Hong Kong as Creative Practice

Description

In this book, Hong Kong is seen as a labyrinth, a postmodern site of capitalist desires, and a panoptic space both homely and unhomely. The author maps out various specific locations of the city through the intertwined disciplines of street photography, autoethnography and psychogeography. By meandering through the urban landscape and taking street photographs, this form of practice is open to the various metaphors, atmospheres and visual discourses offered up by the street scenes. The result is a practice-led research project informed by both documentary and creative writing that seeks to articulate thinking via the process of art-making.   As a research project on the affective mapping of places in the city, the book examines what Hong Kong is, as thought and felt by the person on the street. It explores the everyday experiences afforded by the city through the figure of the flâneur wandering in shopping districts and street markets. Through his own street photographs and drawing from the writings of Byung-Chul Han, Walter Benjamin and Michel de Certeau, the author explores feelings, affects, and states of mind as he explores the city and its social life.  Acknowledgement Contents List of Figures 1: Introduction The Flâneur and the City as a State of Mind The Writing of Place Street Photography and Visual Ethnography Practice-Led Research Subsequent Chapters Works Cited 2: Tsim Sha Tsui as Labyrinth Works Cited 3: The Mall and Park as Heterotopic Spaces Works Cited 4: Street Markets of Sham Shui Po: Going on a Dérive Works Cited 5: Embodied Mobilities: On the Subway, Cycling, Running An Embodied Mobilities Approach Commuting by Subway Cycling Recreational Running Trail Running Works Cited Conclusion Index