers, it will consider the position the architectural spaces hold now, what narratives they (potentially) contain and how we can speculate on their possible futures."

1.2 Design Concept

Two months ago, I went to Paris on vacation. When I was in Paris, I found that Paris is a little different from what I imagined. This reminds me of the same situation a year ago: In 2010, I knew I would be going to Weimar but did not know what to expect. My only impressions came from the internet, specifically, from images for which I had searched. Combined, these images formed a vague picture of the city in my head, like those one remembers from a dream; fragments of statues, buildings, streets, etc. But like in dreams, something stands out, and becomes a focal point around which an image arranges itself.

2.1 Thomas Ruff 《 jpeg 》

"One day in 2000 I was downloading pictures from the internet to use in my work, and I noticed some of them were broken up into little squares. It created quite a painterly, impressionistic structure, and rendered parts of what was often an ugly image very beautiful. I looked into it, and found the Jpeg file-compression software was responsible.

I started experimenting to see if I could create whole images like this myself. I found that when you blow them up to about 2.5 metres by 1.8 metres, it creates a nice effect: when you see it from about 10 or 15 metres away, you think you are looking at a precise photograph, but if you go closer, to within about five metres, you recognise the image for what it is. Then if you go really close, you can't recognise anything at all: you're just standing in front of thousands of pixels.

For this picture, I used a shot I took from a hotel room in Kyoto, Japan, in 2002. I was staying in a ryokan, one of those old-fashioned hotels where you sleep on a futon surrounded by traditional furniture. They also had a nice garden around the building, which was in the centre of the city - that's why you can see this big office building behind it.

I was just looking out of the window, and I saw the scene as a symbol of how mankind changes his environment: the traditional way of living with nature, juxtaposed with modern life. I took the picture through the curtain, as a tourist, without thinking what I would do with it. Only later did I realise it would fit in perfectly with the Jpeg idea, in which a pixellated square is ugly, but if you present it in the right context it can become beautiful. "