urban tales.

we attempt to make tangible and concrete that which we experience and seek to render meaningful.. and what is more real- in that it confronts and dominates the senses - than the concrete structures we erect around ourselves, altering our conscious landscape and building our selves into existence.



[ hamburg, germany]
if we built this city,

what do our manifestations of rock and mortar tell of our values and beliefs?
how do they influence and coerce our lifestyles and living?


[luebeck, germany.]

we are,
we make,
we become what we make.


[luebeck, germany.]
the perceived and believed, once realised, dominates.


[luebeck, germany. ]
cloistered in our urban claddings, we may feel safe and protected,

urban tales urban tales or stifled,

"The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the street, the gratings of the windows, the bannisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning-rods, the poles of the flags. Every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls"

- Italo Calvino, Cities & Memory

[chinatown, singapore. old shophouse staircase -taken by hc.]
,but perhaps we may also be enlightened ,but perhaps we may also be enlightened, by keeping trend of our physical developments as an organic society... to be confronted with what we were, are and are becoming.

all around is indeed a sensual education in what we are.

a layering of places (0706) on events(1107)

travelling as a microcosm of an event:
a three- step process, each with its own phase/demands/questions.


1. embarkation or the constant battle
the bolder the declaration, the greater the faith (usually blind) required.

are you a skeptic.
what practical miracles you do need, and whose authority.
does this god de-legitimise another; how do you settle allegiances.
when do you trust.

[?. munich]


2. the hook or the dance
sometimes you pass by pockets of true romanticism among the landscape of a limpid life; a lilting strain from afar makes your heart beat that much faster, you hear the beat in tandem, and imagine now you are alive, when perhaps you were previously not; youre hooked, whether by a place, a song, a person.
you might stop and jostle for a better glimpse, entranced by the meaning they bring you.

do you stay for the ride.
when will you finally join in- the music only lasts so long.

[?.munich]


3. end
much of the time, we leave because the Ticket says so.
the time-stamp demands we adhere to plans pre-decided. we obey the Ticket in our hands because we stand sober of 1. blind faith, and 2. the strains of music werent enough to lure us back.

(the end is in itself a gaping question)

[munich hbf.]


now id like to know
can we get up and go
by. broadcast 2000

lack of pictures and ideas. hence-

...
/like immersion; being wholly and purely within another. what is necessary for one to truly experience through another.
/the processes that guide development of our attachments, connections, relationships.
/remembering people; who and what are we really remembering and reminiscing about.



http://.79151.html

visual smörgåsbord. deutsch-style.

in the dearth of conclusive certainties from one's standpoint in the swirl that is laos/nongduang/yepteam,
one heads to the heady lights of inspired irreverence-

and finds:
the fight against convention, the protest against mundanity, of ideas and self-idenitity forced out through colours and cloth;
the basal cry of self+fun?


[stilinberlin.]

[stilinberlin.] what of the yearly gushing parade of self assertion and affirmation?


[berlin. potsdamer platz] 06. gay pride.

perhaps fashion: if for no use other than delight and fun, it has done its work, and fulfilled its only obligation.

( http://.../78037.html)

spotting.

the physical features are six months old at least. but the ideas and thought gleaned off them-
relevent. theres a backlog of years to mull over, even as the minutes tick away. but-
grateful for having caught the sparks, and been irrevocably changed by;


[koeln. river rhein.] each city has a different vibe that reverbrates strongest ground up. perhaps looking upwards to the egalitarian sky blurs all distinction we believe we have. good therapy for the egoistic and depressed.?


[koeln dom]. advice: have passion. have vision. then build like crazy.


[pferde. wo?. while cycling with peishan] desktop material is stuff that reaches inspiration level.


[muenster.]


[an der grillabend. ?] admiration for their family. gratitude and love. and i am the observing shadow to their colourful vital lives.

eternity. spirit. nature. belief. concentrated unabiding warmth.

after butterfield8, remembering other fields;

Haus. innen/ draußen

(... http://-/48726.html)

realisation. concrete.
that language allows for communication and exchange of ideas, mere trivia, darkest aspirations.
for connection. and while nature needs no language other than the most basic and primal of sensation and registration in the mind, in the heart, verbal language is the most direct mode of connection- to be spoken to directly lends no escape.

take that common mode of interaction away -are we doomed to never speak, in words or otherwise- , and youre left with filling in details of another life, all done on a solitary storyboard of your own visual notes and instincts. from observing the little lines that bond a family, to observing a figure at the bus stop, it doesnt stop until youve wondered what goes on behind quaint doors and vine covered walls to what this land you stand upon means, what lies behind the rthythm of its heart.

because i do so yearn to know you.


[near Vorlanderweg. Muenster.]
life growing all around, what goes on inside?


[Muenster.]
tell me what you believe in.


[biofarm. ?]
what goes on within you, who grows the earth?


[marg's haus.]
hermetically sealed. obvious bounderies always invite curiosity?


[muenster]
just because your mundanity reeks of foreigness. when one knows nothing, nothing is too trivial.


[haus.]
the ability to move on past and be content with the only gratification of beauty from the External, of the house.



[berlin. jewish museum]
among you, but how much of what i know is the real you. we move, and cast our thin shadows, you stay cursed to be still as more people come to see you, but merely slide between your smooth grooves, to pass out on the other side. who is more changed, us or you.



[en route to koeln.]
slipsliding tracks of life. nothingt static, but where do we all go? where do the passengers in the trains, the trains, the thoughts of the people waiting at the tracks, the ideas flashed in the ads to permeate our consciousness - where do you go?


at least i caught a wisp, which lends colour to a single moment in my life. thankyou.



[bremen.]
what do you sell. what do you look for. and to the drumming hippies at the back, what do you dream of?


[duesseldorf. ]
of people, of buildings as containments of people- facade alone, can entertain, provoke thought, and invite.


[Luebeck.]
a museum to tell me what you are; relics alongside the living in their sealed apartments, even as im oblivious to the wonder of life in the floating spectre above.


[vorlanderweg haus.]
nicola. rebecca. teresa.


[?. ]
if i i sidled up beside you, and whispered i wasnt sure... would you tell me what you think? to share with me your hopes which youve sent upwards to him?



[friedhof. muenster]
lives bound together, on earth in stone. was it like that in their lives? short of calling back spirits, these headstones display, but dont explain. one is free to derive as much or as little as is desired.



[koeln.]
sometimes the strata of the different times alongside each other just boggles.
the cologne dom calling forth centuries of devotion to the Father and Son; the traintracks having transported lives for many generations; the father and his son, life after life after life created growing; the single moment in time that unites the nation; even as the flag reminds of events past; the eternal waters flowings underneath.

am i meant to observe contently? if i could speak to you, would you tell me the true meaning of your existance?

Leute. in der Kirche

(http://-/45881.html)
-seek some semblence of you, but so far am only feel the tremors youve caused in the tangible rut of lives.

is it you i feel, or the thousands of sweaty palms that have reached up for you.


[Munich. ]