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Displaced Geographies

Part 1 Project 2007
Vickram Ramkhelawon
Yi Sun
University of Greenwich | UK
We explored filmic representions of cities, then compared the fictional filmic sites to their contemporary counterparts. We encountered displacements in time and space, nostalgic souvenirs, records of social change - a series of displaced geographies emerged. The new york puzzle block and a london bus were sites for playing boundary games with a celluloid city souvenir. A souvenir was then tested in the overgrown film laboratory. A cinematic landscape in borough market dishes up films and food from around the world in a festival that lasts 80 days. Finally a construction of wind responsive materials is used to make the hot air more visible.


We enjoyed the wit of this project, which played with the memory and deception of filmic representations, particularly as regards ethnicity, class, and the weather. Noting that C20th films were largely populated by white actors and extreme weather conditions, this pair of students (from China and Mauritius) designed a film festival where diverse cultures could produce and screen their films. Stereotypes and food abound (Victorian streetlamp+fish and chips = London; Eiffel tower+vineyard = France; dancers+spices = Bollywood). We were impressed by a full scale screening space they constructed, with materials shipped from China to the Greenwich Meridian, thus challenging the basis for geographic measurement itself and setting it against heirarchies of displacement.

2007
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