Fatality moves

Writing script is like club dancing, purely for the spectacle, showing the world how fertile a perturbing form can be, all moves conglomerate to a “fatality” scenery – the ultimate attraction!

Everything seems like magic, you whisper “fatality” and the world follows. You command with a leverage point and with the flow of noise, the beat, the sexy form succumb to your specification.

For every word input, we await for wonders. A kind of agent-base arrangement with letters/symbols inserted into the black box/“fatality” that elicit wonders. Without the architectural dogma of drawing as representation of thoughts, scripting makes seductive moves and commands with the noise that brings forth the amazement.

Disclaimer- good slave does script.

Slaves are passionate

Good slave loves the Cultural Revolution propaganda MV, despite being the biggest lie that fooled a record breaking number of slaves.
The display of will & passion is insurmountable.
The drive to be free from slavery is the “Black Swan” of the improbable.
The impact is immense.
The outlook to a future that the present will not accommodate, the emancipation is the passion that drives the “Black Swan” phenomena.
To be free is immanent and not limited by free will.
Passionately guided by the inevitable and fulfilling the “Black Swan” prophecy,
Slaves align oneself with the imminent, making their traces upon the immense impact.

The evil spell of Suzie Wong

Once in a while at a dinner party, you would be stucked with an unknown encounter who happened to be an architectural designer. You asked about his views on local architecture (mainly for a start of conversations), and this often ended up being a monologue on feng shui and bamboo scaffolding. For the rest of the evening you would be hearing about how the locals grasped every opportunity to represent feng shui/bamboo scaffolding in their architectural thinking, from any international exhibits to local lectures, these were the “must do” theme to be recycled for decades. You might have wondered if there was life (or architecture in general) beyond feng shui/bamboo scaffolding or you being in a twilight zone listening to a primordial being babbling.

Things will evolve despite being mediocre. In recent years, the primordial beings were told that the most fashionable and politically correct term is “sustainability/preservation”. Since these are the new magic words to all things, the primordial beings are to find correspondence with their existing theme (i.e. feng shui/bamboo scaffolding) so as to continue their mediocracy. Therefore, you see bamboo decorations everywhere claiming to be sustainable in whatever aspect, and any types of additions to the historic context become justifiable instantaneously when under the name “preservation”.

In case Mr. Herzog & De Meuron are truly concern with the idea of “preservation” rather than “stereotyping”, good slave suggests they firstly to research more on the banality of these terms within the city context before inserting the gigantic bamboo-like scaffolding above the historic site (i.e. Central Police Station Compound) and claiming to conserve and revitalize (details here). In good slave opinion, building a bamboo-like scaffolding building at this day of age is no better than making a Suzie Wong movie back in the previous century.

Banality –
- Shall structures that imitate bamboo-like scaffolding be inherent properties of “nature, plants, transparency, the play of life and shadow” (as per Mr. Herzog & De Meuron claims)?
- By inserting “green areas, observation deck, public life accessible in the vertical dimension” that result a gigantic structure, shall such structure instantaneously be congruent to the principle of conversation?
- How does a local motif/icon (bamboo scaffolding/sampan/dim sum/triads society/Suzie Wong...etc) be of any significant that requires to be represented in a conservation project?

P.S. Previously in the media, many local architects had openly criticized the Sampan scheme for Hong Kong headquarter saying how it did not reflect Hong Kong as a metropolitan city and Casino façade alike… good slave wonder where are those brave critics now?

Quizás, Quizás, Quizás

Perhaps you come to this blog everyday and without saying anything,
Perhaps knowing you were here, good slave keeps writing it,
Perhaps in return, good slave wants you to be good,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

Perhaps good slave is special and see what the future holds,
Perhaps good slave believes the world to be a better place when you become rich,
Perhaps you may want to hold cash before others become poor,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

Perhaps gold is what you love when everything drops,
Perhaps you shall let go before the New Year's Eve,
Perhaps you are tired of being rich and not believe this,
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…
Updates –
Hang Seng Index, 5/11/07, value 28,942.32, change -1526.02 (day drop record high)
Gold, 5/11/07, 810 USD per oz (record high in 28 years)

《色•戒》《Masturbate • Not》

There are many ways to masturbate. For film, the thoughtless transposing of abstractive writings to picturesque scenes, replacing the intensified monologue with intense sex, without the strife of words, of reflections coming closer to the world apart but only representations of bodily fantasy.

Foreword by 張愛玲 Eileen Chang sharing her thoughts on writing 惘然記-

極簡單扼要地顯示文藝的功用之一：讓我們能接近否則無法接近的人。
For abstractive functions in art: to get closer to whom we cannot get close to.

在文字的溝通上，小說是兩點之間最短的距離。

In the communication of words, novel is the closest distance in between two points.

In 張愛玲 Eileen Chang’s writing, her microscopic detailing of the external world is derived from a contemplative dimension, an inner projection of a distancing world that inflate doubts and conflicts, neither a picturesque reminiscent of the past nor narratives of places… rather an agitator that speaks from a turmoil present, a truth elicitor from a disorderly world. On one hand, the powerful monologue of 王佳芝 questioned every reflections of her encounter, of what seemingly righteous act had rotten long after the primordial instinct took over, and on the other hand, 王佳芝 strife for the rational behind the sinful encounter and with delicate thoughts and sensitivities. The powerful monologue situates oneself inside the eye of a whirling world, her reflections and sensitivities are outlook for higher belief and lightness. In the film 《色·戒》"Lust Caution", the monologue was removed along with 王佳芝 reflections, the remains were places/objects of empty signs devoid of signification, with rubbles of historic images awaiting to be romanticized.

