A Memory Exercise
Part II
(in progress)
sexta-feira, 19 de agosto de 2011
TOS 2011
A Memory Exercise
Part I
A MEMORY EXERCISE-
Maputo, Mozambique
> This exercise consisted in making a plan of any place I am familiar with marking the main landmarks and writing up a small text explaining it. Here it goes!
Being a small town as it is, Maputo is a place where memories are very easy to retain.
The area I chose to sketch and describe is in fact the one surrounding my own house which is a place I know and experienced for many years.
To begin I chose my house as a reference point (orange mark in the map) in relation to the other landmarks in the area.
The plan of the town is mostly a grid divided into square sectors where each sector is majorly for the purpose of residential buildings (in my area). With the development of the city throughout the years some of these residences started being transformed into offices, shops, restaurants, beauty parlours, etc and thats why in one sector we can find a mixture of activities happening.
In the sector of the reference point chosen (1) there are 2 main landmarks which appeared in recent years. They are 2 dental clinics, one in Paulo Samuel Kankhomba Av. Itself and the other one in Valentim Siti Rd. (2)
Crossing the Valentim Siti Rd. and still on Paulo Samuel Kanhkomba, on the left side a business hotel (3) sets another landmark and it stands right next to a petrol station (4) which is very known by the residents of that same area and others for its old age of existence.
On the right side of the avenue a Hostel and Mess (11 and 12) of the most valued university of Mozambique, UEM, set another landmark.
Again Crossing the road, this time Amilcar Cabral, there is the Millenium Bank (6) right at the corner of the street. The strategic positioning of the bank force people to make waiting lines right on the street corner to use the one ATM box belonging to the same bank.
Right opposite to this bank we find a University (8) and a Cultural Centre (9) right behind it facing another Avenue (Agostinho Neto). The university located in this avenue gave a completely different aspect and feel to the area making it more active. The inconvenient this University brought was the traffic that increased and resulted in lack of space for parking at certain times of the day. This until they provided a parking area which still does not fulfill the required number of cars.
Behind the bank (6) there is a small lane that leads to a market that serves the entire neighborhood with all sorts of goods among them vegetables, fruits, local cereals and fish, meat, local crafts, groceries, clothes, hair salons, eateries, etc.
In the intersection of Mao Tse Tung and Vladimir Lenine Av. There a church (12) which allocates many catholic functions. It a very important landmark specially because of its positioning which is right at the end of the Avenue.
Walking on the Mao Tse Tung Avenue one can find a Police Station at the corner with Cmdte. Joao Belo Rd.
- Because the streets are all in straight lines and the sectors are aligned almost throughout the city it is easy to remember the existing landmarks and names of Roads and Avenues (and where they are located). The scale of the houses in this neighborhood is very comfortable for pedestrians hence the movement of people on foot is prominent and easy.
- All the streets are covered with trees (acacias, red and yellow) which keep them cool In summers.
- In the small Roads the movement of the cars is just one way to avoid the traffic jams. Only in the larger avenues the movement is two ways separated by road dividers.
- In every road there is enough space for pedestrian movement and trees which date from many years back which provide shade and coolness in summers.
>> The next exercise is a comparison of the sketch I drew out of memory with the actual google map. I shall then make a small write up explaining the differences which might appear between them and why this could've happened.
terça-feira, 12 de outubro de 2010
sexta-feira, 3 de setembro de 2010
Book Review
Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities
Marco Polo is a young Venetian who describes the 55 cities he visited on his expeditions to the Emperor Kublai Khan, in the book. Each city he describes has their own adjectives according to what he saw and what he experienced. The memories he brings back were able to create, not a perfect, but a glimpse of what the cities could actually look like.
He, Marco Polo, did not just use elements of architecture to shape the image of the cities to the emperor, he used every tool which was available to him, from enacting to the most bizarre objects, due to his total ignorance to Levantine language.
“(...)one city was depicted by the leap of a fish escaping the cormorant's beak to fall into
a net; another city by a naked man running through fire unscorched; a third by a
skull, its teeth green with mould, clenching a round, white pearl.”
Even though his improvising were quite hard to understand and make out a perfect picture it was also helpful to the Emperor. The symbols Marco displayed could hardly be forgotten.
Marco, in my opinion, had the ability of understanding a city for more than what it looks from the exterior. I guess he understood a city as a combination of everything that composed her. The people, the smells, textures, signs, goods, cuisine, colours and even the surroundings. All these small details actually help us uncover the bigger picture of t all. The answer to the question: what makes a city... a city?
