香港路上 Hong Kong Roadside

香港路上
- 《亞洲種子》第二期工作坊紀錄展

展期：6月14日至6月21日（星期二至六）
時間：下午3時至5時
主辦單位： 天台塾
策劃： 下道基行
拍攝及命名： 《亞洲種子》計劃的參與學生

(scroll down for english)
初次來到香港，我駐留了一個半月。
這次來的目的是策劃並進行一個為學生而設的工作坊。
我拿著相機，漫步穿梭香港，進行路上觀察，開展了駐留計劃的序幕。我讓身體去感受這個城市的規模、地理和氛圍。縱使只是短短的駐留時間， 我對任何機會都抱著開放的心態，並開始對香港人的思考模式及興趣進行研究。

最終完成的工作坊內容是：讓學生遊走於街道，將發現到的有趣現象用手機紀錄，並且為這個現象命名及上載到Instagram。在工作坊舉行前的兩星期，我對香港街道的名稱產生興趣並進行資料收集；我給了學生一個習作：訪問自己家人或朋友的名字背後的故事。起初，以美術為志的學生們似乎對「拍照然後命名」的做法有種困惑，心裡想「我們不是畫畫或者做點甚麼嗎？」 。

人們因不同的期待或觀感賦予物件不同的名字。「命名」是在不直接改變物件本身的情況下，將新的意義寄予在物件上的行為。在日本有一種叫「見立て(mitate)」的傳統表現手法。當中「把物體看待成另一種東西，而非物件本身的狀態」的手法與英語裡的「metaphor(比喻／類比)」類似。譬如說，將美麗的女性比喻為花，從古時候的詩詞歌賦裏就已經有很長的發展歷史；同樣的比喻在日本則在中世紀茶道品茗會之間流傳開去，至今在各個地方仍然是廣為人用的表現手法。我認為以「見立て」的方法去「命名」，能在不改變物件本來的意義之上改變其意思或價值，是最純粹的表現手法。這次工作坊的目標， 不是為預先構思好的展覽創作「作品」，而是為發現日常生活有趣的現象以「見立て」的手法命名，繼而將所「命名」或「標籤」(hashtag)發展成現實生活中的一種流行。雖然「幾年後再來香港時，人們會以某個名稱稱呼某種現象」是不容易的事情，但我把這個目標定為是次工作坊的一個重要想像。

這是為期兩天的工作坊，結束時在Instagram上的投稿只有大約200件，直到現在已經有超過600件的投稿了。在完成工作坊後，學生們似乎將使用Instagram紀錄新「路上觀察」和「見立て」當作娛樂似的，並且在他們的日常生活中持續進行。

這次的展覽，是把在工作坊時所得，帶有指定標籤「#asia_seed」的投稿重新整合而構成的工作坊紀錄展覽。

--下道基行

「亞洲種子」獲香港特別行政區政府「藝能發展資助計劃」的資助 。
活動內容並不反映香港特別行政區政府的意見。

Hong Kong Roadside – Documentation of Asia Seed Cycle 2 workshop
Date: June 14-21 (Tue - Sat)
Time: 3-5pm
Organizer: Rooftop Institute
Workshop designed & Lead by: Shitamichi Motoyuki
Photo took and Named by : “Asia Seed” project’s participating students

I visited Hong Kong for the first time and I stayed for one and a half month.
The objective of this trip was, to organize and lead a workshop for students.
As the outset of my stay, I held my camera in one hand, walked around Hong Kong, and did field observations in between streets and alleys. It allowed me to understand the scale of the city, the geography and the atmosphere with my body. Afterwards, although it was a short time, I began researching on the interests and mindsets of people in Hong Kong, while keeping myself open to all sorts of possibilities.

What we eventually did for the workshop was, first “walk around the city to discover and take snap shots of the interesting phenomenon with mobile phone”, then “give a name to the phenomenon of the city and post it on Instagram”. (By the way, two weeks before the workshop, when I was attracted by the name of the streets in Hong Kong and did my researches accordingly, the students were assigned a task to “find out the story of the name of their family or friends”.) At the beginning, the students whom strived for experiencing art were fairly confused like, “aren’t we going to draw or make something?”, that my only guideline was to “take photos of the interesting phenomenon and give it a name”.

People name things in various ways based on different expectations and point of views. Naming would not directly change the object itself, however it is an act to embody a new meaning in the object. In Japan there is a traditional way of expression known as “mitate”(見立て). It is a practice to see things as another object, rather than perceiving it as the actual object itself. In this sense, “mitate” is quite similar to “metaphor” in English. For example, referring beautiful women as flowers is, long developed in poems since the old times, whilst in Japan it evolved among tea ceremonies during mid-century, and is even a common way of expression in the modern world. By implying the method of “mitate” in naming, it alters the meaning as well as the value of an object without modifying the object itself, and I believe this can be considered the simplest method of expression. The objective of my workshop was, rather than creating “works” for a pre-planned exhibition, to inspire students to identify the intriguing phenomenon from everyday live, then name the phenomenon with the method of “mitate”, and see the names or the corresponding hashtags become a trend in real life. Despite it is very challenging to hear people refer to a phenomenon by the name which was given during this workshop in a few years times when I revisit Hong Kong, I kept it as an ambition of this workshop.
It was a two-day workshop. By the end of it, there were only about 200 posts on Instagram, and now we have more than 600 posts online. It seemed like students are constantly practicing “field observation” and “mitate” with Instagram as their daily leisure activity.

This exhibition shows a documentation of the workshop, with posts tagged with hashtag "#asia_seed" collected and re-arranged after the workshop is over.

-- Shitamichi Motoyuki

Asia Seed is financially supported by the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The content of these activities does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.