Project1
Proposal
_1
For me as a visitor it is
very important to be able to orientate in a new city. I need a map, the Sun,
a compass…or a high place to keep distance
between my eyes and the streets to find the landmarks, differ one part of the
city from another, to understand geometry of the street network, to put it in
order in my head otherwise I’ll be lost and I won’t remember my way. It is not
so important in tiny towns of my country where the orientation is quite simple but
in such a big city how Shanghai is or even in smaller cities like London,
Vienna or my hometown, Prague, I consider it necessary.
Every roof should be
accessible in general. I am for the roof policy. I love roofs, chimneys,
towers.
I always like to stay above
the things before I go deep into them. At first to build a respect from the motion
beneath my legs, try to stay unbiased for a while? It makes me more powerful,
more self-confident while walking in the streets after that and gives me the
feeling of freedom. This way I try to play the role of an inert observer.
But is it possible to stay
unbiased looking at such a wonderful city like Shanghai? Is it possible to stay
unbiased looking from height at - doesn’t matter what? Your mind is determined
unconsciously by this feeling of power and freedom. You are both scared and
impressed.
You can’t see every detail
which bothers you. The city is kind of Persian rug when you stay above it in
the living room with the lights of an old chandelier on while dusk is coming.
It is very colourful and ornamental and you aren’t able to see a dust or find
the needle you lost there. You have to kneel down and look for it with your
nose on the floor. Then I eager for running down the steps from the roof to the
entrance gate and look into the details.
Who are the people living
here? Where are the vendors’ homes? Where they buy or grow vegetable? What kind
of animals used to be the creatures hanging around their stalls? Did they live
in good conditions?
How many questions can we
ask? Where is the end of this story?
It is something like a tree
with branches exceeding always into two more and more and more… The city is an
organism or a mathematical set. It is a fractal in the meaning of its infinity.
The difference is that when the city deepens into details, it doesn’t make
self-similar patterns but instead every new shape you discover is individual
and different from the others.
From distance you may think
it repeats. Houses of the same shape and orientation, streets of the same
width, trees and grass, windows and faces. You may think you have found an order
there. You may find it creepy and want to change it. But when you step aside,
you realize that every thing, every subject, every tiny part of the city is
different and that you can’t find a system at all. Supposingly it drives you
mad even more.
Thus the main question is:
How many answers can we get when we discover a city?
This is a privilege of an
observer. Where do I have my personal borders. How far am I able to go. Where
is my moral boundary of respecting privacy of subjects of my observation? Can I
look into their eyes? Can I step over their thresholds? Can I steal their
emotions?
Transition from distance to
proximity, from height to base, from top to roots. Change of perspective and the
end of endless are my objects of interest.
_2
Trying to look into their eyes I found I am not
capable of bothering them. Sometimes they don’t mind. Sometimes they even have
fun. But another time they don’t like it. And this is the moment when I can’t
keep on. I don’t want to make such an experience any more. I am not afraid of
them but rather of myself. I don’t want to hurt them. Maybe I am too weak or
cowardly to break into their lives. I am too afraid of people’s souls´
sensibility. I can understand how tender can a heart be. But the same time I
want to break in, disrupt their intimacy for my own need and delight.
I am looking for the
obstacles that disable me a clear view. I hardly can see half of what I am
observing. I can only guess the whole appearance. That is exactly what I like.
I always have to make or imagine things being difficult when I want to enjoy it
or when I want to work hard. I hate the straight view, path, opinion, such an
evidence or certainty fills me with feeling of treachery and sham. I find more
natural and more human the tricky tasks, snaky paths and blurred pictures.
I shroud myself in dark, I
hide myself in hedge. I can see everybody but nobody recognises me…hopefully.
Will they? I stay next to them in such a fear. Only a few steps from my objectives.
My camera is too noisy,
maybe they could hear it and now they feel uneasy thinking about what is going
on. The only borders, the only stable thing in my life right now is represented
by iron bars.
I want to hold it while taking pictures.
I am walking along the fence and watching
backstages of buildings on the right side and on the left side the life of
adjacent street.
I climb to the top of roofs
and observe people in illuminated windows. Feeling much more secure than one
step from my aims I am happy that I can not see them clearly. I would be so
ashamed.
I don’t mind looking straight beneath my legs. I
even like this kind of adventurous perspective. Streets with cars tiny as ants.
And while looking further, the streets disappear and you can only see separate
blinking lights of the city´s rooms and appartments.
Even if my personal barriers disable me to broaden my mind, my fantasy works at full speed which may be confusing for the others but for me it is one of the most important parts of my life.
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