Marco Polo also states that a city can also be something that just exists in our minds, a dream, something that we want it to be and not what it really is.
“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and
fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd,
their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.”
Marco is a very smart young man who found a different way to express out the world that surrounds him. He finds words very minimal and superficial and believes that a city can’t be defined, explained and visualized only by a mere speech. There’s also a need of emotion, feelings, representations of scenarios for one to understand the context which is being revealed. There’s much more to a city than just buildings, walking paths, streets, lamp posts and staircases. It is also who built them and who walks on them.
“Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased, (...)”
Marco was able to take the Emperor to the heart of each city. He could take the essential of it and do the whole job just with one gesture. Despite few discussions between both men, the results were roughly satisfying. Even when the young Venetian thought that all cities turned out to be the same in the end he realized that what he had learnt about each city allowed him to differentiate them on a smaller scale – Kublai Khan’s maps.
“At times all I need is a brief glimpse, an opening in the midst of an
incongruous landscape, a glint of lights in the fog, the dialogue of two passersby
meeting in the crowd, and I think that, setting out from there, I will put
together, piece by piece, the perfect city(...)”
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domingo, 8 de agosto de 2010
Review on a Location Description
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist is a book written by Paulo Coelho where a young shepherd named Santiago has a dream about an existing treasure and hunts for it throughout the story, passing through unknown lands and experiencing things that no one ever had.
It was in a ruined structure that this young man had this dream over and over again, “ a small and abandoned church” where he would spend the nights sometimes after tiring days of wandering with his herd.
“The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy once stood”. The author used simple and easy language for describing this young boy’s refuge where he used to lay and use the book he was reading currently as a pillow after sweeping the dusty floor with his own jacket. In this passage the writer tries to create the visual that even though the boy is a nomad he also requires comfort, and since he’s not encountered in his own house, he makes the environment adjustable for him.
“The sheep entered from a gate” and after it, Santiago would place planks across it to avoid having the flock wandering away during the night. The idea of an entry gate which is later on latched gives the feeling of protection, a way to describe the temporary dwelling for the boy and his herd.
The dreams the young shepherd used to have frequently drove him out of this routine of his to selling his own flock to seek for this treasure abroad. When he finally got his answer everything brought him back to the same church and we never forget the importance of it while reading because the boy keeps remembering and missing his old and nomad life, telling his secrets to his sheep and looking at the stars, while sleeping, through the semi-covered roof.
When he returns to get his treasure he finds the structure in the same place and decay but still he was happy to be there again.
The church was pretty well described by the author though he didn’t refer anything on the surroundings; hence it’s hard to place the abandoned church somewhere in space.
After travelling so much just to find the treasure, the story turns out to be interesting because of the various ways the writer found to describe each and every place, person, smell and felling that he would experience.
The story ends where it starts, and the same place is the key of the whole story which is fascinating!
Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist is a book written by Paulo Coelho where a young shepherd named Santiago has a dream about an existing treasure and hunts for it throughout the story, passing through unknown lands and experiencing things that no one ever had.
It was in a ruined structure that this young man had this dream over and over again, “ a small and abandoned church” where he would spend the nights sometimes after tiring days of wandering with his herd.
“The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy once stood”. The author used simple and easy language for describing this young boy’s refuge where he used to lay and use the book he was reading currently as a pillow after sweeping the dusty floor with his own jacket. In this passage the writer tries to create the visual that even though the boy is a nomad he also requires comfort, and since he’s not encountered in his own house, he makes the environment adjustable for him.
“The sheep entered from a gate” and after it, Santiago would place planks across it to avoid having the flock wandering away during the night. The idea of an entry gate which is later on latched gives the feeling of protection, a way to describe the temporary dwelling for the boy and his herd.
The dreams the young shepherd used to have frequently drove him out of this routine of his to selling his own flock to seek for this treasure abroad. When he finally got his answer everything brought him back to the same church and we never forget the importance of it while reading because the boy keeps remembering and missing his old and nomad life, telling his secrets to his sheep and looking at the stars, while sleeping, through the semi-covered roof.
When he returns to get his treasure he finds the structure in the same place and decay but still he was happy to be there again.
The church was pretty well described by the author though he didn’t refer anything on the surroundings; hence it’s hard to place the abandoned church somewhere in space.
After travelling so much just to find the treasure, the story turns out to be interesting because of the various ways the writer found to describe each and every place, person, smell and felling that he would experience.
The story ends where it starts, and the same place is the key of the whole story which is fascinating!
The Black Hole
My country used to be a Portuguese Province. A colony, Moçambique.
