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让里程碑变得清晰可见
Visualize the Milestone
November 21st, 2024
I spent quite a long time to think about how I could present all the information included by ArchiWenzhou up to now.
新发现——提升城市外部形象的重要性
New Insight: The Importance of External Promotion in this Project
如我在之前的研究日志中提到的，在运营小红书的过程中，我发现网友们非常乐于参与某个问题的解决过程。具体到我的项目来说，我发现市民们有志于向更多人展示他们所在城市的魅力，这样的想法能够增强他们自身对城市文化的积极探索。这并非是唯一促进文化探索的因素，但发现这一点或许已经足够有趣。
如果进一步回溯第一阶段的干预，我与32位市民面对面谈话的夏天，蓦然回首，我也发现这些谈话中也隐藏着对城市魅力的思考。例如我们会讨论：是什么让温州与其他城市有所区分？温州有哪些遗失的文化遗产让你感到惋惜？然后，当时我并没有意识到这一点。
我还记得六个月前，我把提升城市对外形象视为这个项目的一个潜在利好——虽然能够作为一举两得的好处，但并不是项目的重点。然而，这一新发现让我意识到，也需要将城市外部形象的提升纳入本项目的主要讨论。
As I mentioned in the earlier log, the most important finding I got through the operation of the social media account was people’s interest in engaging in problem-solving interactions. To be more specific in this case, the active exploration of city culture might be empowered by citizens’ desire to present the charm of their city to the outsiders. This must not be the only facilitator, but I think it is interesting enough to investigate more.
Even tracing back to the first phase intervention which I conducted face-to-face conversations with 32 citizens, I find such discussions were all hidden in the transcripts with thoughts on some questions. For example, what makes Wenzhou distinguish from other cities? What are the cultural assets in Wenzhou you lament the loss of? I did not realize it at that time.
I still remember I viewed the enhancement of city image to outsiders as a potential by-product six months ago, which was good to achieve but did not really matter. However, this new insight makes me realize that it is important to incorporate the external promotion into the key discussions in this project.
“啊！看温州”城市地图
Mapping for ArchiWenzhou
虽然我非常清楚最后一学期的重点在于对项目的自我评估，但我仍然想要花一些时间来展现这个项目的阶段性成果，因为该项目的数据库积累归功于所有参与其中的温州市民。我希望能够产出某些内容，作为代表参与者们表达对温州的自豪和情感的窗口，作为对他们对这个项目支持的回馈，也作为干预措施的下一次迭代。
因此，我认为硕士项目的毕业展是在课程期间开展最后一次干预措施的机会，建立“啊！看温州”的档案员们与中央圣马丁校园内的观众们之间的联系。或许我可以制作一些互动性的东西，收集观众们对档案的反馈，并与档案员们分享这些反馈。
在浏览了过去几个月收集的内容后，我觉得制作一张关于温州的文化地图可能会很有趣，地图包含温州文化特征的各个方面，分为三个不同的主题：人文地理、古代文化（特别是宋代的文化繁荣时期）和现代景观。我也从这个过程中受益，因为它帮助我梳理了迄今为止收集到的大部分档案内容。
我希望地图看起来能够显得有趣，但又不擅长绘画，所以我首先想到寻求ai的帮助。起初，我试图通过Midjourney为地图生成一些带有自然元素的景观，并且看起来效果不错。
Even though I am fully aware that the focus in the final stage should be evaluation, it is still necessary for me to invest some time to produce something as a periodical outcome, because the accumulation of the knowledge in this project should be attributed to all those Wenzhou citizens who have been involved. I hope to do something for them to help voice out their pride and passion toward Wenzhou, as a reward for their support as well as a continuous iteration of the intervention.
Consequently, I view the Festival as a window to carry out this final intervention (final to the course but not to the project :)))) that links the co-archivists of ArchiWenzhou with the Festival audiences in CSM. Ideally, I could make something interactive to collect some feedback from the Festival guests to the archive, and then get our archivists informed of the feedback.
After evaluating the content I collected in the past few months, I felt I might be interesting to form a map which included all aspects of the unique cultural characteristics in Wenzhou, and I categorized them further into three different themes: the humanistic geography, the ancient culture (especially the prosperous period of Song Dynasty in one thousand years ago), and the modern landscape. I also got benefit from this process because it helped me structure the content of the archive collected up to now.
Since I wanted to make the map look interesting but was not professional in drawing, seeking help with ai came to my mind in the first place. At first, I attempted to generate the landscape with some natural elements for the map through midjourney and it worked smoothly.
但是，当我开始要求ai生成更多人文元素，例如寺庙或商店时，它就有些不尽如人意了。这或许有两个原因:
首先，我希望生成的这些人文元素非常本土化。Midjourney目前的算法还不足以创建迎合温州当地文化的作品。它们大多仍然反映了对中国文化的强烈刻板印象，而忽略了中国人文地理的多样性。
其次，温州艺术人文方面的在线资源远少于我的预期。例如，有一类名为三港殿的寺庙，是为了纪念温州当地一位伟大的历史人物陈逸而建，在温州随处可见，但在互联网上很难找到任何一座三港殿的全景图。这或许再次反映了当代市民对文化遗产的忽视。另一方面，这也为项目未来的发展的方向提供了指引——建立一个数据库，为未来的研究者收集更多有用的资源。
最后，我决定自己绘制这张地图。这迫使我回忆起十五年前学习中国水墨画时的一些技巧。这个过程并不容易，但却出乎意料地令人愉快，因为这唤起了我童年时期在温州学画的记忆！
However, as I started to generate elements more humanistic, like temples or shops, it no longer worked well. There are two reasons I found:
First, the humanistic elements I would like to generate is quite localized. The current algorithm of midjourney has not been advanced enough to create images catering to the local culture in Wenzhou. Most of them are still reflecting a strong stereotype toward Chinese culture but neglect the geo-cultural diversity in China.
Second, the online resources of culture, art and humanity in Wenzhou are far less than I expected. For example, there is a kind of temple called the Hall of Sangang built in memory of a great historic figure called Chen Yi, which is ubiquitous in Wenzhou, but It is hard to even find a full view of any of the halls on the internet. Probably, it again reflects the citizens’ neglects of cultural heritage in the contemporary era. On the other hand, it also gives the direction for ArchiWezhou project in the future — functioning as a database to collect more useful recourses to future researchers.
Finally, I decided to draw this map by myself. It forced me to recall the skills for Chinese ink and wash painting which I learned 15 years ago. The process was not easy but unexpectedly enjoyable. It reminds me of my childhood in Wenzhou!
下一步是制作一份用于理解这张地图的指南，可能会以小册子或书籍的形式呈现，我也会将研究过程和参与式档案的方法论的信息罗列在内，以及引用参与者的话，为地图上的不同元素提供线索。
The next step is to make some brochures or a book functioning as a guidance to understand this map, in which I will include the research process, the method of participatory archiving, and quotations of content from the archivists who have engaged in the archiving process to provide the clues for different elements on the map.