When sex becomes a deceitful weapon, passion weigh down on betrayal, only with an intent that levitates us from an irreparable world, of intense fulfillment in the passage of weighing & levitating. In《色·戒》, 張愛玲 describe the bodily encounter of 王佳芝 and 易先生 as such -

事實是，每次跟老易在一起都像洗了個熱水澡，把積鬱都沖掉了，因為一切都有了個目的。
In fact, every time when being with Mr. Yi, it feels like having a hot bath and getting rid of all burdens, it is because everything began to have an intent.

Disappointingly but expected, the film maker of 《色·戒》"Lust Caution" translates the text into trilogy of sexual encounter, which often associated with Hollywood film genre -

1st encounter – Sadism and Masochism or SM sex… to show Mr. Yi frustration with himself of being a traitor and the mistrust with 王佳芝 that led her to become a sex object.
2nd encounter – The display of various sexual posture in reference to Karma Sutra or 春宮圖… to demonstrate their affection and enjoyment when 王佳芝 began to earn Mr. Yi trust.
3rd encounter – Intense sex… to show Mr. Yi and 王佳芝 being in love with each other.

When things become literal, it is mediocre. There seem to have a lot more to learn for the film maker about the ambiguous role in the display of passion, love and sexual encounter. Nagisa Oshima would have taught the film maker that these roles were to be interchangeable, of a reversal order as “in the realm of senses” that had manifolds of intensity than the formulated Hollywood conventions… Sadism and Masochism are not meant to objectify the sexual counterpart, rather the merging as oneness conglomerates the composites of eroticism…and love/passion not necessary progresses in linear fashion from (rough>tender) sex.

Lastly, there were a few commentators/film critics here who highly praised about the movie in a very explicit manner… phrases like “Ang Lee had re-incarnated Eileen Chang’s soul… the scene was realistically generated in finest detail that was good for reminiscent of the old shanghai and Hong Kong … only European would know how to appreciate the love in the fallen city and not Americans especially the Californians…etc” Accord with good slave classifications, those are called hyper-masturbation, i.e. masturbating while watching other masturbating.

And good slave honestly believe 張愛玲 Eileen Chang’s would have shared the same view too.

Thank-you for your tenderness 謝謝你如此溫柔

Feeling aloft is great especially when you are inside the mega-shopping atrium. You turn around at mid-point of an expressway escalator that takes you from G/F to n/F. The scenery is spectacular, a reeling sensation running aloft the horizon.

At vanishing point, you see city gurus doing the atmananda sequences behind the glassy facades covered with sweaty mist, simmering inside and with glimmering lights for navigation of the atmananda sequences. At viewing of their sun salutations, postures become your guiding lights to ascend at higher altitude…

At the sides, you look out to the tranquil cityscape – Portland st. A red light district that had passed its’ hay days, with a few remains of “3-tasty massage, fresh school girls, part-time housewife, Russian Blondie…” signage, twinkling like a constellation around those magnet store advertisements (nokia, slim-fast, H&M)… at where the facades of the old district had been “resurfaced” for installation of multi-storey high posters and flooded with metal halides, dedicating the white nights experience to the neighbors in case their windows have not yet been blessed by the magnet store advertisments coverage.

At the midst of feeling serene, tenderness and reassurance, you look up to the starry night of a digital projection (the atrium ceiling) while being overwhelmed with gratitude from the voice of 山口百恵「さよならの向こう側」. A return of the lost Portland st. tenderness in resonant with the MV played by the mega plasma under your feet-

何億光年

輝く星にも

寿命があると

教えてくれたのは

あなたでした

季節ごとに咲く

一輪の花に

無限の命

知らせてくれたのも

last song for you

約束なしの お別れです

今度はいつと言えません

あなたの燃える手

あなたの口づけ

あなたのぬくもり

あなたのすべてを

きっと私忘れません

後姿 みないで下さい

Thank you for your kindness

Thank you for your tenderness

Thank you for your smile

Thank you for your love

Thank you for your everything

さよならのかわりに

眠れないほどに

思い惑う日々

熱い言葉で

支えてくれたのは

時として一人

くじけそうになる

心に夢を

与えてくれたのも

涙をかくしお別れです

いつものように

さり気なく

あなたの呼びかけ

あなたの喝采

あなたのやさしさ

後姿 みないでゆきます

1408

We take many things for granted in this world, especially for architecture. We assume the world to remain at every moment we turn our back behind… Walls, windows, doors shall be stationed and awaited for our next time around to remember, of the forgotten past in truthful display, always being purposeful and never betray our memory.

At 1408, Stephen King called it “evil” when the world behind stop being "there" for us and where architecture starts to transgress when we passed through.

Blackbird

Please note: the photo shown above is Pill, seated, appears with Jeff Daniels in David Harrower's play Blackbird at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. (Joan Marcus/Manhattan Theatre Club) and NOT the cast from Hong Kong.

