In the morning. I attended Prof. Gu Zheng’s undergraduate third year photography class. He asked them to write initial responses to the idea of screens in Shanghai already. In mid-November, their mid-term assignment is to photos of screens. So we had a long talk about our project and the various things they had noticed. This was all very encouraging, and we will see what kinds of photos come out of it. I told them I want to know how Shanghai residents, i.e. they, react to these screens.
Among the topics we discussed in the class were: the question of government regulation of the screens; a huge public screen like a sky at Tianmu (if I understood correctly), near the World Trade Centre in Beijing; someone’s research on the subway that revealed that actually many commuters would like the screens to have sound and that they felt the screens were good for distracting people from each other and therefore for reducing tension in the subway; the idea of following people for a day to see what screens they did encounter/interact with; people having problems with or being intimidated by touch screens, e.g. to buy tickets in the subway; and much more. A lot of the students did have questions about method, especially the third, archival stage where we try to go beyond observation and go into history, interviewing and so on. I guess this third stage is in danger of being a sort of "everything else" stage in terms of methods, and maybe we need to consider that. One of the students also asked about sheer range of issues concerning the topic that were coming up in our in-class conversation, and said she was not sure what our real focus was. I said everyday life and public space, and that we were interested in other things like policy, advertising strategy, and so on only through that focus. I wonder if this a useful way for us to think about this.
In the afternoon, Wenhao and his wife drove Wu Dan and me around the Pudong side of the Expo site, which is simply huge. I can imagine that screens might play a big role here, but it’s not clear exactly how yet, as the site is very much under construction. It’s the size of Luton by itself, so I cannot imagine how people are going to tour around it yet. I also am not sure if we should include it or not, because it’s so much not about everyday life. Even the buildings will be torn down when it’s all over, because expo regulations insist on that for some reason.
I’m getting more and more interested in screens that fail/decay. On line 8 today, I noticed the passenger information screens were not giving information about the anticipated arrival of the next train. Later that day, Wenhao kindly drove me and Wu Dan around downtown. As we went up Huaihai Road, which is the Oxford Street of Shanghai, we saw there were pairs of screens all the way up the road. Mostly they were carrying ads. But I also noticed that pixels were already failing, either because the colour was going wrong, or because they were dying and going black. With older screens, you can clearly make out how they are divided into squares of pixels. I would like to find out more about the technology, how difficult it is to repair, and why it decays so quickly. Somehow, that which signifies high tech wonder becomes tawdry very quickly.
This afternoon, Wenhao gave me the DVD of photos from the Science & Technology Museum — which look great! This evening, we went over to Wujiaochang and spent five or six hours taking photos there. Of course, I learnt a whole lot of new things, as I do each time I spend real time working in there.
I took some notes from the Orient Shopping Centre screen, to try and track what was actually on it. When I come back, I need to do this for both this screen and the Youyicheng one in a more systematic manner. But I noticed: Expo ad; www.ikang.com ad (some sort of wrinkle cream?); an ad for the shopping centre itself; Xiying Steel corporate ad; what appeared to be an ad for the Wujiaochang itself; an anti litter public information notice; and ad for advertising on the screen itself and so on. There was a dearth of actual consumer product ads. Along the bottom of the screen all the time there was a tickertape effect (although not LED) giving info on who to contact and so on if you wanted to rent the screen:上海横就事业招？司机一名：工资百谈联系人廖总电话55228166淞沪路98号平盛大夏903. A bit sad really… Even the Youyicheng’s screen seems dominated by ads for itself.
I chatted to a guy at a coffee/tea stall near the little Expo countdown clock LED near the Orient. He said people were always coming to take photos near the Wujiaochang. He also said the place was still developing, in response to my comment about ads for placing ads.
