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SYBIL poster 

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SYBIL prototype 

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Sybil making process (compiled)

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Paper review: Imagining the Recursive City: Explorations in Urban Simulacra

Both of the authors made an interesting approach (in their time) of exploring recursive city in terms of its physical patterning and the use of them as icons in digital pattering. Indeed, they successfully convinced the definition of recursion, starting from its utilization in mathematics and as well as it is similarly applied in cities. The essential element mentioned is Hofstadter’s idea of the ‘strange loop’ which are self repetitive elements that are able to transform and reposition. With that, the authors stated that such hierarchical recursion, Escher-Like fractal self-similarity and Escher and the Droste Effect mentioned, manifests how it is possible to embed worlds within worlds as well as both space and time are woven into one another. As followed, the authors claimed to develop a model of a model: urban simulacra.

What I’m most interested in is Figure 9, showing recursively embedding the virtual city. The chart makes it more simple, as I am most confused with such many wordings and made it harder to visualise their contention. It is clear that direct elements from the real world can be projected digitally and they have used the GIS shell and the panoramas. These two subjects can be embedded through and through as mentioned in the text. Further in the chart, both of these ‘real world’ elements can be then embedded to the virtual world itself from level to level. Hence, the authors had successfully achieved their point on multiplicity of worlds, which seems amazing.

However, there was quite a downfall to me at least, as they want to approach in completing the loop. Of course, the authors themselves have mentioned that their statements are still far-fetched and there are technology restrictions in printing yet, my question of “until how far” turning fabricated reality back to observed reality can be achieved. “Printing the size of the actual city” as mentioned does sound absurd, but could be possible in the future but yet, I am just not fully convinced on that specific part. Nevertheless, this exploration has probably led much inspiration to what today holds especially in the modification and twists in virtual realities that not only opens to new perspectives, but an experience to be in a space and time that couldn’t happen in our ‘reality’.

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Paper review: The Garden of Forking Pathway

In “The Garden of Forking Paths” Borges not only juxtaposed but interlaced both reality and fantasy. Borges opened opportunities of different possibilities that can happen along with infinite endings. What makes it compelling especially in his era, was the main theme of his novel, which is time. His novel accounted every moment whether the past, present or even the future. In other words, the characters in his novel can come to a point where it leads to possible outcomes, yet all outcomes occur. Easy to say, the narrative is a “forking pathway” to multiple alternate universes; a labyrinth of time and reality.

When reading in the beginning, I was assuming the narrator is the ‘reality’ as it narrates the two missing pages and the personal narrative is mostly tainted by perspective so it makes its own subjective alternate reality. With its element mentioning “WWII” takes me what is ‘real’ and the Garden of Forking Paths represents the mystical element, opposite to reality. Thus, Borge already takes the story itself as its own labyrinth on how chaotic it is. Furthermore, Borge progresses the story with even larger labyrinth as the plot reveals a lot of unusual and unexpected turns and outcomes, leaving the reader including myself to be confused and following behind aimlessly from the first place.

But this is what Yu Tsun is experiencing as well in the novel. At first, he mentioned, “everything happens to a man precisely now. Centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen....” This indicates that he believes time works in a linear manner. That is, humans experience time as a series of present moments, one following the other. As soon as the moment is experienced, however, it no longer exists. On account of this, the past is no more real than the future. Both exist nowhere but in the human mind: the past belongs to the realm of memory, while the future belongs to the realm of imagination. But Albert challenged his notion, arguing Yu Tsun’s ancestor “did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel times.” In this construction of time, all presents, pasts, and futures exist simultaneously. Further, each decision a person makes leads to a different future. The branching, or forking, of all these decisions suggests that time is not a line, but rather is a web or a network of possibilities. The image of the labyrinth, thought of as a forking of time, rather than space, is the clue that Albert needs to rethink the concept of time.

The idea of many different realities existing in time is DAMN unnerving to me because it means that at this moment, I could be doing something completely different, somewhere else in the world, even looking different, and yet these several ‘me’s’ have no knowledge of the other ‘me’s’. Instead, they go about their day living in what they think is the one and only actual reality when really, they are all actual realities. It’s so creepy! It questions everything we’ve come to know and accept as truth; that time is definite and chronological, and that once we make a decision, the option of another outcome ceases to exist. Borge may have given us a deeper understanding, or a thought at least into this story by revealing the mystery behind this work.

Honestly, I won’t suck up on Borge a lot, but I surely believe he inspired a lot of creators as mentioned. If I had to choose an example, it would be a TV show Rick and Morty. The story itself is not only chaotic, but stupid yet smart, which brings itself a labyrinth of time and reality as well. 

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Non-place documentary part 3

Had a lot of struggle doing this with everything crashing but thankfully it’s done!!! 

 enjoy 🍓

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Non-place documentary part 2

Scene 1: What are places?

Scene 2: What are non-places?

Scene 3: Importance of places and non places ratio

Scene 4: Greenspace as a non-place

Scene 5: Streets as places an non-places

Scene 6: Maintaining the ratio of places and non-places

Scene 7: Conclusion 

**main footages of the video are still not captured yet (since there are restriction movements currently) and pending (since some of them will be received from people abroad). Furthermore, videos that are popular in the internet will also be included inside the video. 

Click here for the video footages (updated time by time)

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Non-place documentary part 1

Objective: Introduction to place and non place as well as the importance of ratio between them for comfortable and sustainable city living environment.

Scenario:

Clips or still images of the International Campus and Songdo city.

Plot (roughly)

What are places?

- Introduction of definition between places and non places.

Why places:non-places are important?

Non places: Greenspace

- What is greenspace

- Why is makes an atmosphere difference with its presence in streets or between places

Non places: Street

- Street that are meant to be places can turn into non-places; abandoned/uninteresting/plain streets

- Introducing places/people into abandon streets to make it as a place again

Maintaining the ratio

- street/road width and building heights

- human scale streets

Example: International Campus

- it’s greenspace

- width between walkspace and building heights

- personal opinion on living environment regarding to place:nonplace of the dormatories/campus

Conclusion

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Snapshots: