又一年六四

「中國無數計非正常死亡多半是死於一種制度、一種觀念。中國政治制度維護的是權力和金錢，除了權力和金錢，不存在更需要維護的東西；觀念中缺少一個對生命的尊重和關愛，一個對死亡的敬畏與戒懼。」

-「天安門母親運動」成員徐玨《明報6月5日》

Conquering the last terrain of analog - Amazon's Kindle (Part II)

No windows persuading me to make all sorts of consumption pop up from my book. And no one knows that I am reading at a particular time in a particular place. But once the device is stuck onto your body, you are constantly under tracking by these big brands. Every body is accessible. They learn about your movement, your next stop and your next encounter. They hold the key to your minds. Readers will only be blinded with the ideological excitement of possessing this so-called freedom of connection to the infinite space of knowledge. You think you are now communicating with many more people around the world at any time any space but on the other side of the coin, you are actually being barred from connecting with groups that are less up-to-date. The immediacy of update widens our information lapse from person to person. Information one possesses easily deteriorates. The common ground for discussions is gradually shrinking due to this temporal difference in information reception.

"Book clubs could meet inside of a book." (Newsweek, 70) To a certain extent, yes, readers are no longer confined to a physical space for book salon or discussions but in turn, they are now confined to that virtual space which is highly manipulated by the space administrator, which is Amazon in this case. Instead of "making the entire works of humankind available to all people", they are now only available to those born in the digital age, more affiliated and knowledgeable mass. The rich poor gap is constantly widening, not only between the analog and digital camp, but also among those in the digital net. It is no longer a fair game. Within a global scale, those living in the third world will never get a taste of such technology. Even they are willing to read, their knowledge simply depreciates compared to other parts of the globe. Capital thus flows from around the world to those knowledgeable elites who are now connecting among themselves and sharing all sorts of information at an ever accelerating speed.

The whole evolution from analog to digital is a coercion that builds upon excessive needs and constantly making one feels that he or she is out-of-date. They will not point a gun at your head to force you to buy the new edition. Yet by gradually limiting and finally ceasing to release that previous edition, buyers had no choice but to switch to the newer one. This will certainly happen to the production of books in the near future. Books will not extinct but perhaps not each and every piece of writings will have the chance to release a book version. As Amazon's database expands, fewer and fewer publishers could resist the entire digitization movement.

Conquering the last terrain of analog - Amazon's Kindle (Part I)

Last Christmas Amazon has released its first electronic book (e-book) which is already the 2nd generation of its kind into the market. Newsweek has devoted a total of 6 pages to cover this story on November 26, making a sound feature on The Future of Reading that might be shaped by the attempt of this device. How revolutionary is this Kindle? Is it really going to "change the way readers read, writers write and publishers publish?"

As claimed by the CEO of this online bookstore giant, Jeff Bezos, their mission is to digitize entire libraries of the world, to create "the world's only book" so as to "make the entire works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages, available to all people, all the time." (Newsweek, 70) What he meant by "all the time" refers to their newly developed wireless connectivity which surpasses all its ancestors including Sony Reader, the pioneer of e-book. With just a glimpse, one can hardly tell what makes the device so different from the PDA or mobile phones from which we read our everyday news and documents in transports. And what makes these big corporations so sure that they will be able to conquer this last terrain of analog, the print media which has been the bedrock of our civilization for centuries, but not another fashionable product that roars in the short run?

We were told that the product is in fact no different from an actual book. It can even lead you into the state of ludic reading – the rabbit hole that heavy readers enter when consuming books for pleasure. (Newsweek, 68) What Bezos was trying to convince readers was that it is not the medium that brings one into that hypnotic state. What have been paramount are in fact the ideas of writers. The aura of a book can be substituted by any medium and this time, this device, this machine. Instead of mingling with papers – static and 3-dimensional, now we were told to mingle with all sorts of screens – interactive and 4-dimensional. With their power in the media (they are in fact the media), they stir up noises and create talking points through platforms like blogs and forums, and thus slowly immerse oneself into the need for change. But how could the two mediums be possibly the same?

Ground Zero

Time flashes.

