bookish

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Shenzhen is a bookish city. Even a click over to the English language Alibaba site for “Book Printing in Shenzhen” suggests the extent of how many books are printed in the city. We are so awash in books that it is possible to use them instead of wallpaper when decorating. What’s more, many of my favorite cafes are not only decorated with books, but also serve as lending libraries via 青番茄, a Shenzhen based NGO. All you have to do is register online and then you are free to lend and return books at any of their almost 2,000 participating cafes in China. Continue reading →

conference blog

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I’m participating in the Urban Futures Workshop at the University of Singapore, Feb 22-23, 2016. Participant abstracts and my abstract are online. If you’re in the neighborhood and tempted by critical geology, please join the conversation.

at the edge of something new

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Shenzhen abruptly arrives at the edge of something new, some palatable, pulsing readiness that has been growing beneath our feet, and launches us into unanticipated desires. Or so it seems today. Continue reading →

Guangming landslide

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By now you may have already seen footage of the Guangming landslide, which occurred yesterday at 11:40. The landslide buried twenty-two buildings and has affected 15 businesses. Only one person has been reported dead.

Help for the area is being organized on WeChat and weibo, and the research group reTUMU is also providing virtual updates. In addition, Chinese sites have a lot of information, however, to actually view videos (especially on Soku or Youku), you need to be using a Chinese browser. For those googling information in Chinese, the complete address is: 光明新区凤凰社区恒泰裕工业园. The word for landslide is 山体滑坡。

For those using non-Chinese browsers, this video has been uploaded to youtube:

another weekend in december

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So “Oysters and Champagne” the Shajing version opened this weekend and it was quite beautiful:

Meanwhile, Handshake 302’s installation, “n=distortion” also opened at the SZ-HK Biennale:

This rhythm of Shenzhen culture can overwhelm. Suddenly, there are installations, performances, and salons everywhere. We are inundated, but frankly often too tired to enjoy the deluge.

However, as a Cantonese proverb says, “Water is wealth.”

Yes.

the “village” thing

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This past week, I toured Shangling Old Village (上岭村) in Dalang. Decaying villages like Shangling contextualize the “what came after” success story that is SHENZHEN! And yet. This contextualization depends upon one, standardized (and quite frankly boring) narrative of rags to riches, sudden wealth, boom boom boom, etcetera etcetera and so forth.  Continue reading →

this also happened…

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A strange week that hasn’t coalesced into a statement so much as it has become fragments in search of glue; thinking as pastiche, and underneath it all a throbbing fear. Continue reading →

handshake 302: this is what we do

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A short video about “Of a Piece”, the project that Handshake 302 brought to the Shenzhen Art Museum, June 1-19, 2015.

pray.

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beirut

Thank you, Karuna Ezara Parikh.

local is as local does. or not.

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This week I have been thinking about iterations of the “local” in two sites: the 2015 Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture and the Baishizhou Street Museum. In particular, I’m thinking about the possibility of making connections from “here” to “there” when they hinge on the distance between (a) some outside understanding of what the local might be and (b) what might be interesting to actual locals. The possibility of meaningful dialogue is further complicated when “outsiders” and “locals” are organized by global hierarchies, internal class structures, and unquestioned ideas of what might be intellectually and/or aesthetically engaging. Continue reading →