the essence of clarity

With reference to our first brainstorming session for the competition, and the discussion that has just began, Foucault's 'heterotopia' was an idea David Thomas tried to instill in us and our design, drawing from our precedent the film 'Stalker' by Tarkovsky, for our studio in yr 2. It deals primarily with an arguement of the notion that 1 space can birth 1 experience at 1 time, i.e. a room with 4-walls can produce multiple experiences etc.

The phrase 'cities are experienced differently according to time and space' is perhaps misleading for one not involved in the initial discussion. This idea of 'movement' refers to the transition from spaces to spaces (virtual or real) within a time (or timeless) frame in a city.

The brief mentions this apparent 'problem' that cities are not harmonously constructed (having to accomodate the old and the new) and hence embodies a certain sense of absurdness. This absurdness we attempt to term as the various different experiences as we transit between spaces to spaces. As mentioned above, this absurdness is thus the heterotopic experience of any city (in this case, Singapore). For us, this may not be a problem which we must address. Instead, we see this absurdness as being a characteristic which we can either mediate or exercebate; to bring out the unevenness (as deyi puts it well) or to even out the unevenness of the context in question.

Going back to David Thomas, whom I really enjoyed being a student of (unlike some who were so quick to judge because of his alternative methods of educating), he also brought to attention the idea of kinesthetics, which if i remember correctly denotes the extension of the human body with an object in motion, i.e. your body being extended to a vehicle whilst driving it, your body being extended to the door whilst turning the door handle, etc. Perhaps it is appropriate thus to mention that in this case our treatment of the brief would deal with both heterotopia and kinesthetics, in which one is in close relation to the other.

To put it simply, our body is extended to our immediate environment (the city in both real and virtual spaces) when we are in transition. This kinesthetic experience can be considered absurd and uneven, judging from the unharmonous construction and the introduction of the new against the old. We are therefore proposing to either mediate, execerbate or perhaps even accentuate this heterotopic phenomenon.

I have attempted to put into words some of the ideas thrown about during our first brainstorming exercise, in hopes of getting more feedback (from anyone anywhere anytime!) Yes, wuks is right, we will do more indepth studies that involve not merely sitting around and thinking, once we have more understanding of our this initial intention!

Dee and Yaoks, hope I got this right..correct me if I'm wrong..