Background –
Two years ago David Harrower's devastating play Blackbird thrilled and shocked audiences at the Edinburgh International Festival. This controversial production, directed by the legendary German director Peter Stein wowed the critics and transferred to London where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Hong Kong audiences will now have the chance to see the play's Asia premiere directed by Toronto's Jovanni Sy and starring one of Canada's leading stage performers Ashley Wright alongside Hong Kong's award-winning actress and director Bonni Chan. Blackbird is a brilliantly written, powerful and provocative two-hander about the reunion of a middle-aged man and a woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship when she was twelve years old. The man was sent to jail and on his release assumed a new identity and began rebuilding his life. Fifteen years have passed. She has thought of nothing else and on discovering a photo of him in a trade magazine, she sets out to find him, with shattering consequences.

-by Theatre du Pif

Good slave had finally gotten to see David Harrower’s Blackbird for the Asia premiere, with such an intriguing and brave story line, good slave had very high expectations - The devastation of being in an unforgiving love, the manifestation of the dissent and foreseeing its catastrophic nature… the returning of the perpetrator-victim chain and passionately bind together, with ephemeral joy in every recollections and doubts, love imprint upon the pathological self…

When good slave is in ecstasy (having high hopes) as in love, good slave writes scribbles as above and it normally ends in devastation. Good slave had walked into a disastrous site, a masterpiece of writing eradicated by weak casting. The over-exaggerated acting, with intentional jittering of speeches and purposeless gesture/facial expressions, conversations became lost soul drifting and loosing its pivoting depth. In the midst of rubbles (i.e. conversations), good slave was in despair. During the attempt to reconstruct David Harrower’s glory from the ruins, “the writing of disaster” by Maurice Blanchot came to good slave mind. Good slave was staring at the words displayed inside the subtitle box, and trying to replace speeches with words, a solemn silence replaced the living presence... until the reconstructions from those traces (written words from the subtitle box) became certain divinity that spoke from the absence, the oracle revealed itself - the glory of David Harrower’s writing, of silencing of background noises (jittering speeches from the actress) that filled the lost soul with hope and abyss…

Director’s Notes -
What drew me to Blackbird is the bravery of David Harrower’s writing.

If you were to put one hundred adults from anywhere in the world together in one room, it is overwhelmingly likely that all one hundred-regardless of race, age, gender, or political philosophy – world agree that the sexualization of children is morally reprehensible. Yet in the face of this, David Harrower takes one of the last taboo subjects and dares to question what we almost unanimously hold to be true.

Harrower succeeds in doing this by refusing to make Blackbird an “issue play”. With this subject matter, it would be all-too-simple to write a morality take. But Harrower steadfastly refuses to give his characters easy labels; no one is evil or innocent, perpetrator or victim.

In fact, Harrower hasn’t written a play about child abuse at all. Blackbird is an achingly painful love story between two damaged souls. Abuse just happens to be the incident that binds them irrevocably. Harrower neither condemns nor condones their past actions. He is more concerned with exploring the complexities of the human heart. He asks if it possible for a middle-aged man to truly love a child.

But it is not enough for Harrower to challenge conventional wisdom. Just as we, the audience, are gaining new perspectives on the nature of love, Harrower subverts our expectations once again in a shocking, visceral manner.

It’s not merely the subject matter that makes Blackbird such a brave piece of writing. With his Spartan verse, Harrower strips his characters bare. Blackbird is a masterful layering of codified language. At the start of the start of the play, Ray and Una first address each other with carefully rendered masks of normalcy. By the play’s end, old wounds are reopened, fifteen years’ worth of bottled-up rage and hurt are brought to surface. Blackbird demands that its actors expose their deepest fears and insecurities for all to see.

-by Jovanni Sy

Apocalypse Now 一念天堂,一念地獄

17th Aug07 was the ultimate judgment day, investors were caught in between polar (of the US sub-prime mortgage financial crisis vs. New policy of mainlanders free to trade Hong Kong stock through designated bank in Tianjin) and experienced the deepest V curve (or point fold) ever unfolded in Hong Kong stock trade. At the point where you saw the world was about to fall apart with some flickering lights surrounded by darkness, you doubted whether those lights were hallucination suffered from previous deep plunges or signs from angels in revelation. In the midst of vanishing world vs. the possible point of return, full of agony and unbearable suffering, an ultimate decision had to be made “to buy or not to buy”. Neither data nor analytical studies were available to support your decision, was a simple yes/no answer coming from your primordial instinct… Result - “You buy you win big, you sell you regret for as long as you are down and out in the stock market”

Due to the sub-prime mortgage financial crisis, the stock market worldwide had been in turmoil since the beginning of the month, but nothing compare with such apocalyptical atmosphere on 17th Aug07.

In the morning, Hang Seng Index (HSI) dropped from 20,600 to 19,995 which was the yearly range of increase for 2007. After lunch, the plunge began, starting at -300 points and within 15 minutes it dropped further 600 points with a total daily drop of 1286 points. While the world seemingly came to an end, the point folds began, and within an hour HSI shot up 600 points and closed at 20,387.13. Daily fluctuation ranged from 19,386.72 - 20,761.31

The first part of the apocalypse was conducted by the foreign hedge fund managers who started pulling out money from Hong Kong which led to the landslide. The second part was the taking over from china investors (as rumors say) that levitated us to higher grounds of hope. Since then, the following week, every morning had an open bid of +10% for those who wanted to re-enter the game, a kind of ecstasy pills for empathy, love, heightening self-awareness to an aftershock from last Friday. The stock market then turned into a Russian roulette, every bet you placed was a step closer to another possible landslide, but the enjoyment of near death experience made one to overcome the aftershock awareness and seemingly to live life twice!

