Hyde & Seek
London project in EAP course.
Team Members:
Paul Gong
(Design Interactions)
Masaharu Imamiya
(Print Making)
Chia-Hung Lin
(Innovation Design Engineering)
Yee Noh
(Visual Communication)
Takuma Yoshimi
(Interior Design)
What can we seek from Hyde Park?
Hyde Park is one of the most largest public parks in central London and is also worldly known for holding the Great Exhibition in 1851 with the Crystal Palace.
There was one condition insisted upon the construction of the Crystal Palace: to completely enclose the trees—“in particular three large elms opposite the Prince of Wales Gate” (CPF, 2013)—within the structure which became the area of “the building's most graceful and distinguishing feature.” (CPF) Alike the trees or the Crystal Palace erected in Hyde Park, what kind of spectacle can we seek from Hyde Park today? During a walk in Hyde Park, there was a wondrous hidden space made from a huge tree. And the tree was hiding another one which became an inspiring catalyst of the project: Hyde and Seek.
Last Promenade at the Crystal Palace. 1852. Illustrated London News.
Porn
We sensed a strong connection with the park and porn when he picked up a telephone postcard full of porn images, on his way home. During our research, we had found out that the boundary between public and private always blur. For example, when we use images of porn in variety of ways, it is general to hide them in secrecy: in our rooms, personal computers or other hidden places within the society. Thus, there is a specimen of the state that the private exist in the public domain. Through installation work, a tree becomes a metaphor of circulation—an evitable and immortal feeling of human beings—which is called “sexual desire”.
Space and Form
The space and installation was laboriously built by using random porn images collected from telephone booths near Soho and South Kensington. The postcards were used as a metaphor for fruits ripen according to an image: Tree of Knowledge done by Lucas Cranach the Elder which was the scene of Eden in Bible. The work was low-tech and strings were used to hang the images from the twigs.
Lucas Cranach the Elder.1530. Tree of Knowledge.
Process / Video Making
A film was made to capture each moments of the process, in a way we immersed ourselves into London. The footage for the film were collected from various unfamiliar places. The film starts and ends in the park which was another way to express circulation. There were many struggles and happening during the process as well as combining different ideas. The soundtrack performed as a tool to express melancholy feelings that you can feel from a ephemeral installation.
The overall process of the London project “Hyde and Seek” was very incidental. We went through many different experiences of materials, form and structure. We think that the space can provoke a synthesis between the private and public spaces because seductive images always seem to be personal and private.