Shanni Liu / Portfolio / Application for MLA I 17 by Sunny Liu

Shanni Liu Portfolio Application for MLA I @ .....................

Bachelor of Arts (Art History) University of Hong Kong

CONVERGENCE 水能載舟，亦能覆舟。 Despite our technological advance of modern days, the old wisdom of maintaining balance with nature remains relevant. We’’’ve seen many disasters in the past decades, most not caused by human ignorance, but human greed. Our exploitation of natural resources has led to serious consequences, often falling back onto ourselves eventually. With the increasing expansion of urbanized areas around the globe, it is becoming harder to live close to nature for common people. In Hong Kong, only the privileged few could live on hills close to the sea, while the working class family cram into a space of less than ten square meters’’ footprint in a dilapidated building. Flourishing commerce enriches people’’’s material’’ l’’ife, but also encourages them to stay longer indoors to shop, and indulgently consume food produced elsewhere. Connections with our origins are being rapidly lost, and I consider it a tragedy accelerated by physical, and spiritual, isolation. Landscape, I believe, will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the public consciousness of urban communities. It shapes how human perceive nature, how community members interact with each other, how much outdoor activities play a role in the daily life of urbanites’, and many more. I see myself as a mediator in human’s’’ interaction with nature, and wish to bring back empathy and affect lost in the progressive social and cultural conditions characteristic of modern capitalist society. Contemplating on their essential relationships, this portfolio explores several forms of intersection between human and nature, imagining possibilities for opening up understanding of ourselves within the cosmos. One could take this as a journey to follow, a window to look through, and a mirror to ponder within.

Protector / Destroyer Mimicry Metamorphosis Reincarnation Symbiosis Cycle

Protector / Destroyer Dual roles of nature to human livelihood. Oct, 2012 @ Lei Yue Mun, Hong Kong Primary contributor Group project for CCHU9023 at HKU Instructor: Yin-Lun Chan and Vincci Mak

Nature can be the protector of human beings if it is well understood and utilized, as is how the stone walls keep the fire burning; however, it could also destroy human construction easily otherwise -- the evening tide continues to collide with the cube until it entirely collapses.

David Nash built stoves on the grass, in the woods, under the boulder, and at the ice field. Contexts bring different effects to the fire in the burning stove, but also imply metaphors of human-nature relationships. This piece of land art has drawn inspiration from his practice and situated itself within a local context at Lei Yue Mun in Eastern Kowloon, Hong Kong. There is a flourishing seafood industry at the district that has been attracting food seekers from all over Hong Kong and beyond. However, a potential over-exploitation of marine resources and the pollution of water with disposed waste have been observed during site visits. The two cubes, almost identical to each other in size and structure, are located at two neighbouring sites with different conditions.

Lit up at the same time, the one on land continues to last for long with firm shelter provided by the three remaining walls, whereas the one by the sea could hardly resist the strong wind as well as the upcoming tide -- the entire structure was actually destroyed after a while, disappearing in the water. The contrast becomes a metaphor for humanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship with nature. The cube by the sea alarms the viewer of the primitive, destructive forces of nature juxtaposed with the ephemeral existence of human construction. Meanwhile, the cube on land optimistically illustrates humanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capability to sustain and thrive if one works within the boundary of natural principles.

Mimicry Arbitrary resemblance evoked by surfaces. Nature seems mystical to me. And it is evident in every small details of this world, from the noise of cicadas to the bizarre skins of trees and the traces of geological formation on rock surfaces. Human is gifted with vision, one of the keys to such mystery. In my journey, I constantly encounter the coexistence of the micro and macro, the artificial and natural, and sometimes arbitrary combination of the signified in one signifier. In a word, something often looks like another. Was it designed by certain principles? As humans who were created on the same level as those phenomena, we could only guess. Modern science triumphs logical reasoning and rationality, the legacy of enlightenment, more than intuition and emotion. It has been a powerful instrument for utilizing natural resources for human use, not without negative consequences. Treating nature as an object outside our own sphere could easily attenuate our respect and exaggerate human agency. What I regard as important to bring up again is the reconnection to nature, together with the sense of affection, awe and mystery. By understanding that we are part of nature through visual perceptions of those fascinating mimicrys, I believe such emotional connection can be strengthened. This is a growing collection of images created, edited and curated for such purpose.

