I want to use intuitive and sensory methods for exploring and capturing diverse facets of Siem Reap.
I want my project to purposefully create unanticipated encounters. Because of this, I want to employ psychogeography and create a visual record of the results through photography.
Techniques of psychogeography shall be used alongside routeless walks in Siem Reap. The purpose of the walks is to put me into contact with the material and social artifacts of the city that constantly change.
I want my project to not just be a study of Siem Reap but a study of the experience of Siem Reap.
I want to capture some sort of rhythm or repetition.
Possible explorations:
- who uses urban spaces?
- how are urban spaces used?
- the aesthetic politics of Siem Reap
- longitudinal photography: revisiting the same site repeatedly over an extended period of time and taking photographs to explore changes
- how about enacting different kinds of indigenous Filipino concepts of walks in a foreign Southeast Asian space: lakad (difficult because it needs conceptual work first)
Possible Projects
Photographing Lostness and Familiarity
- I’m a foreigner unfamiliar of the language.
- I don’t know where to go.
- I navigate the city through what is familiar.
- Take note of how different spaces in the city look and feel
I want to explore the experience and the objective representation of being lost while actively seeking what is familiar—because what is familiar is always what strikes us in an unfamiliar space.
References
Arnold, Emma. “Aesthetic Practices of Psychogeography and Photography.” Geography Compass, vol. 13, no. 2, 2019, p. e12419. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12419.