When we got down into the sunken plaza, I noticed and photographed lots of wires handing from the egg. Later that even, when the rainbow egg had not even been turned on by 8 p.m., I asked one of the security men. He explained that it was being repaired. Apparently, it has been failing recently, and after a series of patch-ups, they had decided a few days ago to shut it down completely and rewire it. It will be out of commission for the next 2 months! Given that this is the signature light centrepiece of Wujiaochang, that’s quite a blow for them and for us! Probably, I will need to ask Wenhao to go up there and photograph it again once it’s up and going.
The cracks in the glossy surface of Wujiaochang continued when we were outside the Youyicheng on the Songhu Road side. I can see I’m going to have to update the damned audit yet again! First, I discovered a couple of small TV sets or even little monitors, black and white, playing Bob Marley, in the entrance way to the bar where the other 5 TV screens are. I guess it’s part of the decorative theme. Then I also discovered that the bus stop a bit further up from where I stopped the audit last time has TV screens in it. This is the only one I’ve seen around here with the screens in it. Finally, there were a couple more of those double-screen advertising pillars, but the LCD screens were broken. One had nothing at all on it. The other had what looked like one of those messages you get on your computer screen telling you to reload the CD ROM with the programme etc etc.
The final comedy moment in all this came when we were trying to take shots of the big screen from far away. We got to our final destination at 11 p.m. — way down the road near the entrance to Fudan. Just as Wenhao was getting set up, they turned the big screen off. 11 p.m. on Saturday night in Wujiaochang, and clearly everyone is meant to be home tucked up in bed. Of course, normally, I am. So I had not seen this before. But both Wenhao and I had absolutely assumed it would be on all night. Is this a company decision to save money? Or the result of a local government regulation? However, it is part of a pattern, where I had noticed in the past that the egg was not turned on until about 7 in the evening and various lights started coming on, but also started to get turned off from as early as 9 p.m. on. For example the blue wave lights on the top of a skyscraper behind the Orient were off at 9, followed by the Orient’s own lights, including its lightboxes with its own name, at 10. But the Orient LCD remained on at that time.
I took the day off to try and begin catching up on these notes. But at lunchtime, I did talk to someone who told me that the Shanghai South Railway Station had been the subject of quite a bit of public debate. Apparently, most people agree it is beautiful. But many people feel it is not practical, because there are not enough seats. My sense is that it’s designed to move people through it, not to encourage them to hang out…
In the afternoon, we had a 75-minute interview with Xin Ge of the research institute at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (SSTM) and one of her colleagues. At the end of it, Xin Ge said what a relief it was to be able to communicate without any language obstacles. I thought this was ironic. Although I was very glad she felt relaxed and able to speak, of course, I’m still waiting to find out exactly what she said! I could follow the gist, but for the details, I’m going to need to rely on Wu Dan’s help. The interview was recorded, and we have permission to use the contents but need to double-check before quoting directly, if I understood correctly (!)
However, there were various things I picked up on already that I find very interesting. For example, they also do not have an objective, statistical method of observing how visitors interact with the exhibits and what they like and do not like. Rather, they tend to rely on what their staff report back and then follow up on it by observing for themselves. They do sometimes also do focus groups and so on.
Another section of the museum does the statistics on visitor numbers and so on. The numbers were high after they opened in 2001 and then tailed off until they opened the second section in 2005, after which they have gradually built up to new highs. They have not done detailed research on why, but they think the incorporation of the idea of “science tourism” has been a major factor, putting them on the map for Shanghai tourists in general and not just for local school groups and so on. They also have an increased emphasis on temporary exhibits. Unlike the main collections, these are free, and they sometimes draw in big crowds. They rely on news coverage to get the word out more than actually doing paid advertising themselves.
We had a discussion about payment issues. Some people locally feel that the museum should be free. But they say that although they do get some money from the government, that alone is not enough to fund the museum. They do have free Wednesday afternoons and various kinds of discount rates that should make it affordable for everyone, they feel.
