We start our video from Kam Tin’s most obvious symbol—Wall System. It is a rigid and visible boundary separate inside and outside area. Since the subsequent architectural construction, the original grid inside of Kat Hing Wai is not comfortable for resident any more, and the narrow alley is not a good scale for the houses on the two sides. Thus the historic wall more looks like a limitation and also does not obtain therespect it deserve. People prefer stay in the shade along the street and public space. Zooming up the map of our site, we decide to use this real architectural boundary as our main subject to extend the others boundaries of people’s life in this area.
We can easily clarify the sign and lane on the street which shows us the visible boundary. However, people on escalator leave the left side naturally for someone in rush also presents the invisible boundary. Sometimes this kind of invisible boundary is even more serious. Kam Tin is a traditional Hakka settlement, with the development of Hong Kong, more and more outsiders move in this area. Currently, the village mixed various people who have different nationality, skin color, even the language is not the same one. From our film record, we can see a strong boundary between various residents. They hardly share a public space, chat with each other. It is frustrated that getting video interview is so hard, because people are so sensitive to the camera. However, we try to record the necessary information from the observation and brief talking with residence.
The Kat Hing Wai reminds me of Hakka Earth Building Complex. It is located in Chunxi Village, Fujian Province, China. Both of these residential district used Wall System as defensive function at first stage. However, the difference is their inside area. Earth Building has larger public area inside of round wall, the designers left more potential activity area which also shape the behavior of users. It is lucky enough to see the original Earth Building which has more than six hundred years history. How I wish the original Kat Hing Wai still exist.
To sum up, the second assignment is very interesting, each of our group members contribute to this process. We recorded the film both on weekday a weekend for figure out the differences. I still remember the moment that when a suitable background music was found. It starts with kind of gloomy and becomes dynamic gradually. We recorded tons of fragments to consist of the final film. I love this way to show the project, because sometimes it is hard to present emotion when you actually stand on the narrow alley without animation.
The Link of Video Assignment