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HK INSCRIPTIONS is a collaborative platform aimed at
exploring the critical potential of metaphor as both an instrument
of knowledge, and as a conduit for a multiplicity of urban
representations - ranging from the poetic to the political.
What is the relationship between urban representations and
spatial practices? If urban representations and spatial practices
are interdependent, how can we stress this interdependence
and lend a critical dimension to it? Can we move from representations
of space, which are the product of capitalist relations of
production and reproduction, to representations of space that
stem from an embodied, critical experience of space, alternative
uses, or simply desire? Is it possible to restore a social
dimension to the process of representation?
HK INSCRIPTIONS is an attempt to acknowledge the interplay
between texts and the city, bringing the performative dimension
of texts to centre-stage. Writing the city can be a socialized
practice, a link between the materiality of the city and the
virtuality of cyberspace.
WALKING THE METAPHOR
Walking
the metaphor is intended as a springboard for rethinking
place representation.
One cannot represent ‘the city’ as such but
only some aspects of it, some processes and flows that
help to constitute it, and account for the traffic between
physical and mental space.
Because what we know and how we know it is situated, it
follows that a practical or situated way of knowing is
contextual, and rooted especially in embodiment.
Walking has been theorized by many as one of the ways
we can achieve an embodied understanding of urban space.
This is a spatial practice which inscribes us, and in
which we inscribe ourselves. Bodies and the urban meet
in transitory, fleeting moments of connection, establishing
provisional linkages.
If we set out to establish a link between the experience
of walking and the production of representations or counter-representations,
maybe it’s worth asking these questions, “What
do we bring home from a walk? And what do we bring into
a walk?”
Here I propose spatial explorations based on metaphor.
Some of the metaphors are taken from official discursive
practices and representations of the city, such as the
ones peddled by the Hong Kong Tourism Authority, other
metaphors are supplied by myself, the rest are provided
by those who visit this website.
The ‘inscription phase’ will take place on the
Internet but in some cases in the city. “Heartbreak
city”, one of the metaphors provided by a participant,
prompted me to call for the pasting of ‘breakup notices’
in the exact location where they occur, inscribing a personal
drama in public space. |
METAPHORS
MAKE AND REMAKE THE WORLD
Metaphor
is not limited to suspending natural reality; in opening
meaning up on the imaginative side, it also provides a
dimension of reality that does not coincide with what
ordinary language envisages.
A metaphorical statement has therefore the power to ‘redescribe’
reality, to the extent that we can speak of a metaphorical
grasp of reality. Whenever a metaphor-event occurs, explicit
metaphors are superimposed upon a perceived world, which
is itself a product of earlier or unwitting metaphor.
Metaphors construct meaning by transferring or deferring
it from the realm of familiar experience into the realm
of the unfamiliar. They produce unexpected intensities,
new connections, affective and conceptual transformations.
Like the pedestrian who constantly changes position and
perspective by wandering through the city, to metaphorise
entails wandering through a network of metaphorical associations
and connections, creating new relationships or abolishing
old ones.
The metaphorical process is one of transference and interference. |
Any
representation of the city is, necessarily, always
going to be a reductive act; the very size, complexity
and ever changing nature of cities mean that any
representation is a partial, yet necessary exercise,
since representations are part of how we negotiate
the city on an everyday basis.
Representations and counter-representations are
often metaphorical. They are one of the modes through
which the city becomes a product of art and discourse,
social and political interventions. So I started
looking at the metaphors used by those who are authorized
to represent the city. Here we are mainly dealing
with disciplinary discourses, ideological constructs,
or tourist promotion.
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One
of the metaphors that I intend to wrench away from
its promotional context is the “city as
a shop”, a somewhat questionable publicity
stunt by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. In the summer
2004 it launched a two months shopping festival
that included a shopping contest - contestants from
15 countries engaged in shopping expeditions where
they had to spend 3000 HK$ in local shops from 6
pm to 10 pm, the contestant judged to have made
the best buys and bargains was then named `Shopper
of the Year` and won a round-trip ticket to Hong
Kong. One of the slogans for the shopping festival
was “put the city in a bag”. To give even
more weight to such a slogan, the Tsim Sha Tsui
Clocktower, a historic landmark and the only remains
of the old railway station, was wrapped in a giant
shopping bag.
But can the “shop” metaphor be put to
a different use? I propose a “source that bag”
expedition, one that will take participants to the
sweatshops of Guangdong province, just across the
border, where rural migrants work 14 hours a day.
The bag will be followed from the factory to the
shop. From the producer, who is never visible, to
the consumer. |
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| Another
questionable slogan used by the Hong Kong Tourism
Board is “Hong Kong: the city that never
sleeps”. Here the implied metaphor is that
of the city as a happy insomniac. A nocturnal expedition
will tell a different story, a story of bodies worn
out by overtime, and night shifts. |
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HONG
KONG METAPHORS *
Ubemochi:
Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:10:12 AM
The HK tourism board wants people to believe that HK is
a huge 'shop’.
Bankers think that it is their 'playground'.
S300: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:12:12 AM
Hong Kong is the whorehouse of Asia.
Run-lola-run: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:16:38 AM
This city is a virus....
Paul: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:36:47 AM
The city as advertising space?
Bees: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:50:53 AM
a great beehive…we are the bees.
C. de Mille: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:56:53 AM
HK: a real-life film set, colorful, exotic, buzzing, intoxicating....
Libertin: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 10:57:52 AM
Hong Kong: an open sewer.
Hk_juno: Thu, 28 Oct 2004, 5:53:57 PM
'Pearl of the Orient'?
Ubemochi: Fri, 29 Oct 2004, 11:21:31 AM
HK: the clitoris of China?
Clie_hater: Fri, 29 Oct 2004, 11:30:38 AM
'Hong Kong - SARS Capital of the World’
The gator: Fri, 29 Oct 2004, 11:36:38 AM
some people say it’s a pimple on the ass of china
Libertin: Fri, 29 Oct 2004, 11:37:49 AM
Nah, not quite the clitoris, more like the outer labia
of China.
Portland_st: Sun, 31 Oct 2004, 11:07:29 AM
the largest chinatown.
Anna wong : Sun, 31 Oct 2004, 11:16:39 AM
Hong Kong is a permanent colony of the PRC.
Marguerite: Mon, 01 Nov 2004, 11:41:23 AM
HK is a conduit.
Joyful: Mon, 01 Nov 2004, 12:04:54 PM
Hong Kong is a 3-D Hello Kitty. All eyes, no mouth.
Lolita: Mon, 01 Nov 2004, 2:58:22 PM
hong kong is a heartbreak.
Arrival: Mon, 01 Nov 2004, 4:26:38 PM
Kai Tak known as The Cesspool. Chek Lap Kok, blackout
on arrival
Loup: Sun, 07 Nov 2004, 11:23:02 AM
Hong Kong is a cultural desert. There are a few oasis
where only imported
species grow.
North: Sun, 07 Nov 2004, 12:26:31 PM
HK = Cultural Desert ...You just don't know where to look
if you ask me ...
Reamer: Sun, 07 Nov 2004, 4:00:12 PM
HK= multiple erections of the concrete kind |
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Contributions elicited from another forum
The Two Faces
of Hong Kong
Contribution from CHAN Kai-ching Patrick |