They work with lots of different universities and other educational institutions. Mostly those institutions bring research projects to them and involve them rather than the other way round. They do not supervise their own PhD students or anything like that, but right now they are applying for permission to host Post-Docs.
There is a big emphasis on interactive exhibits. If they can make the exhibits interactive, then they will be interactive, because that’s what the patrons like. However, they have not taken it to an extreme. Xin Ge cited the Hong Kong museum as one where almost everything is interactive, including the basic information signs. I’ll check this out when I’m in Hong Kong in mid-November. Xing e also told us she has written about interactivity and would provide us with the conference paper, even though it was from a few years back and her thinking has probably changed now. This is clearly an area of considerable mutual interest, because Xin Ge asked me how we were thinking about interactivity and she also pointed out that it has to be thought of in a broader way than just pulling a lever or pressing a screen, because there needs to be an inner interaction too, or perhaps an emotional and intellectual impact.
Outside companies have done market research for the museum.
We asked why there were no touch screens in the museum. Xin Ge said they broke easily and were expensive to replace, but that as they replace old exhibits they will inevitably be using more and more touch screens. So far, in their research, the museum has not thought about screens in isolation but rather as part of the larger issue of interactivity. That’s another reason why cooperating with us interests them.
We had a discussion about why they’ve decided to do away with the AV Paradise. Xin Ge said that people inside the museum had also questioned this, because it is such a popular exhibit. She pointed out that there were various reasons. It is not just because it is the only technological exhibit with no deeper scientific foundation. Also, this area of technology dates very quickly, so if they replaced it, it would still go out of date very quickly. And it does not necessarily meet their education aims. Finally, the Children’s Science Land next door is also very popular and needs extending. We will come back when the work is finished next Spring, see how the Children’s Science Land has changed, what bits of the AV Paradise have been kept and put somewhere else, and what bits have been discarded, and so on.
We were shown a document that included the museum’s mission statement, and Wu Dan copied it down. I’ll get it later.
They feel they have achieved world-class status. They do not display by disciplines in the way that museums used to. They have moved to themes, and they have tried to borrow techniques of exhibiting and engaging visitors from places like Disneyland. This, of course, was controversial at first, with many scientists expressing dissatisfaction. But they have won the scientists round and they have become a national model that other science museums from all over the country are learning from, including the national museum.
Among the 4 cinemas, the IMAX is the most popular, but the 4-D sells out quickly because it’s quite small.
As soon as we can, I’d like to sit down with Rachel and Janet and compare notes and see how we can connect the London SM and the SSTM.
Evening
Met independent curator Samantha Culp, who, it turns out, is currently based in Beijing working on Cao Fei’s RMB City project. This is an ongoing project, and so I should try and find out what it looks like now, because it seems connected to our project in its interest in the urban. Then I went on to join Daisy and Goetz and their dancing club on the streets outside the Sports Stadium station on Line 8.
In the morning I had a quick chat with Lu Xinyu. She indicated that although “public space” was a commonly used term (Wu Dan’s quick search turned up over 10,000 entries on the electronic bibliographical databases), she is not too satisfied with the way it is used. It is usually part of the discourse around civil society, and is used in an uncritical manner. Nonetheless, she suggested we might trying checking out works by 邓正来， 童世骏，and of course, 汪晖 as a way into the field, especially if we are looking for more critical materials. Later in the Day I met Deborah Davies (Yale) for lunch, and she said moving images on the huge screens in public spaces made her think of parades.
Morning
Today we decided to have another go with the Shanghai South Station. Dan and I met at 9.00 a.m. in the little Italian café on the departures level. We keep noticing foreigners on their laptops in here. It turns out this is a wireless café. A bit later, a contact from Oriental Television, Cui Yi, arrived. Oriental are going to interview me on Sunday. So, using the need to know more about what I’m doing as a kind of excuse, Cui Yi got someone from the station to show us around the areas we otherwise could not access without a ticket or some sort of official pass. That’s progress already! So, what did we figure out through walking around and talking to the station employee?
