IN ADAPTATION (ARC 1133)
This exercise is in preparation in the lead-up to the Final Project of adapting the literature Invisible Cities to the local conditions of the Greater KL.
The everyday life of cities and its banality is a scene that has been taken for granted. While the experience of the everyday life is banal, there are a plethora of mediums/channels by which stories of cities are told/expressed, one of which is literature. Literature is a medium in which stories are told, some of them original but most are tales from across the centuries adapted to a contemporary or different context, or to a modified theme to enhance the storyline. Using the literature, Invisible Cities, as the basis, students are to study, analyse and creatively adapt it using a graphical representation.
Exercise 1 - The Art of Adaptation
“In Adaptation” aims to explore techniques and practise methods of creative knowledge-sourcing and critical analysis. When designing, it is commonplace for emphasis to be excessively focused on a singular concept as the be-all, end-all solution to manifold problems. In this module however, the act of designing is more so an act of problem-solving, one that therefore requires the ability to generate multiple ideas of substance rapidly. In order to do so, it is crucial to have a broad range of information and knowledge from which to draw upon, as well as to engage with a subject matter in depth. Through a series of discussion-based
workshops, forums, exercises and lectures, the module introduces the process of reading, translating and adapting disparate creative mediums such as film, art, and most importantly, literature in relation to architecture. It is through this critical process that students will begin to build upon their wealth of knowledge
as well as exercise discernment in matters related to architectural design such as context, content and cultural relativity and relevance.
Concept of Isaura, city of thousands wells, where city is built within the green thick forest boundary line. People who live in Isaura worshipped water as they believe god is living inside the underground lake. And, people built up their home in vertical stacking tiers with strong pipes extruding to the ground providing them sufficient water for their living. People respect to the great nature by not touching the green portion and being humble that they know the world is dominated by the great nature, not human supposedly and so they worshipped water as their god for supplying their main needs.
Exercise 2 - PJS7 morning street market + Marilyn Manson
Final Project - Invisible Cities RE-SYNTHesized: An Experiment
Exercise 1 is an attempt to adapt literature into graphics/visual expression of the city, while Exercise 2 is an attempt to ‘see’ the ordinary city in an extraordinary or unique way. The final project is a synthesis of the surrealism and imaginary in Exercise 1, and the realism and physical fabric of the urban conditions in Exercise 2. It stretches further the idea of ‘adaptation’ in the style of how a film maker would overlay an imaginary (utopian/dystopian) city into the real space. In brief, this project is about the exploration of an adaptive process between the imaginary and the real, and non-physical and the physical.
Art Statement
Extracting meaning from the imaginative invisible city, Isaura combining with the realistic morning street market at PJS7, the artwork is to represent and explain in-depth philosophy that the problem, we as a human had always been facing. Isaura, the city of thousands wells where citizens are dependant on water desperately that they believe their god is existed inside the underground lake that supplies water for them. People seems to be repectful to nature that they build up and stacks their living tiers vertically within the forest boundary line and of course they appreciate the water. Yet, the problem could be of they did not explore which lead to unknowledgeable citizens. Similar to PJS7 morning street market, stallholders ought not to explore new places to set up their business, rather to remain at their original site even though the earnings are not that worthy. This could be that the people are afraid to try new places or maybe they have already make a good connection with their customers and they know they have the responsibilty to provide their customers' needs, inversely, the customers pay the money they need.
Express through painting, the artwork is quite to explain the great of nature and the balance: balance of biodiversity, balance in between right or wrong and balance of reward and punish. In the painting, the horizontal line is contrasting two form of community: upperground and the underground, where people on the top ground had the highest technology to build astounding skyscrapers as high as to connect to the god which they believe exist in the sky. Yet, the great nature is the one that controling everything that people are too close to realize that, they even decline the respect to the nature, deforest to bridge to their "god". Punishment in the form of disasters are the consequence. On the contrary, community under the ground can only see the little patch of the sky above but they live harmoniously. They pay their respect to the nature and they are protected from disaster as reward.
From the painting, there are two kind of thoughts are to proposed. First, be grateful, because nature had been giving us all that we need, we shall not just take and forget as we still are the one that risk ourselves at last. Second, be strong-minded because you lose something when you get something, so decide what are the more precious thing and be prepared to lose after what you get.
