理大設計年展 | School of Design Annual Show 2007

My Presentation for Project - Yue Man Square Living Journal 裕民誌


School of Design Annual Show 2007 (Link)
Date: 16-28 June 2007
Exhibition venue: SD Gallery (Room AG101, Core A, PolyU)



























Photo Voice carried out during the research period







































Tse Hiu Yu 04935214D
BA (Hons) in Design, Visual Communication
School of Design The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Title of the project
Yue Man Square Living Journal
裕民誌

Background
Yue Man Square is the town centre of Kwun Tong which was developed since early 1960s.
Urban renewal of Yue Man Square is the hottest issue recently for Kwun Tong. It will be completed in 12 years. Much concern has been aroused as many completed projects destroyed the traditional communities, culture and heritage.
After doing research on the street culture, I would like to conclude that street life plays an important role on keeping the city energetic and attractive. Since the living places are limited, street could provide a platform for peoples to expand their living area. Moreover, there are various kind of shops and booths along the streets with traditional professions, such as tailor, Shanghainese barber, shoe and watch maker, fortune teller. The culture of street will disappear. Since one-stop shopping mall will replace it.

It is a high time for making a record of Yue Man Square now. Make noise in the society.
I would like to sustain the culture by an urban campaign- photo exhibition on a street in Yue Man Square. This project could encourage people do participation in their community, including me. I would like to find out my identity as a designer in the society. Contribute to my district which I live in Kwun Tong for 15 years.

Target Audience
Kwun Tong residences (before and after the urban renewal)

Aims-
To empower the peoples living in Yue Man Square.
To identify the culture of Yue Man Square,
To show the importance of street life for the grassroots
To give an opportunity for the residence to interact together, share and discuss about their community.

Objectives-
To understand the behavior of peoples through observation.
To find out the living order inside Yue Man Square,
To record the images and feeling of the city before it is changed.
 The sense of belonging between peoples and the streets.
 The possibilities of living with the streets
 Multipurpose of the community

Different Stages of the project-
1. Historical Research
2. Theoretical research
3. Observation on street,
explore through different experience, Shopping, Eating and running in the crowd
mapping
4. Photo shooting
Human behavior on streets,
Record the changing of streets in different time.
Photo portrait taking for different professions, racial, ages of peoples on street.
5. Interviewing- to carryout Photo voice activity
6. Sound recording in different streets and time
7. Idea generation
Review the findings from independent studies stage, categorize the images
Theme setting

8. Exhibition design
Exhibition Site study
Rendering the site
Site model building.
Explore the possibility of exhibition flow, format and interior design.
Sound installation though projector and touch-screen monitor.

9. Photo, text editing
Photo categorization

10. Promotional design
Poster
Flag
Photo Album (with articles)

Challenge of the project
- Interviewing peoples
- Actually not many people know the issue of renewal, sometimes they refused answering any question about this. Seems most of them are worrying the indemnity more than the renewal proposal. Therefore, my project’s approach is to introducing the street culture in relax and easy way. Focus on talking the culture of street, rather than recording the stories of peoples.

- Self Identification
This project makes me experience the fun of being a reporter. Actually I had spent a lot of time on doing research, sometimes I really overemphasize on the contents. Sometimes I felt lost on the street, I am a resident, reporter, photographer or just a passerby? Actually being myself acting as a resident is the best way to communicate with the local residents. To be honest and trustful is important for giving confidence to the people.

-Categorization of the research and photos
In order to transfer the information to the audiences, categorization is important. It is quite similar to story telling, it could also affect the order of reading and receive information. Therefore I divided 4 parts of my photos, they are

Street as Home
Including -Photo Voice of the residents
Street as Theatre
Street as Urban club house
Street as Gallery
including -Portrait of the faces

Methodology
The formula of ‘Street as __________’ is inspired from Walter Benjamin (a German philosopher) and Jane Jacobs (an American-born Canadian urbanist writer).

Walter Benjamin’s philosophy- Street as domestic interior

"The street becomes a dwelling for the flâneur; he is as much at home among the facades of houses as a citizen is in his four walls. To him the shiny, enameled signs of businesses are at least as good a wall ornament as an oil painting is to the bourgeois in his salon. The walls are the desk against which he presses his notebooks; news-stands are his libraries and the terraces of cafés are the balconies from which he looks down on his household after his work is done."
"The crowd was the veil from behind which the the familiar city as phantasmagoria beckoned to the flâneur. In it, the city was now landscape, now a room.”
The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire. in Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism. Walter Benjamin, (1977)

Jane Jacobs’s philosophy- Side walk ballet
‘The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with improvisations.’
The Death and Life of Great American Cities , Jane Jacobs, (1961)
a “sidewalk ballet,” according to Jacobs, which determines the security, social cohesion and economic development of cities. From this perspective, even taking out the garbage or having a talk with a passer-by is a deed of dramatic expression. These every day acts make a city into a vital city.


Reflections
This project actually is not a kind of final project, it is just a starting point of the issue. I think it is quite meaningful doing such a kind of social community based project. It is not only designing visual things for target audient, for me, this project had trained my confidence on communicating with the Kwun Tong residence. Also it encourages me to participate in my community where I live for 15 years.





-Selected work for The HK PolyU School of Design Annual Show 2007

-Winner of the Epson Color Image Contest 2008