First, there are three levels to the station. The second level is where the platforms are. For most trains you enter on the third level. Anyone can go through the security bag check into the first circle, where the shops and cafes are. But to go to the waiting rooms, you need a ticket. Then, it seems there are additional barriers and inspections before you get shepherded down onto the train. The “dongche” (high speed trains) seem to have their own inspection gates and entry points. For some trains, you go directly to waiting rooms on the second level. We were taken into one of these. There were 2 pairs of LCD screens with TV on top and ads below on one wall, and 4 other LCD screens playing TV elsewhere. These were programmed by Mega Info Media (兆丰传播全国火车站联网), and we were told this was done somewhere beyond the station, and was probably a stream for all Shanghai or even East China rail stations (the Railway Bureau Cultural Broadcaster, 铁路局文广). The station people really didn’t care about those screens, she told us. They only cared about the LEDs, because those were what told people which train was where and so on. They had no control over the colour of the writing etc. There was one LED in the waiting room, and also a TV screen as part of the x-raying of bags as you walked in.
We were taken through onto the platforms. Each platform has 3 LEDs, which have info about the number and destination of departing trains.
On the arrivals level, our attention was drawn to the big LEDs with details of arriving trains. You can go from the platform to exit at any gate, so if someone is meeting you, you need to let them know ahead of time which exit you plan to use.
Cui Yi told us that had heard that originally the LCDs were leased to an independent advertising company, but that later the Railway Bureau took them back and leased them to their own sub-company.
The woman accompanying us told us that originally people found the round station very confusing, including the employees themselves, and people kept getting lost. The complaints department got a lot of messages from disoriented passengers! Then they put the numbers on the pillars, and this overcame that problem. Instead of telling people to go to the Northwest entrance, for example, they tell them to go to pillar such-and-such. There are about 100,000 passenger movements through the station every day, we were told, so getting it right is important!
In the waiting room on the second level, we noticed a dead touch screen. We were told that was just put there out of the way, so to speak, but that there should be such touch screens with information in the public areas on all levels. We were taken to another one outside the waiting room. I photographed as many of its screens as I could. It provides basic information about the station, its layout, its history, and so on. If you can get the screens to cooperate. These screens seemed well-hidden to us and we did not see anyone using them. We were told that if too many people used them, they would break. They also did not seem very cooperative — we kept pressing “buttons”, but nothing happened a lot of the time. Of course, as we know from the less than cooperative touch screens in our teaching spaces at Goldsmiths, this kind of problem with touch-screen technology is endemic.
OK, so now we’ve seen the place. The next thing to do is to try and figure out if we can find some designers to interview. And then we need to figure out what we want to do about photography.
Midday
On the subway over to the Museum, Dan and I notice that there are no screens on Line no.1, the oldest of the subway lines. In the massive People’s Square interchange station, we notice some interesting phenomena, no doubt the beginnings of Expo preparations. First, there are two different types of touch screens promising information in both English and Chinese about what is in the neighbourhood and route information. Not many people have noticed them yet or are using them. Partly, this is because they are tucked away, partly it’s because they don’t have things like screens displaying what users are doing, which might attract more people.
The screens themselves are not very responsive (the usual touch screen problem). They promise to print out maps of your destination routes, but we are unable to make them do that. The neighbourhood guides have little information about restaurants listed, etc, and no pics. They seem to be more useful if you just want to check where the place you are trying to get to is on a map.
We also picked up a station information guide — but it was for South Huangpi Road, which is one stop away on Line no. 1.
Dan said she noticed everyone on line no.2 in the morning was reading newspapers and ignoring the screens that operate on that line, even though they show morning and evening news in commute times. Nonetheless, if we are interested in everyday screens, the public transport system is where more Shanghainese are exposed to public screens on an everyday basis than anywhere else.