The event reminded good slave of the movie “Killing Fields & Deer Hunter”. The pulling out of American troops and the taking over by the communist, the heightening of the apocalyptic atmosphere where life turned into betting chips, no room for any thoughts, we live for every moment in life through yes-no, winning-losing, life-death intermingles together …

For architecture, professionals have been simple-minded in accepting given data for distribution of the architectural program. Neither are the sources being investigated nor are the intentions of such data revealed to public being questioned. Curves or bar charts are simply drawn to extrapolate the future growth and resulting programs portend to accommodate future needs. Architects have been fed by developers with pseudo data, while being part of the propagandizing campaign, work produced are made believe to serve the public needs.

However for smart investors, they treat data in a very different manner - data revealed are considered as psychological aspect of the public. A reflection of intentions, of people in power desire for the future and the way they want the public to desire the same accordingly. The apocalyptic atmosphere, heaven and hell experiences, the heightening of human emotions are all artificially created delusions of a controlled future. Investors postulate the future by interpolation, the filling up of the gap in between now and the speculate intentions of those in power. The more polar forces lead to chaos, the more certainty for investors to make future by seeing what’s behind those pseudo data.

An Islamic puzzle

Good slave was in Malaysia (being one of the popular resort for the Islamic community) enjoying the vacation hot spot with strangers from the Far East. While taking the plane from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur, good slave encountered an Islamic puzzle which kept good slave pondered along the trip. Since the global business works with generic models, the puzzle intrigued good slave for its spatial/mathematical implications to our supposedly highly efficient-base/protocol system, a kind of gems affection that resulted in a 20 minutes of delay.

The puzzle as follows –
- The seating arrangement of the economy class is a minima/maxima model of efficiency. Accommodations, circulation spaces, human bodies and luggage are all intertwined within the same formula of efficiency in “filling” up with the volume.
- When bodies and machines become intimate, it will be inevitable to have physical contact among bodies (whether to be sitting or maneuvering inside the plane).
- According to the Sharia Law, one would not touch women whom are not his "mahram" (guardians).
- So, when the plane is filled up with good followers of Allah Almighty and non-Muslim, the situation becomes difficult. Some Muslim couples will be seated in between non-Muslim males, and some non-corporative-non-Muslim males may consider consumer rights are more important than respecting other’s culture and refuse to switch seats.

Then how do we solve the puzzle without any segregation among Muslims and non-Muslims? Good slave is sure that such confusions are common and figures may become astronomical once we add up the total time of delay worldwide. Shall we avoid even number of seats per roll? Or Non-Muslim male shall get the window seats? How do we balance out the efficient packing models to avoid delay of flight?

The distancing among bodies and bodily movement vs. efficient programming has been an age-old question for architects. However, at current years, we are very fascinated with global generic models that we seem to intertwine with the organic and the non-organic under the name of efficiency. The delay in flight schedule reflects the distancing among human bodies and their postures defines the generic models and the “otherness” is always a good gem in fine tuning of the system.

p.s. while sitting in the plane waiting for the situation to be resolved, a westerner next to good slave was concerned about the Islamic women being forced to cover up the body in public (accord with Sharia Law). However, in good slave opinion, our women are no better since everywhere we are bombarded with images imposed by the media of how women shall “expose” their body in public (with having less dress), every parts of the body has a required measurement along with a price tag to achieve those standard (either by plastic surgery, laser treatment, botox, slim fast diet). Is this taming of the male gaze as in Manet Eduoard – Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe or simply capitalization of women’s body?

Midsummer Night’s Dream 熱情的沙漠

Good slave is becoming a zombie for drifting hopelessly at this torrid desert place called Hong Kong. Since the introduction of QDII policy in April07, Hong Kong has been a reservoir for the overflowing money from the North. Money is hot and here for action, every player is having multiple orgasms after orgasms with the China H share and stock analyses become protocols reminding your “lost self” of what to do at the midst of these frenzies. As the wise man say, day high, volume, dividends, earnings per share…etc are patterns of emotions to derive protocols of reminders for the “lost self”. We made ourselves believe to be a rational being by looking at charts for predictions/extrapolations, however, this only lead to more mysteries behind the mask of mega zombie (China H share)…

We zoom in and out from macro to micro, yearly>monthly>daily>hourly charts only to find out multiple layers of functional curves that governs the human emotional behavior. Sometimes are noise curves, sometimes are sin curves with some random spikes in between and most of the time are mixture of chaos + step functions. Each aura of curve/pattern governs individual periodic charts and very much the same of what we see in nature of things, as the nobelist Richard Feynman once said...

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.
People say to me, "Are you looking for the ultimate laws of physics?" No, I'm not... If it turns out there is a simple ultimate law which explains everything, so be it — that would be very nice to discover. If it turns out it's like an onion with millions of layers... then that's the way it is.

Then, what’s the answer to all this? Surveys said before any stock crash in history, 99% of the financial analysts would say prospect of the stock market was good… in that case, good slave advises listen to no one but your feng shui master whom has more creditability (of course, relatively speaking) and let the natural force “gold, wood, water, fire, earth” to guide you out of this torrid mysteries.

