Dorothy: proposal 2nd draft
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. - Milan Kundera
Proposal
The project would look into the notion of the archive and personal memories in the context of Hong Kong.
What do you want to make
The project would study individuals who work with archives related to Hong Kong, as a reflection of how history and future overlap. For now, the result would take form as a short essay film, there are also possibilities for an additional installation depends on the research.
The essay film would document the research, alongside with my own narrative (in form of voice-over) that talks about my own memories and the uncertain side of it. Visually it would also show the materiality of the archive as a physical form of memory, and the process of it being transmitted to a digital device, as a metaphor of transformation and transference of memories.
How do you plan to make it
The initial research would be conducted and filmed in London with the group Decoding Hong Kong’s History, that studies previous confidential files on UK government’s policy on handover. I would also visit the National Archive and other archives in London. Finding other leads in these archives, field visits to other areas will be conducted as well, for instance, responding to the political in-joke revealed in one archive, that proposed resettling whole population in Hong Kong to Ireland. The project will consist of conversations with related people and my personal reflection related to my own experience and memories.
In the editing, it would be non-linear, yet I would be interested to explore how memories work for the audience when they watch a movie – that is, how do people perceive images and put them together in order to make sense in their mind.
Content:
The project will begin with the Hongkongers scanning archives in London. These archives are often previous confidential files on UK government’s policy on handover. With the act of scanning and studying, these people hope to shed light on the hidden history in Hong Kong.
Other research focus would be from old books, often written by foreigners in Hong Kong, narrating history or fictions related to the city. As well as other urban myths related to the city, one would be moving the whole Hong Kong population to North Ireland (ref: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/03/uk-officials-discussed-resettling-55m-hong-kong-chinese-in-northern-ireland ).
Form:
These materials would form an essay film, alongside with my own narrative (in form of voice-over) that talks about my own memories and the uncertain side of it. It would have reference to the form of metafiction in literature, thus the narrative itself would be personal and sometimes inconsistent.
Visually it would also show the materiality of the archive as a physical form of memory, and the process of it being transmitted to a digital device (via scanner), as a metaphor of transformation and transference of memories.
In the editing, it would be non-linear, yet I would be interested to explore how memories work for the audience when they watch a movie – that is, how do people perceive images and put them together in order to make sense in their mind.
Bibliography
Lost and Living (in) Archives: Collectively Shaping New Memories by Annet Dekker http://neural.it/2018/08/edited-by-annet-dekker-lost-and-living-in-archives-collectively-shaping-new-memories/
Performative Materiality: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/1/000143/000143.html
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