Afternoon
Yu Wenhao and I meet at the Museum to photograph. Despite all assurance that no passes and form filling would be needed, in the end Wenhao had to do a bit of that. But the museum was totally cooperative and gave us no grief.
It was immediately apparent that the weekday visitors are different from the weekends. Weekends are dominated by families, whereas it seems weekdays are dominated by school groups, especially in the middle of the day when we were there. For example, while the IBM “Try Science” exhibits seemed very popular with parents eager to get free computer lessons from their kids on the weekend, they were less popular today.
We also noticed that the schoolkids were not so eager to use the “Virtual Studio” in the AV Paradise or even the “Interview with a TV Host,” perhaps because both exhibits require them to speak on camera. On the weekends, of course, parents were very keen to have their tots perform in the “Virtual Studio.”
The pairs of information screens in the AV Paradise continued to be largely overlooked or used quickly and then abandoned. Teachers were very eager to get the kids to line up. The kids were eager to run around. I particularly liked the way they turned the finished and turned off “Chinese Morgan — Tan Jiazhen” (who he?) exhibit in level one into a playground.
This afternoon I gave the public lecture at Fudan that I am asked to give as part of the arrangement with them. Of course, this scared the hell out of me. I gave an introduction to our project, using the paper that Janet and I wrote for Hong Kong on enchantment as the basis, but changing the case studies to the Museum here and Pentagon Plaza.
Interestingly, the questioners were more interested in the use of public screens in China for political slogans than I have been so far. Professor Lu Xinyu asked me, in the context of a broader discussion of enchantment, disenchantment and reenchantment, if nationalism had taken over as the secular religion of modernity. Professor Ma Ling commented about the biggest screen in Pudong, which can be seen from across the river in Puxi, and is often used for political slogans of one sort or another.
A male student spoke in English to make two strong critical points, both of which I appreciated. First, he emphasized that any account of screens and public spaces has to take account of online public spaces accessed through screens. And second, he was concerned that while the walking method might uncover unknown things, it is not systematic. I think acknowledging both these points while sticking with our project is important to make sure people don’t think we’re unaware of these things. In the first place, we are confining ourselves to screens in public spaces, not public spaces accessed through screens. And in the second place, our emphasis on singularity v. the administrative drive to map means that we are not really striving for representativeness.
Another student asked about whether the screens on the subways and busses are invasive. This then led to a discussion about the public’s rights in public space and how screens should or should not be regulated. Similarly, a student told me about a huge screen in a shopping plaza in Chengdu that used to carry the news and other programming, which people quite liked, but which is now 100% advertising, which is not so appreciated.
The room, which must have held 200+ was totally packed, which I found intimidating. But it also indicates that people are interested. Since then, I’ve heard from several people by email and there has been a sense that this is a fresh and relevant topic etc.
Before the talk, there was a lunch. I also spoke with Professor Gu Zheng, the leading urban photography expert. In June, we hatched a plan to work together through his undergraduate class this autumn. It turns out he has already got them to write short responses concerning their ideas about screens. I will visit his class next Monday morning, and he will photocopy and give me a set of the responses then. Later in the semester they will photograph screens. We will see how this turns out, but I’m very eager and curious to get as many local responses to screens as possible.
After the talk, I was taken to coffee with a group of people, including some from the journal Urban China. I was interviewed by one of the editors (Tong Xin) and we will see what comes out of that. He also gave me some back issues. Later that day, I had time to check them out. The journal is affiliated with Tongji University, the major place here for design and urban planning, and just around the corner from Fudan. It’s a fascinating publication, because it’s not so much an academic as a public intellectual journal, and it includes everything from well-illustrated academic research about roundabouts to more anthropological articles and shorter pieces about the curiosities of city life. I could see immediately why they were interested in what we are doing. Tong Xin suggested that maybe next time I am in Shanghai, I might go on one of my screen walks and they might accompany me. Given that they obviously know a lot about the city and its workings, that could be very interesting indeed.
