Border X'Change: 2011

General Introduction

Border is commonly defined as a barrier or a dividing line between two entities. In sociopolitical relationships, border could be the cause for hostile disputes between sovereign nations, from Thailand and Cambodia to Israel and its Arab neighbors and countless other examples. It could also be the perverse but sometimes opportunistic interdependence between United States and Mexico, where flows of legitimate and illegitimate trade and commerce across the porous border have reshaped their threshold cities, such that they are neither distinctively American nor Mexican, but instead contains the cultural and social characteristics of the other. Depending on the contexts, border can be a barrier, a welcoming entrance or “spaces of debate and productive ambiguity”1.

The One Country Two System policy instated in Hong Kong during the 1997 hand-over, created a unique border condition, which over time became more phenomenal and figurative than literal. This ambiguous presence of a boundary with Shenzhen provides a context to examine the history and current state of highly interwoven relationships, and by extension, relationships beyond the context of Hong Kong.

Border X’Change studio aims to explore the latent potentials of Border in both literal and phenomenal terms, and aim to transform from a threshold that demarcates into an In-between space of hosted events and influences. We will study a broad range of issues as subjects of inquiry to provide clues for spatial and programmatic interventions.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Final Review

Click for more images

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

CAP- Closed Area Permit

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Sha Tau Kok Research

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Sha Tau Kok

Sha Tau Kok HK/ SZ border

Border crossing 1, patrolled by HK police

Border crossing 2, patrolled by both HK and SZ police

Stream leading towards the Starling Inlet

Monday, October 3, 2011

Review 1 (Soft Boundary)

This exercise is the antithesis to the fundamental definition of border, normally relating to the idea of margin, verge, edge, rim, brim, brink and limit. Instead of defining border as such, individuals are encouraged to openly interpret their notion of border. SOFT BOUNDARY is guided by the following characteristics and constraints that are never either-or but instead both porous and hermetic; permeable and impermeable; transparent and opaque; light and heavy; luminous and shaded; thick and thin; fluid and stationary; rational and dynamic.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Haskell Library/ Opera House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17x8Agravo4&feature=player_embedded#!

Click on image or copy paster link for video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17x8Agravo4&feature=player_embedded#!

Chung Ying Street/ 中英街 [Chinese English Street]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Ying_Street

Dave ‘Human Cannonball’ Smith

Dave ‘Human Cannonball’ Smith flies over the US-Mexico border fence from the Playas de Tijuana area of Tijuana, Mexico to Border Field State Park on Saturday. The stunt was part of the Insite05 border art exhibit. ap

Border X'Change