Longthings
Asian Urbanism Research video
The production of videos is a fascinating process, based on the concept of a "Non-stop city." This vision of a city has deeply resonated with me and brought to mind my hometown, Shenzhen, a mega city. Therefore, ideas for animations cantered around the concept of a Mega City began to form in my mind.
My understanding was further enriched by a beautiful article I read in Hong Kong Lab. Laura, who is a traveller to Hong Kong, shared her unique observations and experiences in a style distinct from academic essays. Her words left a profound impact on me, leading me to incorporate similar sentence in my subtitling. I decided not to define the city's location but simply referred to it as a "mixed culture mega city."
In the aesthetic development, my aim was to complement the overall visual without disrupting its cohesion. I incorporated finer dotted lines into the existing artwork, using the original "Non-stop city" as the background. To emphasize the storyline within the dotted lines, I faded the background drawing.
Task 1 tells a short, humorous everyday story. In an identical apartment building, the man, returning from work, becomes disoriented and can't find his own home. After a challenging search, he finally reaches his home, where his wife is busy, and his child is crying incessantly, ending an ordinary day. Task 1 uses a black and white background, emphasizing the difficulty of distinguishing one's own apartment in the identical surroundings.
Task 2 scales up the entire concept, illustrating that a city consists of more than just apartment buildings—it has multiple layers. This idea was inspired by Sam Jacob's drawings, which highlight the diverse impact of creative architecture on a city and its urban planning. I chose to capture the city through recordings rather than presentations, aiming to document life in a mega city and engage people in experiencing it. The drawings serve as a backdrop to narrate stories of different groups of people in the city.
This vast metropolis is characterized by towering skyscrapers and bustling streets. Tourists come and go, showcasing a thriving tourism industry, while the prosperous economy attracts a constant influx of migrant workers. Residents lead contented lives, immersed in their daily routines. As time passes, the day comes to an end for the working class, but the city continues to breathe and function.
Whether they are migrant workers, locals, tourists, or schoolchildren, the city is inherently complex. Architecture adds different layers to the city, while its vibrant population tirelessly traverses its streets. Architecture remains relatively stable within the scale of human life, a constant presence often referred to as "forever."
In contrast to Task 1's depiction of monotonous apartments in the mega city, Task 2 delves deeper into the various possibilities of the Mega City. Perhaps the most captivating aspect of this project, in my opinion, is the use of abstract lines, patterns, language, and dialogue to construct the city's narrative. This short video seamlessly blends four languages: Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. The integration of multiple languages represents the diverse cultural fabric of a mega city, where different cultures converge.
