KIOSK Koeln - Liverpool - Shanghai
ISSUE No.2 QiQiHaer Lu.
October 2009 NEWS
- The internal website is now ready >http://kiosk.amspacesh.com - First public introduction of KIOSK by Gabriel Gonzalez, 16th Oct at Petcha Kucha in Shanghai - The Old Barber’s Shop in Liverpool has been renamed ‘The Lost Soul and Strangers Service Station’ see photo on front page. - One night stand at amspace, see flyer at the end of the newsletter
Contents
1. Anticipating QiQiHaer Lu Petra Johnson 2. In QiQiHaer Lu Petra Johnson 3. In place of QiQiHaer Lu Xu Zhifeng 4. Video-streaming Philip Courtenay (5. One night stand at am-space)
The story so far:
In April 2009 Cologne City approached me (Petra Johnson) and asked if I would be interested to write a concept in response to a brief issued by Liverpool City that asked to link Liverpool and Cologne in a way that can be represented in Shanghai during the EXPO in 2010. I send out e-mails to friends and some replied. Within two weeks, Alexandre Ouairy, Dirk Specht, Martin Rumori and I had worked out a KIOSK concept embracing sound, retailing, and architecture. That same month Philip Courtenay from e-space lab joined us and added video-streaming. In May etopia hosted a presentation of the concept to invited participants in Shanghai. The values all participants shared were to offer Westerners unmediated access to China and to work with the potential that offers itself to every individual when he/she encounters another culture. The offices at etopia are just round the corner from QiQiHaer Lu, a street that became a potential location for a kiosk. During the summer kiosks were found in Cologne and Liverpool and – unexpectedly - in Weimar. This issue describes the search for a location in Shanghai. The next issue of this newsletter – in anticipation of the experimental one night stand at amspace – will investigate branding, retailing, art works and the role of objects in the 21st century. Please send contributions to Sabine Mueller: info@transedit.de
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
The landscape of QiQiHaer Lu by Petra Johnson
The lure of the landscape of QiQiHaer Lu lies in its approachability, its accessibility, its life that envelopes the passer-by in a cloak of emotional certainty and warmth. Anyone who has grown up in the 1950’s in a European town will recognise features and with that recognition comes a question: What is it that has gone? Why did it go? Can it be reconstructed? In the quote ‘First, local knowledge is made to disappear by simply not seeing it, by negating its very existence’ Vandanya Shiva refers to a phenomenon in the so-called developing countries. In this article, I am appropriating her quote on behalf of the so-called developed world and a past, which failed to make itself visible in time. What I wish to discover is: what is it that has preserved a tangible sense of continuity in streets like QiQiHaer Lu during times of intense and immense changes. And what is it that one could identify as its landmarks: the structures, institutions and facilities that provide this continuity. I proceed with the assumption that QiQiHaer Lu is a work of art and it is as such that I explore its presence in the world at large and its relationship to my life. As an immediate encounter with the inhabitants of QiQiHaer Lu is
approaching and with it a sense of trepidation growing, I built a weft out of a dialogue with deliberations on the American landscape by John Brinckerhoff Jackson. This dialogue weaves the net that will bounce off the observations, experiences and reflections yet to be made. Brinckerhoff Jackson’s writings in ‘Discovering Vernacular Landscape’ (1) is an attempt to make visible what is not seen, albeit in a different culture and a culture that is his own. I, by contrast, am looking at a landscape of a continent that is not my place of origin. I am looking at those aspects that satisfy human needs underneath the cultural cloak in order to find what maintains an environment conducive to their nourishment. ‘Landscape’, Jackson writes, ‘is a compound and its components hark back to that ancient Indo-European idiom, brought out of Asia by migrating peoples thousands of years ago.’ (2) Land referred to plowed field in Gothic meaning. The word land in all the various definitions it has acquired since, continues to mean in essence ‘a space defined by people’. (3) During the Dark Ages the word scape could refer to an organisation or system of things. Hence Jackson argues, in its original meaning
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
The landscape of QiQiHaer Lu by Petra Johnson
the word landscape referred to ‘a composition of man-made spaces’ .(4) It has no aesthetic associations, nor indeed emotional ones. A landscape is a collective work and, Jackson asserts, it is a space created to speed up or to slow down the process of nature. QiQihaer Lu is a street, a word that is not traced in Jackson’s text. Road, to which he devotes a whole chapter, is relatively new in the English language. Introduced during Shakespearian times and meaning a journey on horseback, it derives from the Greek hodos, which means road and journey. A road supposes a margin, an other place. In ancient Greece every road ended not only in a sacred place but also in an agora, a town where people gathered. Jackson writes, ‘ If, as the Greeks believed, the gods in their wandering made the first roads, then it is an act of piety to follow in their footsteps…….. and the best of all roads are those which foster movement toward a desirable social goal.’ (5) In the (European) middle ages a hierarchy of spaces arranged into a system of three concentric zones was dominant: Allmende (woods and wasteland); Gewannen (area of cultivation) and the
