[notes] Time In A City: Prelim Sketches.

mostly from our 02 October 2005, Saturday meeting, with photoshop touch-up for effect.



[in short]

we intuitively figured that the alienating part of the city landscape is its numerous juxtaposition of the old and the new. and that it is the alarming rate of development that constantly leaves no scene familiar for longer than a few years. (did you know, for example, that the shanghai skyline presently has a marked difference every three years? and that some parts of the city have such a high turn-over rate that they can be unrecognisable if you haven't been there for a year or two?) evolution and development of any one place is necessary, but the thing that separates cities from towns and the suburbs is often the speed (hence time) at which changes occur.

sio remarked that it was quite a fascinating idea about how someone boarding a bus at 0730hrs could arrive later at a similar site than if she were to take a cab at 0800hrs. from there, i veered off into wondering why we would so much as be fixated on the idea of arriving earlier/ faster at a destination and not consider the experience of the ride as a separate quality to enjoy.

of course, the truth is transport for many urban dwellers is always about economics of time and money. most people would rather drive or cab everywhere if they could afford it. buses, trains and other forms of communal transportations are often thought of as the common man's answer to urban planning.

our main address for this brief is therefore the experience of time in our travel from place to place, seeing as how much of the city dweller's life is in commuting between work and home, play and home, etc. speed of travel differs from one mode of transport to another, but what i'm most intrigued by is train travel as it's more of a constant for it, plus the whole spatial condition of being inside a train carriage is so unique that it's its own typology.

there's so much about life in the city that we cannot change, physically or otherwise. much of what we experience is also a result of a dialogue between us and the greater modern engine that keeps the city pumping. as all our prime ministers have said, the minute we slow down our pace is the minute we fall out of the race. thus we question any prescriptive attempts or interventions on the city's core.



some ideas that we've come up with would be to play on the speed of movement in the city. often not conscious of the pace at which we travel (especially pedestrian or train), we're wondering if we could introduce devices on the travel routes to mentally reduce and increase the sense of speed. this strategy is especially useful for train travel.

the play on our sense of speed would hopefully generate a more conscious grasp of the time that passes by in our travels, highlighting also that our sense is time is far beyond just the mere turn of the hands on our watches. a minute could feel much longer than five minutes would.

various formal strategies that we're looking at engaging with:



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sio/ yaoks: please add points that i've missed out on.

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post-entry entry from sio 20 oct 05 7:50pm

i have no comments on the interpretation of the brief; its basically what the 3 of us have discussed and agreed upon.

the only comment is regarding our intention. you mentioned:

"we're wondering if we could introduce devices on the travel routes to mentally reduce and increase the sense of speed. this strategy is especially useful for train travel.the play on our sense of speed would hopefully generate a more conscious grasp of the time that passes by in our travels, highlighting also that our sense is time is far beyond just the mere turn of the hands on our watches."

as mentioned in my earlier post ('the essence of clarity' dated 4 oct), i had the impression that we wanted to introduce some device that could bring out the 'absurd' city/streetscape whilst travelling. so one lands up with not merely a better grasp of travelling time but also a higher awareness of the city.

am i not right? we did discuss about how to deal with the uneveness of the city..refer to our sketch diagram where we mentioned we want to exacerbate/ mediate/ attenuate diff exp tt vary with spd of transitions in a city.





managed to do a little free-time sketching and scanning at the office! please comment.