A reflection on 清明上河圖

Since the national treasure 清明上河圖 was discovered at a bank somewhere north of China 50+ years ago, the exhibition (the pride of china) in Hong Kong will be the second time of the painting being revealed to the public (first was at shanghai). Good slave was lucky enough to be part of limited crowd who were given the 5 minutes viewing of this stunting piece of work. Good slave is no art critic nor art historian, however, being blessed by this opportunity of viewing the Song city being re-animated some 1000 years after, like any encounter of rare celestial alignment, I owe the author 張擇端 a reflection.

The 5m long script are compartmentations of series of axonometric lines projected from architectural artifacts. A view is constructed neither by linear perspectives (as in renaissance) nor 2d flattening (as in Egyptian art), rather a mental constructed lines of analytical viewing, fully articulated and intensively informative and in conjunction with free curves outlining the natural landscape/figures, the work is beyond documentation but an expression of the world of mass, noises, gestures, figures, signs, symbols, of axonometric constructed lines partitioning with the undulating curves… every figure (or particles) is about a few millimeters of a micro world in itself> the lines outline the postures> the postures outline the social status of the figures> the social status of figures outline the function of the surrounding artifacts> the details of the artifacts project axonometric lines to partition the macro world… the bridge becomes an eventful artifact connecting the worlds apart along the river and its underside, figures engage in trading activities along the periphery and extending their postures beyond for potential encounter… scaffoldings are pointing outwards from the core to construct architecture inside out… the script is re-animated with such intensity, infinitesimal detailing and many many more for good slave to learn within a 5 minutes interval…

Good bye, Edward! 再見,楊德昌

... and thanks for bringing all the wonderful works to this world.

Good slave loves your 牯嶺街少年殺人事件(A Brighter Summer Day), a true contemplation of André Bazin writings with traces of reality unfold on screen from an idling point of view, the off-the-screen actions left us pondering with jitters and the filmic expressions weighing upon us into your world of serenity and violence…
and most important of all, the gal whom Honey loved reminds good slave of first love and good slave believe you share the some feeling too.

Keep up with the good works in heaven!

What turns you on?

A city has at least 3-4 times a year of large fire works + daily light show with mini fire works along the harbour at every 8:00 p.m… the main theme for the events were templates since 1997 as such -“the celebration of prosperities of Hong Kong for the return to homeland of People’s Republic of China… being in harmony… unity of people & nation…etc, etc, etc…”


Or...

Following the massive success in Sydney and London (details here), a Lights Out event to invite citizens to turn off the lights for one hour and to draw the world attention of the climate changes. The Lights Out events require cooperation among citizens and most importantly their awareness of the precious resource in this world.

The Lights Out events turn good slave on (mainly for aesthetic reasons). The appreciation of silent and shades of darkness, a surreal experience (as in the movie Paris Qui Dort) at the midst of natural rendering of darker/lighter shades of pale which are many folds more seductive than the artificial fireworks display.
A city with pride and imagination do not need constant celebrative events, nor yearly routing of the children mass (total no. broke the Guinness record) to perform tricks for the symbol of unity, only at a tyrannical state where we see massive propaganda shows for this kind of perpetuating self-reassurance.

What’s IN & OUT

Hong Kong is No:1 of the world in many aspect –

1 of the highest ratio in {civil servants: civilians}.
1 of the highest paid for civil servants.
1 of the largest portion of the civil servant in the government expenditure.
1 of the smallest ratio per civil servant serving meters square.

but, when it comes to building their own home (i.e. government headquarters, details here), these civil servants decided to out source the managing task to the contractors whom would select the architectural designers and eventually to decide on the new iconic image for Hong Kong.
In many countries, this will become the international events for open/invited architectural design competitions, exhibits, gathering public opinions, seeking authorities for advice, open debate and so on… however, our civil servants decide to conduct a design & build contract for a supposedly important building, a procurement which the architects have no say in the process but to serve the contractors (a few owned by developers) and the public has no choice but to stuck with the 4 contractors’ design…

And even more surprisingly, when architects were given an opportunity to voice out, their comments were disappointingly tabloid and QS(quantity surveyor) like, quote from South China Morning Post, Sunday, June 17, 2007 –

Vincent Ng Wing-shun, former vice president of the Hong Kong Institute of Architecture -
-“It is clearly an outdated image of Hong Kong. A sailing boat can no longer represent the city”.
- “Door design would be more expensive than “sailing boat”.
- “the gaps between the two sides of the block are quite wide and it will definitely cost more to build the supporting block across the middle”

An architect, who declined to be named –
- “This design might not use floor space efficiently”.
- “If one bureau is based on one side of the ‘door’ and the other on the other side, then staff have to go up to the top or down to the bottom to get to see each other… and this design means you will not have a big open space on each floor.”

The head of architecture at the University of Hong Kong, Leslie Lu -
- “door” design would be more expensive… a design that is out of the ordinary costs more”

In tune with their layman’s talk, here is the real deal from good slave –

- The “door” is rather a “economic” version of CCTV headquarters (by OMA). By colouring one of the tower in black, it achieves similar results at bird's eye view and need not to worry about the additional cost for unconventional structural implications.

- “door” design is even more outdated! From La Nouvelle Arche > Umeda Sky Building > every now and then you would see some “lite” version proposed somewhere at China.
- The locations of the government headquarters have been very strategic in history, mainly for the control of crowds – limited access + limited gathering space. The existing location at central is a good example where the HK government can learn from their previous British boss.