We had coffee in a place in the Wanda Guangchang section of Pentagon Plaza. So, next, Wu Dan, Yu Wenhao, and my former TA, Zhang Shujuan, took a walk around the square. Initially this was to familiarize Wu Dan with it and prepare for photographing it with Wenhao later in the week. But we also wandered to parts I haven’t paid so much attention to before and I learnt things along the way. Wu Dan and Shujuan told me that the Orient Shopping Centre, now the sad second-run store, used to be a very high-end store, where you could buy a pair of jeans for RMB20,000 if you so wished. Probably their now slightly tatty screen used to be the cutting edge height of technology just a few years ago.
We also wandered around the Youyicheng — empty as ever. Shujuan pointed out the clothes in here are very middle-aged, whereas Wanda Guangchang across Songhu Road is younger, and has a reputation as a place for young people to come to from far away and hang out. We wondered about whether this place might pick up more once the no.10 line gets a subway station here? Or if it’s a real estate investment? Or…? The Atlantic mall next door to the Youyicheng, which is just off my radar, was pointed out as the local low-end supermarket. We walked through that and around the back streets, where an old retail neighbourhood comes right up against the Youyicheng, somewhat incongruously.
Continuing north we happened against a brand, spanking new development that is clearly not quite finished. This envelopes the old 1930s Yangpu Sport Stadium, and is called KIC — Knowledge and Innovation Community. Oracle have their logo on an office, as does the Chinese Google, Baidu, and various others. Clearly this is intended to be a big creative industry centre. There is also new housing on the other side of Songhu Road, and my guess is this is part of a big strategy to move this whole neighbourhood upmarket as a sort of University District with associated firms and young professionals moving in. This might eventually provide the consumers that Youyicheng needs. There is a clear tension between this vision and the older residential blocks that provide the pavement ballroom dancers outside Paris Printemps. The development is being run by the Shui-On (Rui-An) Corporation from Hong Kong, who are the same people who did the Xintiandi development.
Today, I returned to the Science and Technology Museum, partly to take another look around the whole museum with both Wu Dan and Yu Wenhao, and partly to try to conduct an audit. Assuming that Sunday would be a very busy day (weekends usually are, in Dan’s experience, and she comes here quite often), we arrived when the museum opened at 09.00.
The AV Paradise (视听乐园) consists of 8 exhibits:
- 机器主持人The Robot Host
- 虚拟比赛Virtual Athletic Competition
- 飞机模拟驾驶Simulated Piloting of an Aircraft
- 影视合成Movie and Television Synthesis
- 全息音响Holographic Sound
- 涌金号海上航行器Yong Jin—A Marine Craft
- 与节目主持人对话An Interview with a TV Host
- 虚拟演播室Virtual Studio
We decided to audit the last two. Some of the exhibits are not good to photograph. For example, the “Holographic Sound” exhibit consists of a room you walk into. There is nothing to see from outside, and not much from inside. (Plenty to hear, of course, but that’s also hard to photograph.) So, thinking about that issue and the obvious relation of the last 2 exhibits to our work, we decided to audit from those 2 exhibits to the exit.
1&2.
Type of Screen: Computer Monitor:
Size: 0.4 x 0.4m approx
Location: In between the 2 exhibits. There are a number of these located through the AV Paradise
Function: Point and click for information about the AV Paradise and its contents, mostly text-based.
Notes: A pair of back-t o-back ball-mouse-operated computer screens, with general information about the AV Paradise. You stand to use them, and there is a pink circular light underneath the podium. I didn’t see anyone touch these today, and on other visits there have only seen people taking a passing interest. It has no game qualities, and there is no lever to pull, button to press etc.
3.
Type of Screen: LED?/LCD? Mitsubishi brand (三菱电机), large flat screen composed of 9 rectangles,
Size: probably total of 1.5 m high by 2 m wide
Location: outside the “Interview with a TV Host” (与节目主持人对话) exhibit, to the right as you look at it
Function: To show adoring parents outside or curious classmates your performance in a simulated interview. Inside the exhibit room, you sit on a chair and look at the interviewer on a screen, and then answer his/her questions. Outside, you appear to be together in the same space.