enclosed village. For the Germans, the forest was a place of sacrifice – the Gothic term March (margin, merge, murky) meant both boundary and forest. In English, the word forest when it first appeared (9th century) referred to land outside the common law. It is a space where anyone who chooses to dwell, does so at the cost of separation from his fellow men. Different societies have found differing ways of organising space. At this moment in time, societies appear to loose all differentiation, giving at once rise to a fear of sameness and simultaneously offering the potential to each and everyone to design their own understanding and organisation of space. A fundamental question in approaching a space is visibility. Historically to the ancient Greeks the visible signified what was permanent and the invisible that which was not. In ancient German an exchange with the invisible consisted in helping, protecting and loving the little people - elves, nixes and goblins – for that which was taken from the forest. In contemporary society, to an architect buildings will be very visible; sociologists, engineers,
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
The landscape of QiQiHaer Lu by Petra Johnson
economists and politicians will see something else. Whilst an economist and politician sees the landscape as a territory or domain, the inhabitant sees a habitat that shaped him or her, that was not only there before him/her but will also outlive him/her. The latter is the visibility, I wish to forefront and articulate. Landscape is a word that, I am told, does not have an obvious equivalent in the Chinese language. There are many descriptions that hover around the Western expression. One of which feng jing is translated as view in the wind, another is shan shui, the word for mountains and water. I trust that whatever will happen, the work of art called QiQiHaer Lu will inspire, pleasure, confuse and inform and last but not least lead into avenues and across mountains none of us could manage on our own.
1.Brinckerhoff Jackson, J.: Discovering the vernacular landscape, Yale University Press, hb, 1984 2.Brinckerhoff Jackson p.5 3.Brinckerhoff Jackson p.7 4.Brinckerhoff Jackson p.7 5.Brinckerhoff Jackson p.27
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
Friday, 4th September
In QiQiHaer Lu by Petra Johnson
The taxi stops at my side, a woman with crutches, not by the able bodied men who could have jumped in. It takes me a while to place my body in the backseat, the driver waits patiently. It pains me that there is a popular perception of China as cruel, fuelled by the unreflected collussion of idealistic people operating in different value systems. The shadow side of doing good, of meaning well tends to keep a discreet distance so it can grow silently, unquestioned. I too am an idealist, my strategy is to keep polishing its mirror. The taxi driver drops me off at QiQiHaer Lu, careful to drive to the precise stop, jumps out with a relish and opens the door for me, hands me my crutches, gestures to tell me I need not hurry. Xu Zhifeng joins me and we walk down the first block, between a shoemaker and a registry office on the one side and a kindergarten on the other. One of the inhabitants has turned her part of the pavement into a patio, she and her neighbours sit under the shade of succulent climbers. I step onto the street so as not to walk through their gathering. The cyclists swerve gently to make way for me, I remember I am in China
and it would have been ok to go through her garden. We walk along the second block where back in December 08 we had met a woman mixing concrete for her house. She was going to open a flowershop and so we called her the flowershop lady. She showed us round the interior shell of the house, described her plans and pointed out the house number 666, a lucky number in China. She was full of vitality. I walk to the end of the block passing a sulky woman behind a cigarette counter throwing a banana skin on the street. It is the second time that I have missed the flowershop. Now that it is no longer a hollow shell but adorned with a bright sign, it seems to require a special effort to notice. We turn back, inside the shop is a different woman. Our flowershop lady we discover is the landlady. After some knocking and shouting by the saleslady she appears dressed in a cute neglige. Once again her vitality is an inspiration – she talks about inviting me for a meal, her hands stroke across the fridge door, it contains a fresh crab from Ningbo, where she was born. She talks about having a guest room she could let out to a foreigner. She would make an excellent B&B hostess and I am already making
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
In QiQiHaer Lu by Petra Johnson
a mental booking. We exchange telephone numbers. Back on QiQiHaer Lu we head for the main road and pass the patio again. I negotiate my body and crutches between three chairs and flowerpots and see my momentary flash of delight reflected in the glances the creators of this shady retreat return to me. P.S. Reasons for seeking another street: Communications with the flowershop lady slowed down after she begun to consult her husband. B6 pointed out that he did not hear Shanghaihua when passing through. We decided to seek for a street where Shanghaihua dominates the soundscape.