The “door” scheme invites massive demonstrations and provides them with a sea-view + cross ventilation, be easily surrounded by demonstrators approach from from all sides - good for “長毛", bad for Donald Tsang.

In this regards, good slave is in full support of 'door' scheme.

I keep on fallin’ in … and out…

Good slave loves Ngong Ping skyrail for a number of reasons despite its recent incident of cabin plunged 50m to the ground. (details here & here)

It’s a rare skyrail design where cabins can make turns at the transitional station for every point fold of the terrain below. The deserted interior of the transitional station is fantastic, reminds good slave of the slaughter house design… fully automated with robotic device moving the hanging cabins around, sitting inside being levitated and awaiting to be projected out onto the spectacular landscape, and be hovered above every point fold of the terrian.

but, the most important of all - despite all the feng shui masters' warnings not to build at Lantau Island, some designers took the challenge and present the public a spectacular way of viewing the island. Some say there is a price to pay for challenging the mysterious force of feng shui (constant mechanical failure + plunging 50m),

However as to compare with some design institution at the other part of the town who constantly preaching “architecture to follow feng shui” (by writing articles “feng shui in architecture + lecture series “architecture in feng shui” for the past decades), the price being paid is insignificant.

Why? In the view of the public, those preachers are falling in and out of the feng shui spells since it becomes an institutional sound bite, their works has much ado about nothing except being “bad taste” (examples here)

Disclaimer – good slave is not against feng shui, but there are more profound principles in architecture that govern the habitat than this pseudo-non-progressive belief.

Umm… MANDOM

How to proclaim fame when you consider yourself -

@ 40+ successful architect and nothing stands in your way
@ constant “play with time management” due to busy schedule
@ no.xxx largest company in Hong Kong and no.xxx largest company in the world
@ least 30+ nos of committee memberships belong to different clubs/civil services.
@ crossroad (after you make yourself a one flower party “一枝花生日會”) when looks becomes a concern to match your global success.

@ extract from Next Magazine issue no.900 pg.32,33 Mence Advertisment or click at the pictures below for details

Then...

be a spoke person for Menace and state all the facts there @ the testimonial section!

For some reason, this came across good slave mind -

"The Code of Professional Conduct, HKIA Guidelines for the Promotion of Professional Services” –
3.0 Principles on the form of promotion
3.1 A Member shall not make generalized claim as regards size or quality of his practice or projects. Comparative or superlative term shall not be used, except in a measurable manner.
3.2 A Member shall not either directly or by implication, make a comparison of his own practice with other member’s practice.
3.3 The contents of the practice promotion shall not be ostentatious, onerous nor in a manner derogatory to the dignity or reputation of the institute or the architectural profession.
3.4 No fee rate nor charges shall be publicized within the promotion contents.

However, in good slave heart, there is only one code of practice-
All the world loves a lover. All the world loves MANDOM.

The works define an architect and nothing else.

Do not fall for the same prank twice!

For those who entered the West Kowloon Reclamation Concept Plan Competition at 2002 (Integrated Arts, Cultural and Entertainment District) and lost, later on routed up some cultural crowd to oppose the idea of the competition itself… Please do not fall for the same prank this time! (details here)

The following is their monkey logic…
By landfilling our valuable waterfront for more roads and skyscrapers, they claim to -

Reducing the wall effect of single large developments,^
Greater visual permeability,^
Reducing traffic generation,*
Reducing air and noise pollution,*
A more competitive business environment,
Increased diversity and vibrancy.

*Less water and more roads > attract more traffic into the district > more congestions > more air and noise pollution >...

^Good slave is curious how building more skyscrappers at the rim of the city will reduce wall effect and provide greater visual permeability?

Whenever government find hard to convince themselves or the general public for some wicked act, they usually look for some foreign representatives to do the PR work, and by conducting international competition is one cheap way to do so.

Same prank, same wicked thoughts!

Disclaimer: Good slave did not enter any West Kowloon Reclamation Concept Plan Competition nor participate any related activities. Good slave only convinced others not to fall for the said prank by not entering the competitions at that time, however, was being labelled as "cultural snob" since then.

www.truth-light.org.hk 明光社 – Truth Lite or Truth Zero

The devil has many facets, most commonly in disguised are under "the name of God".

The story of devil @ work -

Government awarded the tender for the teaching of human rights course for the primary/ secondary school teachers to a group that –

Has a history of discriminating sexual minorities,
Against legal protection for sexual minorities,
Protest on public televisions for covering gay issues,
With no record of teaching of human rights in Hong Kong,
Declaring truth-light.org is not a religious group but claiming all things in Bible are historical fact.

Some kids are more fortunate in countries where concepts of liberty, human rights, freedom had been well defined by their founding fathers. Here kids are less fortunate where the nation was found on a pseudo all-in-one system, with the degree of one’s right being in pro-rata basis on amount of one’s work-done (i.e. pseudo socialism) and where their primary/secondary teachers will be fed by this 100% rubbish from the Truth Lite organization -

'… people only focus on individual rights and overlook responsibilities and duties to society.’
'…advocates of extreme liberal ideals often use human rights to challenge the traditional social system.’
'… help educators understand the true meaning of human rights.’

Instead of taking some pseudo courses organized by Hong Kong governmental bodies, here is good slave and some other fellow architects recommended sources for the Hong Kong teachers, wish that would be informative -

John Stuart mill - on liberty

Rousseau - social contract

Hegel - elements of the philosophy of right

Kant - critiques...