What are the wrinkles of a tree?

What is the capillary of plants?

What is a rockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view?

What is hard water?

What is kitchen geology?

Dec, 2014 @ UC Santa Barbara, California Revised Dec, 2016 Individual final project for ART32 Intro to Video Art / ART12 Intro to Spatial Practices Instructors: Maya Gurantz / Ryan Bulis

Metamorphosis

eternal / transient

Processes of life generated by dead materials.

destruction / creation hybridity / purity merge / dispart order / chaos beauty / sublime reality / fantasy

float / precipitate birth / death rationality / absurdity

passion / indifference love / disgust joy / pathos disparity / unity sparsity / density clarity / vagueness

Om.

construct / ruin cellular / universal human / nature material / spirit

Confluence III

I Cosmos

Accumulation IV

II Creation

Life is not the answer, nor is death. On the spectrum of eternity our existence is muted. While things fall apart matters remain but energy burns into ash.

When dead materials meet, they bring life, just as how such universe came to birth in bang! bang! bang! of matters that remained silent for a long, long time.

Consumables are the capsules of greed, casted as fresh bodies and disposed as dead. But nothing could escape from the deep water of cycle, where they conflate, accumulate, interact and infiltrate into the muscles and bones of our breeding ground and become fresh bodies again.

There seems no space, gravity twists, and bounces back. Time is compressed, and streched like flabby rubber band, Onâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soaked into chaos no order, no rhythm, worshipping emptiness and his own breath.

Om ć&#x2013;š*đ&#x;&#x17D;&#x2C6; Believers of Buddhism châ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;?ant â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;&#x153;Omâ&#x20AC;? when they meditate. *In one of its original meanings, â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;&#x153;Omâ&#x20AC;? refers to the primary form of a universe. When watching this video, one could mediate on the birth of our cosmos and reflect upon his existence.

V Expedition

VI Chaos / Order

Most of the materials came from a local second-hand art supplies store while the others were bought at local supermarkets. They are therefore remnants of the material life in Santa Barbara, disgarded as trash and waiting to be reused. I made one small tank within a larger tank with plexi glasses, and poured water into both, then I started experimenting with all kinds of materials by adding them to the tanks over time. Improvisation played a main role in the process of creation. It started with being a tank of clear water, and ended up in dark blue and pink, filled with objects inside out. In between it was yellow, then orange, later blue, and navy blue afterwards. One day later the colors of water in the two tanks could not be distinguished anymore, and another day later the entire tanks turned dark. The whole process of change included several scales of time: within a second the purple minerals dissolved in the water, leaving pink traces behind them like meteors; a few seconds saw the merging of two oil bubbles with colored substances inside, like the reversed process of cellular fission; it took a dozen seconds for a dried lemon slice to fall due to the increasing weight of sugar poured on top of it; and after a minute the glass bottle were filled with red food dye. Among the responses Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122; have received, many relate this work to the environmental pollution of current days. One classmate recalls the extravagant consumption and arbitrary disposal of foods and beverages in her party experience. The work was originally intended to make playful experiments on the seemingly infinite possibilities of material interaction, and nevetherless is open to interpretations.

Installation view at Cheadle Hall, UC Santa Barbara, June 2015.

Exhibitions 2015.6 Department of Art End of the Year Show, Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 2015.6 - 2016.1 Undergraduate Exhibition, Cheadle Hall, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 2014.12 Department of Art Open House, Art Department, USCB, Santa Barbara, CA

Om 2014 Video and Installation, plexi glass, water, oil, plastic cups, straws, pill bottles, glitter, food dye, beads, test tubes, CDs, etc. Dimensions variable

As the “decomposers of the consumerist society, these unlicensed hawkers collect miscellaneous items disposed by the others and resell them to those in need for cheap second-hand goods. Trash therefore becomes reincarnated as desirable goods, just as how nutrition from withered leaves and dead bodies get recycled as nourishment for new life.

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Thanks to those socially underprivileged people, the materials stay longer in the cycle of economic exchange before they have to go to landfills. This study is dedicated to bringing their presence to visibility through investigation of primarily their inspiring spatial practices. Ultimately, it hopes to cultivate understanding of the other part of urban history, through reading chaos, to build empathy and evoke self-reflection.