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
Shanghai Location Hunting
In Place of QiQiHaer Lu by Xu Zhifeng
How does a city grow? From where, a village by the water, a boat; and then roads, a horse, a train and a car. I can’t remember… I arrived by bus, walked or rather ran away from the main road, beneath the North South elevated artery. A door saved me. I stepped into an old lane, found myself walking through people’s living rooms. The inhabitants don’t mind a passing stranger.
Walled city, pre-colonial Shanghai Town centre, People’s Square CBD economical zone, Lujiazui 2010 World Expo site
The lane that rescued me is called Hou De Li, which literally means “Thick Moral Lane”, and as many of the other “Li” continues to harbour the Old Shanghai life style. Hou De Li is close to the centre of Shangai: to its South East is People’s Park, to the North West is the Main Railway Station, Suzhou Creek sleeps North of it, and Nanbei Gaojia fly-over borders it on the Western side. Hou De Li has become very isolated or rather sunken under the skyscrapers of the Metropolis. >
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
In Place of QiQiHaer Lu by Xu Zhifeng
Stepping out of the Metro station Xinzha Road, you arrive at the bottom of high rises, where horizontal and vertical meet, and only the lanes retain streets scaled to protect the human shape.
1. Nan Bei Elevated Road. 2. Hou De LI 3. Metro Station 4. Suzhou River 5. People’s Park
3.
4.
1. 2.
5.
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
Hou De Li Community.
In Place of QiQiHaer Lu by Xu Zhifeng
XinChang Road fascinates me. It has been affected by the new high-rise apartment block community. Exploring it from North to South one can experience the three sections it has been divided into: New+New, New+Old and Old+Old. The sections are demarcated by Shanhaiguan Road and Qindao Road.
Both of the T corners have enough space to install the Kiosk. The more interesting one is at the North end of Xinchang Road where it meets Xinzha Road, there’s a pavement island. >
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009
Questions:
In Place of QiQiHaer Lu by Xu Zhifeng
How does communication develop between people from different backgrounds? Can art stand with the traffic? Who are local people, who are global people? What could be the future of Xinchang Road? Which is the most popular part? What is its nightlife? The soundscape? What sets it apart from other neighbourhoods in Shanghai, in China, in the world?
Liverpool Issue No. 2 - October 2009
Video-streaming by Philip Courtenay
Hi everyone from e-space lab. We are doing a bit of work on using livestream http://www. livestream.com/ which has some features that will suit the Kiosk project beautifully, and something that, as far as I can see, is free. This is a big plus for e-space lab , because we are interested in connections between people that are accessible, and therefore sustainable. It is simple oneclick streaming from camera or desktop (even videophones). It is interactive and easily connected to Twitter, and we can mix multiple camera, graphics and YouTube. I have no idea as of yet what the capacity for archiving the live feeds, but it looks like what you broadcast is archived automatically. We can also upload video that is automatically shown in any sequence or looping we choose when camera input is inactive. I have asked Hangfeng if he can connect to it in Shanghai and it is open and available at the moment.
I am getting my head round it and when ready lets set up a test project and see what happens.
Shanghai Issue No. 2 - October 2009 Artwork: Anna Boggon
On Night Stand at am space (Flyer)
An inquiry into the disruption of creativity part 2 initiated by Petra Johnson and hosted by Lam and Jam at am space in Shanghai, an inquiry….. part 2 invites you to become part of an international network of enquirers by bringing a work that gave you joy in the making. In placing your work inside a frame that becomes visible for one evening only, we open an explorative space that will be reflected on through informal discussions. Size limitation max 30 x 30 x 30cm approx. December 27th, 18.00 – 22.00 o’clock, at am space, 6 XiangShan Lu, Shanghai Drop off from 17.00 o’clock
This exhibition is the second part of four artist-led one night stands initiated by Petra Johnson. part 1 which locations harbour disruption took place in April 2009 in London and was made possible by the generosity of Jay Brown, director of Lijiang Studio, the audacity of Pierre d’Alancaisez, inaugurator of Waterside Project Space and the finely tuned skills in making visible locations of joy of artists Ernesto Salmeron, Greta Mendez, Will Cruickshank, Petra Johnson, Anna Boggon and Fanny Aboulker. part 3 where disruptions hide and part 4 who the disruptor is and who the disrupted are planned for May & October 2010 if you are interested please confirm petrajohnson02@yahoo.co.uk