David Hume - treatise of human nature

John Locke - concerning human understanding

Hobbes - leviathan

Marx - capital

Rawls - theory of justice

Russell - authority and the individual
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Giorgio Agamben' - of the moment
Montesquieu on separation of powers
Thoreau on civil disobedience.
Descartes - meditations

Spinoza - ethics

Deleuze and Guattari - 1000 plateaus / anti-oedipus

Jean Baudrillard - forget Foucault

Zizek - against human rights
Auguste Blanqui
Montaigne – essays
Antisthenes

Diogenes of Sinope

Max Stirner

Wilhelm Reich

Ema Goldman

Bakunin

Kropotkin

Proudhon
Plato

Nietzsche

Leibniz

In some countries, a number of the major figures listed above are mandatory subject as part of the education to become an architect. Since Hong Kong education has been a breeding ground for future serving of the developer’s greed and with no question asked, then what will become later?

Architects designing concentration campus for the minorities?... and with the same excuse they use to defend themselves of designing poor buildings when confronted by the public –

"don’t blame me, blame the system, we are just following orders from the government/developer” … however, that very much sounded like any defense you hear in those convictions of war trails.

Good slave is sorry for making this post a bit long and boring, here are some images from where you find more "rights to display human" than human right itself.

In the mood for love

Outraging/unforgiving survey by Chinese University Students!
A survey on eroticism was conducted without any tipping to the general public on *desirable places for sex* except one - the campus which end up 4 out of 5 replies found it sexually not arousing... and this is very unforgiving for architects. (details here and here)

**technically speaking- 打野戰 or architecturally speaking- habitual de-territorization

一：你唔覺得做愛好悶既咩？

二：你唔覺得做愛好煩咩？最煩係d乜野？

三：你會唔會幻想過同阿爸阿媽兄弟姐妹做愛？（無論細個或而家都得！）

四：你有冇裝過佢地沖涼、換衫、自慰、做愛？

五：在街上什麼人（或動物／東西）最能挑起你的慾望？

六：你有冇幻想同朋友男朋友或女朋友做過愛？

七：如果有，你點樣處理你同你死黨同佢男或女朋友既幻想？

八：定係實現左幻想，咁你又點樣處理？

九：你自慰／打飛機時會諗住邊個？

十：你最想同咩動物做愛？

十一：你覺得一次過同幾多男幾多女做愛係最好（optimal／最理想）？

十二：你最想係中大邊度做愛？

答1：有適合gei地方咩，唔覺

答2：可以睇到吐露港景色又唔會有人望住的地方，大家有冇好介紹？

答3：對地方冇咩fetish總之室內有床o既私人空間咪得

答4：我係中大好多度地方都做過，無咩新地方好吸引好想再去，有去過既就…唔…都係無咩特別好吸引。如果有$都係去賓館好玩d，因為可以多d時間慢慢諗下睇下點做又可以傾下計又可以一齊食野做下食下又可以一齊沖涼…

答5：一路都想偷偷地走入lecture theatre攪，d 位又舒服，仲要攪到污糟晒果隻，等人唔知乜事坐上去

十三：你覺唔覺得宿舍唔俾男女過夜係歧視異性戀？十四：有冇因為性生活問題（又唔講出來）而影響愛情？


Eroticism is indexical to architecture since the primodial habitat appeared on this planet, the space of violence/desire/dissident and the object of desire evolve as oneness in eroticism*…

*The cave paintings (between 15,000 and 13,000 BC) > Greek classical order (decorations representing sexual organs)> the baroque (the chambers of secrets)> avante garde (the incestral & the uncanny space) > postmodern (the sex on display)> now anything but cybersex…

Then, how does architecture fade away from kids' sexual fantasy, of their imaginations to a mood that defines eroticism?

Has our education system been sterilized to an extent with no eroticism, no mood, just intercourse studies??
or
Has Hong Kong architecture been demoted to empty signs and devoid of erotic mood to the general public since long after the "big split" (architectural space<>object of desire) in our architectural education? ?

Here is good slave recommend reading list for our educator to revisit and to save our children's imaginations-

Colomina Beatrix writings on gender spaces.
A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.
Stud, Architecture of Masculinity, edit by Joel Sanders
The Metastases of Enjoyment by Slavoj Zizek
Read my Desire, Lacan against the Historicists, by Joan Copjec
Encyclopaedia Acephalica by George Bataille
La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini

Ulysses by James Joyce

Henry James

Edgar Allan Poe
紅樓夢
花樣年華 - 黃家衛

傾城之戀, 張愛玲
愈快樂愈墮落 - 關錦鵬

and many many more…

警 告：以 下 反 中 大 問 卷 人 仕 說 話 內 容 或 其 猙 獰 咀 臉 可 能 令 人 反 感 ， 不 可 將 本 物 品 派 發 、 傳 閱 、 出 售 、 出 租 、 交 給 或 出 借 予 思 想 開 放 的 人 士 或 將 本 物 品 向 該 等 人 士 出 示 、 播 放 或 放 映.

If you love somebody, set them free

Hong Kong has been noisy again on the issue of queen’s pier (noise here, here and here). This round more unnecessary sound bites added in support of HKIA’s stance on the issue (The Hong Kong Institute of Architects, details here) –
Its stance to the “In-situ Preservation” of Queen's Pier

What does “In-situ Preservation” preserve in the process of mummifying a piece of architecture? For preservation of collective memory, axial alignment, “sense of place" as highly praised in the midst of sound bites?