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Dec, 2016 @ The University of Hong Kong ARCH 4711 Independent study in Landscape Studies Instructor: Vincci Mak (Report attached)

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“Spontaneity, Hybridity and Community: Informal Urbanism in Sham Shui Po”

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Infinite recycling of goods in urban voids.

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Reincarnation

comm unity

informal urbanism in sham shui pooooooooooooooooo

Sham Shui Po has been famous for its rigor, hybridity and messiness. One of my friends went on a site visit with me one time, and after walking for an hour around the neighborhood, we finally sat down to a small, clean corner to take a break. She said both happily and bitterly: “This is finally a place without dirtiness!” True. It looks very dirty when the streets are left with randomly abandoned trash after a long, hectic day of commercial activities at night; when the back alley is filled up by construction materials and kitchen disposals from the restaurants; when people are selling their goods on the ground and arbitrarily display them for sale. What I’m interested in is the rhythm behind such chaos, and through investigation and presentation to re-cultivate connection out of displacement that is commonly experienced in a capitalist society. Sham Shui Po is an excellent site to study both connection and chaos, gifted with a strong sense of community as an old working class neighborhood, and rigorous commercial exchanges in various channels. One of the most chaotic, and rhythmic, phenomena is the guerilla sale by unlicensed hawkers in informal spaces around the district. It usually occurs during peripheral time periods, early in the morning or late at night, when the normal commercial activities are inactive, as well as on weekends, when potential customers are in greatest quantity. The spaces are often claimed from voids of urban structures and adapted in creative ways: infrastructure underspaces, sidewalks, building edges, driveways, alleyways, and even vehicles. The goods being sold are largely second-hand, and surprisingly collected in a variety of ways. The people are composed of several types: the elderly, grassroots young and middle-aged people, single mothers, South Asians and other minorities, etc. In summary, guerilla sale involves spaces, people, and materials left over as the undesired part of the urban economy chain in Hong Kong.

the site: shamshuipo

My question is whether the value of such activities is as marginal and inferior as its physical form and social-economic status. Are there interesting phenomena within the selection of sites, circulation of materials and interaction among people? Would there be valuable aspects of urban everyday street life that could be conserved and assimilated into future urban design? With these questions, I focused primarily on the spatial and locational qualities of major hotspots of guerilla sale in Sham Shui Po. By seeking the answers to how and why such selection, occupation and adaptation of space take place, the others aspects such as human player and materiality naturally come in at various points.

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The abundance of goods and materials for exchange, benefiting from Sham Shui Po’s former role as a commercial and industrial center, have provided opportunities for intensive exchanges. The rigorous second-hand market that was first developed by South Asians in the district has facilitated exchanges that fueled more layers of informal sales activities. Grid blocks and wide streets definitely have advantage in developing such type of informal activities. The dominant working class population and large proportion of elder people in the area have generated the need for such informal sale for the sake of survival and occupation of public space for social interaction.

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One of the most chaotic, and rhythmic, phenomena is the guerilla sale by unlicensed hawkers in informal spaces around the district.

5 am - 7 am

2 pm - 5 pm

7 am - 9 am

5 pm - 7 pm

General Spatial Patterns Across Time One quite obvious pattern observed while mapping the spatial changes of the guerilla hawkersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; commercial activities is the gradual transition from the periphery to the center, and isolated patches become converged core. This has to do with several factors: visual visibility, proximity to district center and customers, compatibility with licensed commercial activities, communal environment, physical comfort, etc.

9 am - 11 am

11 am - 2 pm

7 pm - 10 pm

10 pm - 12 am

Sham Shui Po is an excellent site to study both connection and chaos, gifted with a strong sense of community as an old working class neighborhood, and rigorous commercial exchanges in various channels.

WHEN -- 5 - 7 am, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- under West Kowloon Corriodor, next to Tung Chau Street Park WHO -- mostly elderly people living nearby the district WHAT -- miscellaneous household items HOW -- casual selling WHY -- for social gathering and extra pocket money

Flyover Commune 0

Those are therefore not only commercial activities, but more importantly, opportunities for the community to gather together in public space, while their solitary experience in the compressed interior homes seems all too lonely.