Notes: People did not seem to find this instinctive or incredibly easy, or enjoyable. Onlookers love it, of course. I also figure this is quite old large-screen technology, but I don’t know for sure.
4, 5
Type of Screen: Cathode Ray TV screens in colour TV monitors
Size: perhaps 0.4 m high x 0.5 m wide
Location: Inside “Interview with a TV Host”
Function: One shows you the host asking you a question, the other shows the result — the same image as appears on 3.
Notes
6.
Type of Screen: Touch-screen, “Contec” brand.
Size: 0.3 m high by 0.4 m wide?
Location: inside “Interview with a TV Host”
Function: Allows the volunteer running the exhibit to start and stop the show. It is positioned so that the participants cannot see what s/he is doing.
Notes: I think this is the only touch screen I have seen inside the museum. When the whole thing is going, you get a strange multiple mediation effect, with the user looking at screens inside the exhibit, the operator looking at this screen, and the people outside looking at the big screen
7-12
Type of Screen: 6 x Computer monitors, some on, some off
Size: 0.4 x 0.3 m
Location: Inside control room for “Virtual Studio” exhibit
Function: presumably they are all to do with operating this equipment
Notes: The person in the control room is a member of staff of the museum, not a volunteer
13, 14
Type of Screen: Sony Trinitron monitors
Size: 0.3 x 0.3?
Location: Inside studio. One shows you yourself performing and the other what the audience sees, I think.
Function:
Notes: I think this might be most challenging exhibit, partly because it calls up on people to do a turn on television, so to speak, and partly because it seems quite technologically challenging (although all you have to do is stand there and sing or recite something). The more I pay attention to it the more I am convinced few people use it.
15,16, and 17, 18
Type of Screen: Sony Trinitron monitors
Size: 0.6 x 0.4?
Location: One pair mounted high outside studio, and one pair inside, facing audience to the “show”
Function: To show adoring parents their tots talent time performances
Notes: A sure lesson we have learnt from this place is that if you want people to use screens, you should show what happens when someone is using a screen to everyone else nearby. It seems to draw them over to watch and then have a go. On the ones outside, I could read “DRC-MR Dual Exhaust 3D Sound System Multi-System AV Stereo”, I believe.
19.
Type of Screen: Computer monitor in wall with a piece of Perspex in front of it. Ball mouse operated.
Size: 0.3 x 0.25?
Location: in wall inside virtual studio
Function: to preview photos taken of a performance. It seems it may print them out too, but I got confused about this when we tried to clarify whether you printed them out here or somewhere else.
Notes: I have never seen anyone pay for and print out the photos.
20.
Type of Screen: Computer Screen, ball operated, with image of VCD screen, it seems. Protected by a piece of glass
Size: 0.3 H x 0.5 W?
Location: On wall on the right on the way out.
Function: You can buy VCDs of the performance in the virtual studio.
Notes: Never saw anyone buying a VCD. Seems very outmoded technology and idea now
21.
Type of Screen: Dell Brand computer monitor behind Perspex on right wall on way out.
Size: 0.5 square?
Location: on right wall on way out, further on from 19
Function: shows 4 images from “虚拟比赛Virtual Athletic Competition”
Notes headed “Wonderful Retrospect” — i.e. it’s a goodbye screen. There is a tickertape scroll at the bottom of the monitor (not LED) telling you how to pay if you want these, too. The Perspex window has holes in it. I wonder if originally there was a person behind this selling photos and VCDs to people on their way out?