Sense of place -
A pier being mummified with concrete-shoe (in mafia’s term) is deemed to end its “being” of a pier along with its atmospheric conditions (i.e. sense of place) whether it is in-situ or not.
In Heidegger’s notion of “Building Dwelling Thinking” -

The dam forces the river to be what we want. It "enframes" it, makes it into something that is useful to us on our terms. The dam makes the river into hydro-electric power, and makes it into "standing reserve", or an abstraction ("energy") which is there for our use.

Thing-in-itself evolves with building, dwelling and thinking, mummification is a representation of “being” and not preserve the “being” in itself of any previous notion of a pier or any sense of place.

Axial alignment –
The spine that holds the queen’s pier complex together is the line of voids (a more appropriate architectural term for classical ideals, detail please refer to Palladio’s work) starts from Statue Square> Edinburgh Place > Star Ferry Pier > ad infinitum (i.e. water front), once the vanishing point of this line of voids been broken/blocked by future developments (i.e. luxurious residential towers, commercial skyscrapers), the remaining parts of the subsidiary axis (city hall>queen’s pier> Edinburgh Place etc) serves no meaning of its origin whether they align with any higher form of terrestrial/celestial objects.

Collective memory -
Architecture evokes memories with many aspects – replacement/displacement, disappearance/appearance, transparencies/opaque, dislodgement/cohabitate… The belief “to in-situ in order to preserve” is rather wishful thinking or being least imaginative to mummify a building while the surroundings being eradicated drastically by greed and thoughtless authorities.

Examples of imaginative "preservations" here, documentaries soon appear on CNN and BBC.

逆光 against the light

孫燕姿 我懷念的

我問為什麼那女孩傳簡訊給我 而你為什麼 不解釋低著頭沉默 我該相信你很愛我 不願意敷衍我 還是明白你已不想挽回什麼 想問為什麼 我不再是你的快樂 可是為什麼 卻苦笑說我都懂了 自尊常常將人拖著 把愛都走曲折 假裝了解是怕 真相太赤裸裸 狼狽比失去難受 我懷念的 是無話不說 我懷念的 是一起作夢 我懷念的 是爭吵以後還是想要愛你的衝動 我記得那年生日 也記得那一首歌 記得那片星空 最緊的右手 最暖的胸口 誰 記得 誰 忘了 想問為什麼 我不再是你的快樂 可是為什麼 卻苦笑說我都懂了 自尊常常將人拖著 把愛都走曲折 假裝了解是怕 真相太赤裸裸 狼狽比失去難受 我懷念的 是無話不說 我懷念的 是一起作夢 我懷念的 是爭吵以後還是想要愛你的衝動 我記得那年生日 也記得那一首歌 記得那片星空 最緊的右手 最暖的胸口 誰 忘了 我懷念的 是無言感動 我懷念的 是絕對炙熱 我懷念的 是你很激動求我原諒抱得我都痛 我記得你在背後 也記得我顫抖著 記得感覺洶湧 最美的煙火 最長的相擁 誰愛的太自由 誰過頭太遠了 誰要走我的心 誰忘了 那就是承諾 誰自顧自地走 誰忘了看著我 誰讓愛變沉重 誰忘了要給你溫柔 Woo Oh~~我懷念的是爭吵以後還是想要愛你的衝動 我記得那年生日 也記得那一首歌 記得那片星空 最緊的右手 最暖的胸口 我放手 我讓座 假灑脫 誰懂我多麼不捨得 太愛了 所以我 沒有哭 沒有說

The format of the lyrics reminds me the making of ancient Chinese scripture – In ancient time, man made the sentences and his maid* inserted punctuations in between for completion. In the other words, the maid was his quasi-muse and her task was to read the master-mind.
*The maid being a domestic virgin serving the writer was also believed to be the origin of Chinese prostitution.

Since good slave is only slave to passion not love, I suppose this may also applies to love relations where men sporadically make the scenes and women add “: - . , ? !” to the relations to create her own loving logic. In architecture, the structure of “sentences vs. punctuations” has later been theorized as “functional space vs. residual space*”, and the origin of prostitution vs. the origin of architecture intermingle in the making of history.

*some calls it feminin space, but I like residual better

Hong Kong Famous Designers Association

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH MAY OFFEND AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED, CIRCULATED, SOLD, HIRED, GIVEN, LENT, SHOWN, PLAYED OR PROJECTED TO A PERSON WHO IS NOT FAMOUS.

警 告：本 物 品 內 容 可 能 令 人 反 感 ， 不 可 將 本 物 品 派 發 、 傳 閱 、 出 售 、 出 租 、 交 給 或 出 借 予 非 出 名 的 人 士 或 將 本 物 品 向 該 等 人 士 出 示 、 播 放 或 放 映.

Restricted (R) - The Authority may prohibit the display, exhibition, sale, lease, rental, exchange or distribution of the materials where the materials contain:

A graphic or prolonged scene of banality, cliché, mediocre, second-rate, sleazy, horror or human degradation;

The depiction of humiliation of human beings for the purposes of fame gratification or as pleasing to the victim of fame;

A scene where person who dress in all black is or is intended to represent others being inferior to the industry due to his/her non-famous status and appears in a scene of explicit and exploitative red wine drinking activity.