#borrowed time, space and objects TIME 5 — 7 am -- off working hours, catering to the elderly’s sleeping habits SPACE under a flyover (West Kowloon Corridor) behind the more formal jade market and temporary market, with a park on the other side -- blocked away from outside’s attention since temporary hawkers are afraid of being caught -- attract by-passers who go to the park to exercise in the morning -- shelter from rain -- leftover space activated OBJECTS part of their collection comprise of goods kindly given by neighbours -- a middle-aged man specialises in clothes and cosmetics, disclosing that those are free cosmetic samples handed or mailed out by companies and he takes advantage of it, reselling it for a price -- there was another man in his early thirties walking around and chatting with the hawkers, while looking for interesting objects. He seems to be among those who take advantage of the cheap prices at those second-hand markets and resell the selected objects at a higher price -- at some booths there are food and snacks from convenient stores that have just passed their best-before date. I suppose these hawkers get them for free or at a very low price, selling to those who cannot afford food with normal price

Location Choice / Pedestrian Flow There were quite some people passing by the entrance area, and walking into the park across after looking around at the goods being sold. Some go further into the temporary market.

#loosely organised event

#tightly knit people

TIME 5:10 -- a few hawkers 5:40 -- many have arrived and set up 6:00 -- there are still a few taking out their stuff 6:30 -- already quite light, there are some people looking around 6:50 -- when the customer number reaches its peak, quite vibrant 7:00 -- a few start to pack stuff 7:20 -- many are still selling

-- among hawkers, between hawker and customer e.g. 1 -- a regular customer found a bike for a fat girl hawker to exercise more, and her booth is just by the entrance of a park e.g. 2 -- vibrant conversations between hawkers and customers e.g. 3 -- the two grandpas whom I asked for directions reappeared at the market later, one of them saying “I’m just walking around”, and reappeared seated next to a grandma selling stuff, happily smiling and chatting

SPACE -- along the flyover -- each occupies a spot, which is not necessarily fixed

demography: hawkers -- all Chinese, mostly elder people, a few middle-aged men customers -- mostly Chinese, some South Asians, elderly and middle-aged

Location Choice / Community Communal atmosphere seems to be the key to this location. The hawkers, nearby residents and restaurant owners have a good interaction with one another. Hawkers here seem to have stayed here for quite long, without moving to elsewhere.

Kai Fong Corner 0

WHEN -- 7 am to 7 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- at the crossroad of Pei Ho St. and Hai Tan St. WHO -- a few middle-aged and old women and man WHAT -- miscellaneous household items HOW -- casual selling WHY -- for social gathering and extra pocket money

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The spaces are often claimed from voids of urban structures and adapted in creative ways: infrastructure underspaces, sidewalks, building edges, driveways, alleyways, and even vehicles.

Spatial Negotiation Compared to the spaces under the flyover and at the sheltered street corner, this is a relatively exposed and unstable type of selling space, where the hawkers need to flexibly respond to the regular inspection by staff from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD). According to some of the hawkers, FEHD staff usually drop by a few times, up to as many as five times, a day during weekends, and when they come all the hawkers by the sidewalk will need to pack their goods and go somewhere else, since they are regarded to have blocked the proper passage of pedstrians. From my observation, there is indeed a relatively high amount of pedestrian flow during peak hours such as noon time and evening, and the sidewalk is quite crowded with people, but since the hawkers occupy only less than half of the entire area in a nonintrusive manner, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think their presence is causing a problem to the original function of the sidewalk. On the other hand, they actually add to the vibrance of the walking space that has partly been lessened by the heavy vehicle transportation and indoor shopping mall across the road.

Sidewalk Collective 0

Location Choice / Pedestrian Flow The hawkers gather along the section of Yen Chow Street sidewalk between Apliu Street and Ki Lung Street, and right across the road there is the Dragon Centre, a major shopping mall in the region since 1994, and the largest in West Kowloon until the Elements opened above the Kowloon MTR station. As observed, many locals go there on weekends for shopping and leisure, so selling goods nearby the bypassers seems to be a sensible choice. Another source of customers could be people walking from Apliu Street, famous for its cheap electronic products and accessories and attracting customers from all over Hong Kong. The pedestrian flow at the temporary hawker bazzar remains high during weekend days, and reaches its peak at noon and in the evening.