When they first stepped on it they called it “Land of the good people”, and it was on this same land where they killed millions of natives. Slaves.
The place I am about to describe is historical. I first hear about during a history class, and when I was around 11 had the opportunity to experience this place. The black hole, I called it.
It was summer, January 2001, when my sister and I got out of the noisy capital city and went with relatives to spend the holidays in a beach city 6 hours away from our town, Inhambane.
It is a very calm town which still has colonial remains in the architecture left behind - the typical brick tiled sloped roofs with the brick chimneys jutting out, the decoration detail of blue and white ceramic tiles around the wide windows with figures of saints or famous sayings, etc.
Their presence could also be noticed further ahead, around 12 km far from the welcoming town. To To the cliff of the Tofinho beach (Praia do Tofinho originally), known as one of the most dangerous beaches in that area.
A Land Rover took us all the way up there. Sand beaten road, wild grass growing on both sides, but when reaching almost the top we could start noticing some concrete structures coming up.
I could see no signs of water during the small trip we took, but as soon as we reached flat, almost even land the view was just fascinating. The infinite orange, pink and purple sky merging with the deep blue of the ferocious Indian Ocean. The sun was going down on my back, but in front of me I had the most perfect picture I ever saw in my life and I even stopped breathing for a while, until I noticed it was not a dream and I was actually there. Moving towards almost the edge as I looked down of the cliff I could see the waves crashing hard on the rocks. On both sides there were few other sets of cliffs.
There was some grass growing mixed with sand and rock and right at the end, on the edge of the imposed cliff I could find a square hole demarcated by four stacks of stone on each corner barely standing. While looking down on this hole I could see water, coming up, and going down again. Down there it led directly to open ocean. The walls of the hole in the rocky cliff were rough and pointed and went throughout the whole length. It was then I recalled my history classes and realized that it was there. Where millions of slaves were punished to death, drowned. All the magic of the place was broke for few instants.
The hole was just big enough for one individual and they would be taken down using a rope and kept until the water level rose.
A monument was kept right in the middle of the cliff in memory to these people. A tall, pyramidal in shape, white structure with a star carved in all four sides.
But, as I was going down the cliff, towards the town, I forgot all this enraging history looking at the beautiful sun setting behind the tall palm trees and wished everyone had the chance of experience that place once in their lives!
When they first stepped on it they called it “Land of the good people”, and it was on this same land where they killed millions of natives. Slaves.
The place I am about to describe is historical. I first hear about during a history class, and when I was around 11 had the opportunity to experience this place. The black hole, I called it.
It was summer, January 2001, when my sister and I got out of the noisy capital city and went with relatives to spend the holidays in a beach city 6 hours away from our town, Inhambane.
It is a very calm town which still has colonial remains in the architecture left behind - the typical brick tiled sloped roofs with the brick chimneys jutting out, the decoration detail of blue and white ceramic tiles around the wide windows with figures of saints or famous sayings, etc.
Their presence could also be noticed further ahead, around 12 km far from the welcoming town. To To the cliff of the Tofinho beach (Praia do Tofinho originally), known as one of the most dangerous beaches in that area.
A Land Rover took us all the way up there. Sand beaten road, wild grass growing on both sides, but when reaching almost the top we could start noticing some concrete structures coming up.
I could see no signs of water during the small trip we took, but as soon as we reached flat, almost even land the view was just fascinating. The infinite orange, pink and purple sky merging with the deep blue of the ferocious Indian Ocean. The sun was going down on my back, but in front of me I had the most perfect picture I ever saw in my life and I even stopped breathing for a while, until I noticed it was not a dream and I was actually there. Moving towards almost the edge as I looked down of the cliff I could see the waves crashing hard on the rocks. On both sides there were few other sets of cliffs.
There was some grass growing mixed with sand and rock and right at the end, on the edge of the imposed cliff I could find a square hole demarcated by four stacks of stone on each corner barely standing. While looking down on this hole I could see water, coming up, and going down again. Down there it led directly to open ocean. The walls of the hole in the rocky cliff were rough and pointed and went throughout the whole length. It was then I recalled my history classes and realized that it was there. Where millions of slaves were punished to death, drowned. All the magic of the place was broke for few instants.
The hole was just big enough for one individual and they would be taken down using a rope and kept until the water level rose.
A monument was kept right in the middle of the cliff in memory to these people. A tall, pyramidal in shape, white structure with a star carved in all four sides.
But, as I was going down the cliff, towards the town, I forgot all this enraging history looking at the beautiful sun setting behind the tall palm trees and wished everyone had the chance of experience that place once in their lives!
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