condenCITY_85

Visions of Nakwon

The belly of a city, turned upside-down in the darkness of day.
Where some explore, others remain cautiously aside;
outside.
Both road and structure conceived simultaneously;
a partnership of economics and an expedient double time.
My memory is vague but bold as I look back through my forlorn window.



  

condenCITY_84 above and below

Faux-fotos capturing real "insta"-moments. I have begun to photograph Seoul above and below ground in a series of images, quickly capturing the reflected half of the city; a metro system, experienced daily by thousands and yet receiving little attention as a place of destination- or perhaps even consideration as active public space. The Seoul metro is a place of passage where most commuters rarely take pause. The series can be seen here at an instagram platform for viewing and sharing photo's, captured on handheld, mobile devices and networks.

condenCITY_83 cities in-between

The Kaesong Industrial park in North Korea is located 16 kilometers north of the DMZ and South Korean borders. Kaesong, having opened in 2004 as a joint project between the north and south, now operates as a conditional industrial 'experiment' with productions of low-quality garments and commercial products owned by South Korean companies and with labor supplied at the hands of North Korean workers. Currently more than 40,000 workers populate the park with plans for more than double that over the next decade.

The industrial city is directly connected by train and bus to and from Seoul, making it the only active civilian link, between the two countries along the heavily fortified DMZ- although for the moment, visits by the general public have been halted due to rising political tensions. It is a place of transient existence, with a workforce shipped in for operations and then out when the factories close. It remains caught in-between, somewhere as typical industrial area, and yet suppressed by the decades old cold war stalemate still gripping the peninsula. 

But could Kaesong be a staging ground for more? 

Kaesong presents the possibility of industrialization as a uniting force of disparate ideologies; bridging lapses and filling decades of void. It has become a delicate dance of divergent economics- precariously positioned as a model for unity in the oddest of ways. 

condenCITY_82 city depths

The depths of a city can be measured in anticipation; what may or may not eventually happen as a result of environmental oversight. In the case of Seoul, the engineered Han River, is a subtle measure of the city's depth. The negative elevations of which, have been excavated away, as a precautionary stance ensuring the safety of its citizens and investments. As contingency this city is intentionally deep.

Un-condensed rural 2.0

'nightwall'

With day turned to night- all that remains is wall, casting shadows and projecting light in the cool autumn air of rural Korea. The earthen walls, 'tom', are labors of division (and inclusion); containing spaces of outside to be included inside. These are outside rooms to be certain.  The rise of autumn brings silence in night and in day. Contained within earthen walls- nightwalls.

Jon Jost

Image courtesy, Jon Jost

I sat down recently in Seoul with American filmaker and artist, Jon Jost. We met on the campus where I teach, at a small cafe for an exchanging introduction. He was both engaging and accessible in conversation that lasted seamlessly for two hours. His stories of life seemed opposite his films in some ways, and then again, his work as a direct projection of his own divergent 'lives' rendered the man and places behind the camera even more real- in details captured deliberately in time. Jost has made more than 60 independent films dating back to the late 1960's. 


Perhaps, known best for,  All The Vermeers in New York, his films are as much a reflection of places he has lived and experienced, as they are in deeply personal views and an obsessive craft in making. His films have been both widely celebrated around the world for their cinematic attention and perhaps equally criticized for a cadence, some find hard to follow. They are cerebral and deliberately constructed; or film as "architecture," as Jost describes. 


Jon Jost will lecture on November 25th at 1:30 pm in the department of Architecture at Konkuk University.  His lecture is titled_  Cinematic architectural space: an exploration

condenCITY_81 Seoul from above 1.3

The horizon is lost and then found in Seoul. It's serrated edge pitched against a hazy, late summer sky. For many city dwellers it is an elusive experience to be found in moments of brief visits above the 10th floor. At street level we tend to forget that vision can be free of limit. 

condenCITY_80 Seoul from above 1.2

From above Seoul is mixed. 

Architecture is at once road, programmed space, bridge, public node, parking lot, to name just a few; collective as a multi-functional device in the city. Bound indistinguishably on its sides, concealed and then revealed. Architecture, by determined will (and absolute limits), as it was constructed in double-time, producing road, market and modern apartment block in one economic effort. Simultaneously they rose, as we see it today from above; the confluence of Nagwon.

condenCITY_79 Seoul from above 1.1

The Seoul Metropolitan area is 605 square kilometers (or 233 sq. miles). It's population of 10,464,051 estimated in 2010, is concentrated in an area of 17,288 people per square kilometer (44,770 per square mile); in comparison New York City's density of approximately (27,500 people per square mile) is clear indication of just how dense Seoul is in terms of population per area. From above at night, in this NASA satellite image, we too are reminded of Seoul's defining topographic boundaries and limits, viewed here in its thinly delicate and fragile form (quite opposite the constructed reality at ground level). The cities overflowing edges have been pushed outward and forced through narrowing geographies, north and south, east and west, visible high in the night sky.

condenCITY_78 1912 Se-ul From Above 1.0

Image courtesy nationmaster.com

Seoul has a history of being fictitious when it comes to mapping and representations of the city on paper. Through centuries either locally or by the hand of visiting foreigners (as viewed in the map above) it has been laid out and mapped according to personal perceptions, a kind of visual feeling, rather than by any exactness of measure or precision. It is a representation that permeates even the city today; in its constructed imprecise form.