WHEN -- 7 am to 7 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- along Yen Chow St. between Apliu St. and Ki Lung St. opposite to Dragon Centre WHO -- elder men and women, middle-aged and young men, all Chinese WHAT -- miscellaneous household items, watches, old cash notes, jade, flowers, etc. HOW -- serious and casual selling WHY -- most need to earn, some elderly for social gathering and extra pocket money

Crowd passing by the sidewalks at Yen Chow St.

Location Choice / Stability and Enclosure Compared with the sidewalk, alleyway is a good choice for those who seek stable selling space and sense of enclosure reminiscent of conventional shops. As has been mentioned earlier, alleys are free from authority inspection since the presence of hawkers there does not interfere with major pedestrian flow. The potential of alleyways to develop into a mature market space could therefore be quite high, compared with sidewalks that immediately neighbors major vehicle roads.

Relationship The key moment in this narrow alley occurs when a restaurant owner dropped by at noon time. He quickly approached the hawkers from his restaurant further in the alley, handed lunchboxes one by one and talked to them briefly, and then soon disappeared back in the alley. The old lady says that this happens everyday when they are here, and if this kind gentleman does not offer free lunch to her, the humble money sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earned would have been gone by the end of the day.

Location Choice / Accessibility For residents from buildings within the same block, alleyways could be very accessible to them as a market space. One could pass by the hawker bazzar on their way to outside destinations from the back door and pick up something from the casual stroll. For outside visitors, alleyway is simultaneously a passageway from one side of the block to the other, and a hideout destination when there is need to escape from the hectic vibe of the proper streets.

Alleyway Market 0

WHEN -- 7 am to 5 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- between the building blocks along Yen Chow St. between Apliu St. and Ki Lung St. opposite to Dragon Centre WHO -- elder men and women, middle-aged men and women, most Chinese and some South Asians WHAT -- miscellaneous household items (apparel, utensils, appliances, etc.), watches, old cash notes, etc. HOW -- serious and casual selling WHY -- most need to earn, some elderly for social gathering and extra pocket money

It maintains a good balance of the public and private, the mobile and static, the open and enclosed.

In summary, guerilla sale involves spaces, people, and materials left over as the undesired part of the urban economy chain in Hong Kong.

Old man selling at the narrower lane

Customers looking at the items displayed at the wider alley

WHEN -- 11 am to 7 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- along the outer edges of the sidewalks on Tai Nan St. (between Pei Ho St. and Nam Cheong St.) and Nam Cheong St. (between Lai Chi Kok Rd. and Ki Lung St.) WHO -- middle-aged and young South Asian men (majority), accompanied by a few middle-aged South Asian women, some old and middle-aged Chinese men, joined by a few middle-aged Chinese men and women in the evening WHAT -- apparel (clothing, bags, shoes), electronic products (phones and cameras), accessories and parts, electrical appliances (TV, cooker, loudspeaker, etc), media (old books, CDs / DVDs, tapes, etc.), accessories (watches, glasses, antiques, etc), old cash notes, etc. HOW -- serious, organized selling WHY -- most need to earn

The interior space of a van is also used to display items. Half of the driveway becomes a casual sales space here.

Location Choice / Transportation One of the primary reasons why the South Asians choose this area as their major field seems to be for the convenience of transportation. Compared with the small scale of goods sold by individual hawkers at the flyover, sidewalks and alleyways, their goods often come in large quantity, and it would be unfeasible to carry them without vehicles. In addition, their illegal status as unlicense hawkers requires high flexibility and mobility, selling on driveways enables them to respond to inspections quickly -- when the authority come they could just drive away. Moreover, since they initially often drive their trucks around to collect second-hand items from households and waste collection points, 1 selling items right in their trucks becomes a very efficient option. 1 Information regarding the origin of their goods comes from several sources: casual conversations with the South Asian woman helping out at the driveway in the afternoon of Nov 6, 2016, a young Chinese female professional buyer encountered at Yen Chow St. sidewalk in the evening of Nov 6, 2016, and a middle-aged Chinese female hawker-con-scavenger met at Nam Cheong St. in the evening of Nov 20, 2016.

General Observations

A Pakistani man standing on his truck and talking to his customer.