After the audit, we went into another exhibit on the Ist Floor. This is the “Children’s Science Land” (儿童科技园). This is going to be enlarged when they get rid of the AV Paradise. I wonder if this is such a great idea? It’s really like a playground at the moment, and seems aimed at very young children. (True, there are many of those at the museum) — perhaps the 3-7 year olds. Lots to climb on, push, pull etc. One exhibit where you yell and then a jet of water is sprayed in the air according to how long you yell. This is predictably popular! In fact, sound is big part of the exhibits here, as in the AV Paradise. I think this helps a lot to make exhibits popular and like theme park rides.
There are some screen-driven exhibits in the Children’s Science Land. For example, there’s a ball mouse operating drawing device, and a chess game. But neither of these seemed to hold children’s attention for long, and when we tried to use them we found them difficult. Presumably, a contemporary touch-screen based exhibit where a child painted or moved a chess piece by touching the screen might be both more fun and less challenging for the skill-impaired like myself.
Why are the fun push, pull, drive etc exhibits gone from the London Science Museum? Health and Safety? I could see ways in which someone could injure themselves, for example the “Light of Wisdom” (智慧之光) hall here features lots of things to pull and climb on that you could fall off or trap your fingers in potentially.
Outside the Children’s Science Land was a bank of 6 computers donated by IBM with “Try Science” (放眼看科技) written on them in Chinese and English. These were very popular, seeming to go against our observation that visitors did not engage long with screens that just used point and click technology to take you into layers of information on screens. Why? First, there was bench in front of each screen, so you could sit down (ah…). The bench was just about the right size for the modern Chinese family — two parents and one child, or two grandparents and one child. And, finally, there was another big screen above the main one showing what was being revealed to other people walking by, and therefore attracting their interest in possibly using it in future.
When we went upstairs to the Quantum Physics hall, which is far from interactive, there was almost no one inside. Presumably it’s too abstract, too? And it was Sunday, a family day?
So, how important is box office to the Museum? Especially if they are willing to get rid of one of their most popular halls (The AV Paradise)?
We heard that the 2nd and 3rd Floors were done in 2005, and the 1st floor in 2001 (when the museum first opened). Do they design and construct them all themselves, or do they invite outsiders to help?
On the subway on the way over, I notice again all the screens on the subway system, as well as the people using screens to create their own private space in the screened up public space!
I spent most of today just trying to catch up with my notes and thinking. I have been going over to Pentagon Plaza pretty regularly, using the need to get food as an excuse to go to the well-patronized Wanda Plaza section and people/screen-watch. Today, I was down in the basement (which they bill as the city in the city, I think — must make a note). On my way, I noticed that there are guards at all the spots where the public walks into the alleyways making up the Wanda. But they are pretty unobtrusive it seems. I wonder when they go on duty in the morning, or if they are there 24/7?
In the basement, there are all kinds of fast-food and cheap waiter/waitress service restaurants, ranging from McDonalds and KFC to Pappa John’s pizzas and the Asian fast food chain Yoshinoya as well as the Hong Kong restaurant chain Café du Coral. There is also a Watson’s chemists, a Giordano, a Uniqlo, etc. These are all low-price, high-volume retailers, so maybe it is not a surprise that so many people are down there, even at 11.30 in the morning.
I found myself thinking about Kracauer’s focus on the salaried (the angestellte) as distinct from the worker. In Weimar Germany, this was a distinct social class that had legally recognized privileges and so on, which it was fighting to keep as the real distinctions between it and regular workers were being eroded. I’m not sure any such distinction functions in Shanghai. But there something else going on here. On one hand, you have the idea of the “shimin” or “city person,” often translated as “petit bourgeoisie”, a term that goes back to Shanghai in the early 20th century, and exemplified the lifestyle that it fostered then. It is very much associated with consumerism. On the other hand, you have the “gongren” or worker, in the Marxist sense, which is all about production, and giving “labour model” awards to people who produce the most. There is no doubt that consumerism is back at Pentagon Plaza. But, I wonder, do these people think of themselves as “shimin”? Is that term back in circulation? I must find out.
