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31/07/2015

Mass Obedience - 質量服従



Two Meandering Walks
With the aid of Google Maps

Tuesday 28th July
Osaka, Japan
12 midday to 7pm

Wednesday 29th July
Kobe, Japan
11.30am to 5pm

City walking in Japan is a staccato affair. The way is studded with pedestrian crossings, variously small, medium and large, covering side streets, single and dual carriageways. It's almost impossible to walk uninterrupted for more than a few minutes, as the red man halts your progress.

And largely, in Japan, the red man is obeyed.





































16/07/2015

clumps and clusters - a circular walk


clump
klʌmp/
noun
  1. 1.
    a small group of trees or plants growing closely together.

cluster
ˈklʌstə/
noun
  1. 1.
    a group of similar things or people positioned or occurring closely together.

A Circular Walk around the estuary banks of the river Yodo and Osaka Bay, in Ashiya and Nishinomiya cities, on a pre-typhoon day.

3 hours 7 minutes
6 miles (approx)

Notice how the wind had formed small clumps of debris, impromptu, random natural assemblages on the river's concrete banks.

Think about how every available space here in this residential city (Ashiya) is filled with a dwelling - single house, small block of flats, high rise tower.

And recall the aspirational new builds from yesterday's walk.

Remember the view from Koh's window (top).

Stumble across a brand new modernist housing estate, overloomed imperiously by three modernist tower blocks of flats.

Remark how unusually ordered the planning is.

Think that people clump and cluster. Is it random or design or necessity or instinct?

 

 

 


 

 




In Ashiya, it seems that humans are behaving like windstrewn debris, clustering together - gradually filling space, a mixture of materials/dwelling types - single houses, old and new, one storey and multi storey.