Starting from late morning, the portion of Tai Nan St. close to Nam Cheong St. become gradually saturated with hawkers selling large quantities of goods, from apparel to electronic products, almost everything secondhand. Some vehicles such as vans and small trucks park at the edge of the driveway, opening up their boot lid and side doors with goods displayed inside. Most of the hawkers selling are South Asians, especially Pakistanis, according to one of the Chinese ladies selling nearby. When one reaches Nam Cheong St., one would be overwhelmed by the number of â&#x20AC;&#x153;vehicle stallsâ&#x20AC;? alongside the sidewalk, together with the people who are hawking, looking, talking and buying. The bustling atmosphere continues into the evening, when crowds stroll along the sidewalk of Nam Cheong St. like treasure hunting in a proper night market. The South Asian men seem to have a strong network developed and have dominated this area with their enthusiasm.

Driveway outlet 0

Kaisi Gathering 0

WHEN -- 7 pm to 12 am, some weekdays, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- Central Sham Shui Po - portion of Tai Nan St., Pei Ho St. and Kweilin St. close to the Pei Ho Street Minicipal Services Building WHO -- middle-aged and elder women and men WHAT -- apparel (clothing, bags, shoes), electronic products (phones and cameras), accessories and parts, electrical appliances (TV, cooker, loudspeaker, etc), old books, CDs / DVDs, tapes, accessories (watches, glasses, antiques, etc), old cash notes, suitcases, etc. HOW -- serious and casual selling WHY -- most need to earn, some elderly for social gathering and extra pocket money

The standard set for an individual hawker: goods for display, small foldable carts with wheels, larger four-wheel carts and paper boxes for transporting heavier and larger items, and a chair for seating. The spatial arrangement of these objects surrounding a railing is also quite typical.

Relationship Two moments represent the communal atmosphere present at the evening and late night informal market: a Mandarin speaking lady, casually standing by the street, is talking to her friend while selling her goods; two middle-aged Chinese men are chatting about their bicycles at street corner.

Location Choice / Proximity to Centre As evening approaches, the hot zone of informal sale starts to recess, and hawkers on night shift start to set up around the central area of Sham Shui Po, namely at portions of Tai Nan St., Pei Ho St. and Kweilin St. close to the Pei Ho Street Municipal Services Building. The night market is bustling with crowds of all kinds, from elderly to couple, from family to South Asian youth.

Spatial Reclamation Some of the unlicensed vendors set up their temporary stalls next to the proper hawker stalls, making themselves more accessible to pedestrians. A few even make use of the stall structure for display. Others put their goods next to railings on the edge of the roads. The structures unavailable to them during the day become creatively appropriated for use.

A lady using the verticle net, part of the hawker stall, to hang the clothes she is selling, and put the shoes right in front of the stall, while herself seated at the side.

Priorities Vary among User Groups

The Common Need: Social Connection

What parameters are important to the hawkers in choosing their locations? Flyover Commune

Kai Fong Corner

Sidewalk Collective

Alleyway Market

Driveway Outlet

Kaisi Gathering

Proximity to customers Away from inspectors Relationships with other hawkers Relationships with customers Relationships with nearby people Close to central activities Mobility Stability Privacy Physical enclosure

Spatial Prototypes + Characteristics

Physical comfort (noise, heat, security)

Least important

Most important

Characteristic of the location

infrastructure

building edge

occupied area open sheltered hide from inspection mobility stability privacy connected with surrounding physical comfort interaction agency

Low

High

Variable - low to high

Characteristic of the space

sidewalk edge

alleyway

driveway I

driveway II

railing

hawker stall

adaptive

chaotic

Some hawkers adapt to existing structures and make them functional for supporting display. In the left picture, the hawker in the alleyway hangs long bamboo sticks onto air-conditioner shelf to make a temporary wardrobe. Beneath is the movable cart as platform for shoes, so that they can be transported easily without any further effort. One can see similar strategy utilised in a different context in the image on the right -- the vertical net of the hawker stall is appropriated as hanging structure.

The most common quality among all displays of goods is the chaotic composition. Uncategorized and spread onto surfaces, the items on display look strikingly similar in composition to the discards found in alleyways of Sham Shui Po.

This simple act of putting items onto a flat surface onto a cardboard box exemplifies the spontaneity of street display.

spontaneous

additive

Simply added to existing environment, the goods have easily blended with the surrounding, enjoying a good level of bypassing frequency and visibility.