It's been six years already.
still remember
the moment I watched the news on TV

I froze.
I breathed.

thinking

the Day of Judgment would be coming
very soon

found an interview on TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/8
with David Rockwell
a prominent architect in NY
talking about how they came up with the idea at
Ground Zero

not too memorial

Serene.

北京呀北京...

北京呀北京，這陣子你真是紅透了頂！

上至國際雜誌，下至星斗市民，無不討論你近日的鋒芒，世界頂尖的建築師雲集到你這裡來，打算在黃土上留下永遠的烙印，是的，上百億元的投資，不會是短暫的，這些建築物將永遠成為你的一部份，日後每當人家想起你的時候，不再是天安門紫禁城，而是令人目眩的玻璃窗。

你將逐漸失去安藤忠雄所說的「異稟」，那種「人類的味道」，在你身上都快嗅不出來了，為的是要跟「世界」看齊嗎？但哪裡是「世界」？為什麼你不是那個「世界」？難道除了Norman Foster之外，沒人會設計機場？為何巴黎可以成功地將高樓大廈限制在市內的邊緣地區，甚至可以做到像羅浮宮那樣完美地結合新與舊，你卻忍心移平整個滿有中國特色的胡同？

這是城市化的必經階段還是你一時之間，被虛名沖昏了頭？

Socially Yours - Alternative Design Networking Seminar

沒想到一個關於Design for the Community的座談會會演變成民間組織控訴政府的大會，正當來自荷蘭的藝術家樂樂地向在場人士介紹他們的意念及創作經歷時，台下觀眾總是把問題聚焦在香港藝術團體所遇到的種種困難及至質詢人家可如何在香港作同類的藝術活動，試問一批來了香港還不到一星期的人能怎樣回答？

當看見人家從老遠帶來的概念和創作經驗時，本地的藝術工作者汲取了些甚麼？正如當中一位有份參與“Blue House”計劃的荷蘭藝術家Jeanne van Heeswijk提到，不論是甚麼活動都有機會遇上未知的困難，他們這個計劃不是也給當地政府起訴過無數次？但重要的是踏出第一步，那最不明朗的一步，光想着前頭諸般的障礙而猶豫不決，結果只會甚麼都做不來，最後分享的香港建築師羅健中先生不是一個活生生的見證嗎？儘管預計到政府很大可能會反對他們的計劃，但依然提交心目中認為最切合該區居民的設計方案，除為他們帶來獎項之餘，更間接地衝擊着大眾對舊區重建與規劃的一些錯誤觀念。

設計不再是一人獨專的產物，而是與大眾互動的成果，Brian Lee的木頭桌雖然不是甚麼大堆頭項目，但在設計的過程中讓老人家重新肯定自己的再生能力和社會意義，那才是真正的Humanistic Design。Design for the Community未必一定合乎經濟效益，但若能使這個是非之都和諧一點，不是已經很有價值了嗎？

六四成人禮

今年是我第一年參加六四的燭光晚會。

跟爸爸一起來，特別有意思。記得第一次看見爸哭，便是某一年的六四，大家都在用膳，電視機正播放當年的片段…我不明白，事情有那麼嚴重嗎？爸爸可不是當年的大學生。

「有多少父母就這樣喪掉孩子？」

他忽地吐出那麼一句，這才發現他臉上沾着淚水…

後來六四十週年，學校辦了一個特別週會，播放了一段當時的紀錄片，看着被血紅渲染的畫面，我這才懂得哭，是的，我們應該為他們哭。

每年都有想過到維園走一趟，總是提不起勁，也許我希望有人能陪我壯壯膽。第一年參加七一大遊行也是他先提出的，終於明白甚麼叫“薪火相傳”，需要的不是單純的口號，而是身體力行，這一點爸爸做到了。

還沒到達現場，氣氛已相當濃厚，那些邊抓著飯盒邊往前推進的少年人讓我覺得香港的未來充滿希望，雖然不是每一個到場的都是為了平反六四，可為了讓這點標誌著香港在一國兩制下仍享有言論和集會自由的燭光得以延續下去，出一點綿力又如何？試想一天，連香港也不能悼念六四的時候，會是怎樣的光境？