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Posts tagged ‘手续 protocol’

Michael和絵美的2012年家作坊种菜计划 Michael and Emi’s 2012 planting map

I begin to doubt again most of my/our uses of language. This is spoken in the utter irony of putting thoughts down in words, because one questions (or is questioned) about the content behind the forms of a p and q, and this process of moving from what could have been imagined to be an idea, to an expression or representation of such is broken, delayed, placed on the blinks of doubt. To use the phrase “design life” is perhaps too pompous, too contrived, too strategic. But why hold me to such fixities if words are so ambivalent anyway, and why cannot a larger thinking about our forms of organisation be pointed to in the close-up photograph of a bubble of spit on the street or the details of planting which seeds in which places? Are these merely illustrations or the desiring of a wannabe editor? And by “editor” are we referencing forms of control or a just a way of seeing matters of scale? Edward‘s limbo could be a misuse of the word just as design life is, but both are trying to refer to processes that necessarily implicate questions of scale. An end product will always also point to a system and ethics of thought, but an unfinished product does so in a manner that opens up a different degree of spacing or questioning of said system. Or you could follow the route of the fallible everything any-which-how, and no one is responsible. One can simply wallow, like she, in a days’ long vat of pointlessness. We’ve been talking a lot lately about the meaning of “style”, passing through one too many misunderstandings, so “style” may just as well be the passive sister to the silly designation of “design life”, but as F says, it’s a question of accessibility, and either you are intrigued for more or bored to death. CHOOSE, you choose!

Yesterday under the warmest weather yet this year, we began our “front stoop beautification” work, which included first asking FAN laoshi about the best way to go about planting the flower seeds we bought: 柠檬薄荷 lemon balm、鸡冠花 common cockscomb(曲哥的选择,高蓓说很重口味)、小猫草 catnip (给我们小点点的礼物)、鸡蛋花 egg flower、红叶景天 stonecrop、驱蚊草 geranium (mistranslated and mispictured on the package as chamomile—we’ll see what we get). There were also two free packages of 羊角椒 sheep horn pepper seeds with purchase. Included in this undertaking is a consideration of various forms of local expertise in ways that one may not be familiar with, country-kid versus city-kid jokes, plus a tender amount of 凑合 improvising for our flower pot anti-theft system, which failed miserably in the past. “Design life” secret à la Twist: connect several pots together with iron wire that is bound to each pot through the bottom hole, anchored inside the pot with a long screw or half of a chopstick.

设计手法 002:补丁内裤
纪录时间与地点:2012年3月27日下午1点37分,交道口北二条6号

Design Technique No. 002: patching old underwear
Logged:  27 March 2012, 13.37; Jiaodaokou Beiertiao 6

Also inspired by the visit earlier in the day to 刘家奶奶 our granny neighbour’s house, an old clove of garlic that someone left on our window ledge a few days ago was spontaneously thumbed into one of the pots. Jam instructs, “不要把土!直接插进去就行。Don’t dig into the soil! Just pushing it in there is enough.” Expertise is hearsay. We’ll see what we get.

提醒大家在北京! 还有13天跟北京市“提意见”! Reminder for everyone in Beijing! Only 13 days left to “voice your opinions”!

above: a few notes on the sidelines from 吴以楠 Sunday, 欧阳 Xiao and me… To be non-anonymous in a country of billions sounds like implication, another cruising for a bruising. Cynicism reigns, who wants to speak?  中文公告: http://zhengwu.beijing.gov.cn/gzdt/gggs/t1134433.htm

last night:The“小保安 little bodyguard”is harmonized.
昨天晚上:小保安被HX了。
today:We harvest a lot of mushrooms, and the little bodyguard escapes from the wall!
今天:我们收获了好多蘑菇,之后小保安给熏跑了。

One finds oneself laughably excusing oneself before the Security Guard wearing baggy pleated shorts. At the same moment as the question emerges from the tip of my tongue (was that indignation or hesitation): Isn’t this a public space?——those wry twinges at the back of the head (very pertinent?) know all too well that a shopping mall is not a public space. What are you doing here? she asks.

Oh, hmm…uhh…I guess standing around the square and accosting people to take their pictures are not allowed. Security Guard very easily narrates her rehearsed consumer edification statement on the nature of such a “public space” as 三里屯 Sanlitun Village in East Beijing: This is the property of 太古 Taigu (Swire), and while visitors are free to regard this as a public space we do retain certain regulations and have the right to enforce them. Also inflected: consumers must be defended at all costs from anything that deters from a total shopping/dining experience, especially annoying ones like you.

Can I take your photo?

It is the perfect balance of civilised courtesy and the scenario of firm, surveyed control. We can reach the pinnacle of sophistication in an environment where we are surrounded by bourgeouis goods (I hung around to photograph one very fashionable trio, but they stayed inside Izzue for over an hour) and earphone/walkie-talkie donning young guards wearing baggy pleated shorts. It would be easy to walk away then and continue to accost Sanlitun visitors around the corner, on the other side of the square, maybe in front of the American Apparel instead of the Nike store. But you’ve been booted already, no balls, and it’s easy to begin seeing suspicious glares in all the other baggy-pleated short wearing guards that you pass every 50 meters. Go ahead and try to make friends now!