Display

Claiming the spaces not intended for selling, the hawkers have creatively invented a variety of ways to display their items. The most common type is to spread things out on the ground; less usual methods include hanging goods on vertical surfaces, making use of existing structures, and exploiting storage space.

hybrid + excessive Carrying large quantity of goods, the vehicles become spaces for display apart from being the transportation tool and temporary storage space, and therefore becoming a hybrid object. Making the maximum use of space available, the hawkers fill their trucks and vans excessively with items of all kinds.

indicative

Less visibility in the alleyway could be shortcoming, but the hawker here cleverly puts some of his goods at the entrance area on the sidewalk, so that bypassers could be attracted to go in and see more.

Super Van

How can the working class, especially those of rural origin, who have benefited less from the urbanization process retain their old skills of survival and provide services for the new social environment?

Symbiosis Proposal for mutual growth of the ecological and cultural, urban and rurual.

“Can spatial, labor and material “waste” of post-industrial economy be upcycled as a nurturing and productive role through landscape interventions?“ IN-BETWEEN URBANISM: LANDSCAPE AS CATALYST OF HYBRIDITY James Corner, in his article “Terra Fluxus” (2006), proposed the conflation of landscape and urbanism as an emerging future trend in the urban territories. In a mega city like Hong Kong, landscape urbanism finds a fertile field where infrastructures, buildings and voids are tightly knit due to the shortage of developable land. There is simply no space for urban landscapes, defined in a narrow sense, to separate themselves from the infrastructural base of the city. However, unlike Kongjian Yu’s practice in China that is based on large-scale top-down environmental planning, one type of effective landscape urbanism in Hong Kong, I’ll argue, will occur through networked neighbourhood-scale bottom-up interventions, embedded in social relations of daily life and situated in negative in-between spaces of dense urban environment. This proposal focuses particularly on the spaces, people, and materials left over as the undesired part of the urban economy chain. In tangible and intangible forms, in the rigorous capitalist industry of Hong Kong, there is a dichotomy between product and waste, and a rigid spatial designation for each. The two are separated through visibility, one in the flamboyant shopping malls and another at the silent landfill sites. By contrast, nothing in the natural world, again in a narrow definition, is regarded as waste — the decayed fall back into soil and become nutrients for reproduction. However, as McDonough and Braungart have argued in Cradle to Cradle (2002), there could be a similarly operated “technical metabolism” too, where used products and materials provide nourishment for something new. In this study I’d like to explore ways in which the spatial, labor and material “waste” of post-industrial economy can be upcycled as a nurturing and productive role through landscape interventions. By “landscape interventions” I mean more than the conventional, professional, and topdown way of site analysis, design and implementation. It shall refer to any activity that is able to generate or highlight the presence or essence of nature, as well as human’s relationships with such nature. By “productive” I mean several possibilities: the ability to physically produce food for oneself or for the community, as exemplified by the burgeoning rooftop farms in recent years, Michael Leung’s collaborative project with Mango King, or his observation of an old female security guard taking care of her mini farm on site during daytime duty; the capacity for generating conversations and enhancing relationships, sometimes even bringing monetary profit, such as a nice, shaded alleyway corner where neighbours can have casual talks and tea, or a refuse-collection-pointcon-flower-shop-or-farm where garbage workers can happily talk with neighbours who

”Being at small scales doesn’t mean being less effective, even from an ecological sense. If each community sets up a healthy framework of landscape interventions and social relations as such, and connect well with one another, there could be simultaneously a resilient cultural and an ecological network being established.“ come to buy herbs apart from they unpleasant duty; the potential for inspiring and evoking critical awareness and novel ideas, such as an installation or furniture set made of foam boards, package papers and clothes hangers disposed at the refuse collection point by students or special groups from the community, displayed at the street corner. Being at small scales doesn’t mean being less effective, even from an ecological sense. If each community sets up a healthy framework of landscape interventions and social relations as such, and connect well with one another, there could be simultaneously a resilient cultural and an ecological network being established. Due to the fragmentation and intense commodification of land, the government’s close tie with major property developers, and the challenge posed by high density and low proportion of horizontal surfaces, a centralised ecological plan seems not to be the best solution. Instead, a collective bottom-up community movement might be another way out, as has already been indicated in recent years in the umbrella movement where citizens built a temporary farm in Admiralty or in the North East New Territories where locals fight for farmland. By weaving ecology into local social and cultural fabric through expansion of the capacity of spaces, people and materials, landscape intervenes in between dichotomies and becomes catalyst for hybridity of urbanism. -- A short essay / proposal written in Aug, 2016.

