THE VIRTUAL IMAGES
OF
THE CITY GATES
OF
THE CITY GATES
Under the influence of globalization, the high-frequency, high-speed and large-scale old city reconstruction has made many buildings featured by Chongqing's local cultural characteristics disappeared. Large numbers of beautiful old buildings are dismantled. The streets and buildings in the old city originally containing deep cultural, historical and scientific meanings were once an important embody of the culture of the city.
The project chooses the old gate of Chongqing as its theme. Through the artistic expression of the unique cultural sceneries and atmosphere of Chongqing’s old gates, it makes a reflection on the loss of Chongqing's local cultural and urban characteristics in the process of the city’s development.
In the past, the old gates defined the city area of Chongqing. Apart from their duty of protecting the city, the old gates also connected the south and north half parts of the city. In hundreds of years, different use purposes of each old gate formed their different characteristics.
The project chooses nine opened old gates as it creation object. Due to the fact that the gates have already been dismantled and no photo is left today, the original appearance of the gates cannot be reproduced.
Therefore, the project adopts a Chinese traditional technique of art expression, blank leaving, to express the old gates. This lately becomes the reason why the project is named as "the Image of Gate".
In fact, the old gates have already been vanished. What they left is only the descriptions in the literature, the lyrics in children's songs and the imaginations of observers.
In the context of the large-scale and high-speed reconstruction of Chongqing's old city, through the visual expression of the old gates, the project aims to evoke people's awareness of their commitments to the city, re-examine the loss of urban characteristics behind the glittering facade of urban construction and inspire the reflection on the collective memory of the city in the context of old city reconstruction.
IMAGES DESIGN
The images design is developed based on the description of
the gates in the local folk song lyrics with an addition of the
elements of polygon.
the gates in the local folk song lyrics with an addition of the
elements of polygon.