I go to an American-Italian-esque café to have a cappuccino instead. Sigh. Like my mother when she was younger, I can sit for hours on end watching people, though I wonder if my mother ever had as much longing after strangers as I do on a day like today, when I’ve been shamed for my feeble attempts at public engagement. Back then, my mother would visit the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon Bay, and I guess I grew up in the shopping malls. It’s introductory Augé on repeat. But if these are not public spaces, perhaps we are not publics either, and I can only justifiably play fashion police as a marketing study for what trends and consumer groups should be regarded as the main influencers. To be an influencer would only then be a question of who best shines under a control scenario, under the influence of terms like ‘regime’ and ‘privatisation’ and ‘surveillance’. Is that what I like so much about the hutong still then, where life still happens under the cuff as much as it is committee-surveyed and organized for behavioural control (i.e., “文明北京人 civilised Beijinger”) as any of our more cosmopolitan world alternatives?

Maybe things are not tested as much as they could be. It felt sheepish to receive in an e-mail today: keep pushing the threshold. Playing ballsy? What does that mean, exactly? I would have liked to have written a treatise on ballsy-ness by now, but I sit instead at an American-Italian-esque café thinking too much about people who could care less. “Beyond” could be like a Badiou-ian truth, but vectorless possibilities and ballsy-ness require some form of immanence to be pushed. And where does interior exist in a control society? Are these the parameters of ‘post-privacy‘? We are all influenced. All captured and captivated and de-humanised.

After a prolonged research and analysis period highly implicated by HomeShop’s recent search for a new space, our newfound expertise has led to the temporary return of the current space at Xiaojingchang hutong to its former status as real estate agency (pre-2007 era). We are pleased to inform you that we are taking up a new role as an offshoot office of the well-known chain 我爱我家 Wo Ai Wo Jia (“I Love My Home”), henceforth named 我爱你家 Wo Ai Ni Jia (“I Love Your Home”). If you are looking for a new house or office within Beijing’s old city centre or are merely interested to learn more about the real estate market and private life in the capital, our multilingual agents can offer free advice and direction regarding a selection of some of Beijing’s hottest properties. We do not take commission, and while our services may be limited, our knowledge is vast. Please stop by HomeShop or telephone to make an appointment. You may reach us at any time by mobile phone at 137 1855 6089.

Thank you! We are here waiting for your trust!

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“我爱你家 I Love Your Home” is a project of 何颖雅 Elaine W. HO and Fotini LAZARIDOU-HATZIGOGA for HomeShop. On view from 24 May 2010.

经过家作坊对寻找新空间的一段旷日持久地研究和分析,我们现在在小经厂胡同的空间暂时回到了它过去的房产中介公司状态(2007年早期)。我们很高兴的通知您,我们现在成为了著名连锁机构“我爱我家”的分店之一,并从此叫做“我爱你家”。如果您正在北京老城区的中心地带寻找房子或者办公室,或者至少对首都房地产市场和个人生活感兴趣的话,我们多语言的服务团队将为您提供免费咨询以及对某些北京最热房产的指南。我们不收取中介费,虽然服务项目有限,但我们的知识很丰富。请在家作坊门前留步,或电话预约。您可以在任何时间通过这个手机号码找到我们:13718556089。

谢谢!我们期待您的信任!

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“我爱你家 I Love Your Home” 是由何颖雅 Elaine W. HO 及 Fotini LAZARIDOU-HATZIGOGA为家作坊做的一个项目。从2010年5月24日开始。

2008年8月12日,大约下午6点。 奥体中心地铁站的黑市。

12 August 2008, around 18:00. Olympic Sports Center subway station impromptu black market.

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“Protocol is commonly described as a set of international courtesy rules. These well-established and time-honored rules have made it easier for nations and people to live and work together. Part of protocol has always been the acknowledgment of the hierarchical standing of all present. Protocol rules are based on the principles of civility.”

—Dr. P.M. Forni on behalf of the International Association of Protocol Consultants (Wikipedia)

Beijing, CN weather for 12 august 2008: sunny with blue skies, afternoon chance of scattered clouds, high 30° C – low 22° C.

above: Are Fuwa dolls allowed to speak on the job? Only if you look them in eyes. “你那里面热不热?“ “还好!“

“In the field of telecommunications, a communications protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation, signaling, authentication and error detection required to send information over a communications channel.” (wikipedia)

above: the “Official Spectators’ Guide”

Thinking of protocol in terms of means, ways of doing… de Certeau’s perruque [1] implies a way of using time within the standards of protocol. What loopholes do we find as individuals, within the “Official Spectators’ Guide”?

above: Volunteers make arrangements for people who need to change their seats at Olympic events.

Where do we abide by a protocol, but where do we always end up finding our own ways of getting there, of doing this or that? As we said before, this is by no means a way to pursue subversion—-we laugh in ignorance at the same time as we act. Living in beijing as 老百姓 laobaixing, as everyday citizens, what modes of protocol do we embody, and where do we meander without noticing?

above: Portable cutlery and chopsticks are not allowed on the Olympic green. You can check them in, however, with a simple sticker purchased from any local stationery store and an identifying signing of whatever you want.

above: Lip gloss is allowed, so long as you put it on before you enter the stadium.

The trace has a very distinct path, a protocol of following someone else’s footsteps or keeping to the line that has been set before… But it is only a slip of the hand, a slight nudging off the solid foundation of following, that sets us into a realm of possibility. Deligny does not neglect his own presence as tracer within the mapping of the traced. Nor can we deny responsibility as creators or thinkers upon those that we engage with, no matter what exchange may be made, or not. Is it a nothing to take notice? Is possibility too open a format? No. Because the protocol is always there; there are hundreds of routine paths and familiar faces that pass here everyday.

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[1] “…la perruque is the worker’s own work disguised as work for his employer…” (Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life)