Empathetic gaze

This is an excerpt from fieldwork writing and journal by Han & Mona, as part of their research in ruin imagery and gallery space.
In this text they attempted to discuss the representation of the subjective experiences, while working in the waste urban space.

At the particular moment when I press the shutter to release, the initial reaction that triggers me can be driven by the representation of the encounter, and it includes more than just the visual kind. I am interested in the mediation between the physical presence and the ephemeral senses. There are often moments when I pick up the camera after becoming aware of something perceptual in ruins. This came through it in its most productive in the capturing of the patina of a flat surface of a building. The abstract visual result often challenged the familiarity of traditional landscape photography and visual documentation in ruins. Through the working method, I tried to distance the ‘scenic’ or picturesque in my work, similarly to Mitchell’s (1998) ‘Landscape’, as a purely culturally loaded construct. My aim is to re-focus on a perception, a way of looking that does not isolate vision from the seeing, knowing and feeling body.  

感同身受的凝視

這是一篇摘錄自Han & Mona田野調查的隨筆與日誌，同時亦是作為他們對廢墟圖像和畫廊空間研究的一部分。在廢棄的城市空間工作的同時，他們試圖透過這篇文字以探討主觀經驗的再現。

在這個特定的一瞬，我按下快門後放開，觸發我最初反應的是與再現的相遇，而這不僅僅是視覺上的誘發而已。我對於實體存在和稍縱即逝之間的中介很感興趣。有時，當我在廢墟中留心到某些感性存在時，我會舉起相機。透過相機以其最有效率的方式，紀錄了一個平坦表面和一棟建築因年久而產生的銹質。 這個抽象的視覺成果通常挑戰了在廢墟影像上對於傳統景觀攝影和視覺圖像紀錄的認知。透過這樣的創作方法，我嘗試與優美如畫的風景保持距離，如Mitchell’s (1998) Landscape一般地作為一個純粹的文化負載結構。我的目標在於重新關注感知——一種不將觀看、覺知與身體感受孤立的視覺。