Security Gardeners in Hong Kong. Many security guards in Hong Kong originated from the countryside, and therefore possessing growing skills.

Wong Chuk Hang

Tsuen Wan

North Point

Photo by @ studio_leung

The alternative network for urban (guerilla) farming

Inspirations My nursery experience:

Potential skill provider: security guards, gardening workers, clean ladies, scavengers, homeless people

Potential service seeker: (for business) restaurant owners, especially those with some budget for promoting green living, (for leisure) community members who are interested in growing for fun, for visual pleasure or for health

Working closely with the nursery workers in the summer of 2015, I learned flower arranging from a fifty-year old lady who originated from the rural area of Anhui, China. Despite her lack of education, she has an amazingly sensitive and creative approach towards colors, compositions and beauty. This could partly indicate the potential of involving the working class into the mainstream culture of gardening and middle-class aesthetic consumption.

Possible services:

My farm experience:

off-duty daily growing, occasional community farming / gardening and flower-arranging workshops by urban workers (mediated by designers?)

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had conversations with a few security guards who are responsible of the rooftop farm at HKU. Most of them have a good knowledge of growing crops so potential collaboration with them on urban farming is possible.

Possible spaces: alleyways, staircases, street corners, areas in front of restaurants, rooftops, spare spaces of workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; duty areas, spaces under infrastructures such as flyovers, etc.

“We are living at a time in which the destruction of nature is so great that is has become a preoccupation of thoughtless and ambitious people. In our struggle against the destruction of a legacy, we need to understand that we live in a world where plants exist, not only for material reasons, but also because they depict birth, growth and death, emphasising the instability of nature.” Burle Marx, Roberto in 1991 quoted in S. Eliovson, The Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx, Timber Press, Portland, OR. p7.

vitality I became an urban rooftop farmer in January, 2016, with an eager will to relearn the art of cultivation, which connects my rural heritage and the future of urban living. After apprenticeship for a few months, my first cucumber came to maturity in August. By watering, fertilising, trimming, weeding, and composting, I was invited into the lifecycle of crops, where they were born, grew, flourished, aged and withered, from which I gained humility, empathy and respect for nature. It was through this experience that I found how much participation in growth would change one’s perception towards plants and nature. This could be further popularised in urban areas through building edible landscapes and integrating it with community participation.

Appendix: Cycle Co-experience of the life and death of a cucumber plant.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;coopetitionâ&#x20AC;?

ephemerality

crisis, struggle & resilience

Wound Weaved by the Dead, Dec 2014. Installation, dried pine needles on chicken wire, dimensions variable.

Digital collage of brush paintings, Nov - Dec 2016.

Coursework for ART12 Intro to Spatial Practice at UC Santa Barbara, instructed by Ryan Bulis.

Ink painting test sheet, spring 2015. Coursework for ARCH 1031 Representing Landscape at HKU, instructed by Maxime Decaudin.

Watercolor painting, Oct 2015. Photography, 2014 - 2015. Santa Barbara and Hong Kong.

Pencil drawing, spring 2015. Coursework for ARCH 1031 Representing Landscape at HKU, instructed by Maxime Decaudin.

Other Works

Photography, pencil drawing, ink and watercolor painting, and installation of nature.

Photo collage. Santa Barbara, Dec 2014.

Photo with Leica. Huangpu, Shanghai, Feb 2014.

Photos with Leica. Huangpu, Shanghai, Feb 2014.

Other Works

Photography of the urban, rural and surreal.

Photo with Leica. Pucheng, Fujian, China, Feb 2011.

Photos. Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2014.

Teenagers on the leftover ruins of a village hall, Jan 2016. Bhakunde Besi, Nepal.

Children playing crickets with self-made tools on a field, Jan 2016. Bhakunde Besi, Nepal.

“Our habitat is not created in a vacuum—it is the compulsive expressions of beliefs and aspirations that are central to our lives.” Correa, Charles. A place in the shade: the new landscape & other essays. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2010.

Other Works

Photos of humans.

An eight-year-old boy with his grand grandma’s wooden chair, Feb 2016. Jingkeng Village, Pucheng, Fujian, China.

Shanni Liu

REACH ME AT: shannishanniliu@gmail.com +852 53343666