During my week back in London, I felt like I’d lost the ability to distinguish colours. The world around me seems shrouded in haze beside the fragmented buildings, blurring not only my vision but also my mood. Even when colour-grading videos, I was worried about misjudging the contrast.
This season in London reminds René Boille's "Smooth City. Smooth City’s excessive pursuit of "perfection," "positivity," and "happiness" denies the existence of misfortune, failing to address social injustices and neglecting people's genuine needs and desires for "imperfection," and those seemingly "negative" states. This obsession with smoothness and perfection may represent a form of invisible violence. Smooth City lacks the time or space to accommodate our complex emotions, while social media exacerbates this facade of positivity. We gradually lose ourselves in the polished surface of life, becoming enamoured with this "smooth" positivity, which subtly influences the version of life we present to the world.
The process of filming videos provides me with opportunities to document those serene moments. Whether enjoying a meal at a restaurant, grabbing a hot dog on the street, or sitting on a muddy lawn after rain, those instances where I can pause, wander, and connect with my surroundings are the most precious visual memories worth capturing. During days spent with Eggy (my dachshund), I always find motivation to traverse London towards Hampstead, where the park seems like his own "Smooth City." Compared to the materialistic human world, I envy his simple existence within that smooth city. Of course, he may also experience his own negative states.
As I write this (on the afternoon of the 24th), I'm preparing to pack for my return to Gothenburg tomorrow. The past few weeks have felt like a magical version of traversing between two places.
Негізгі бет Desensitized Smooth City
Пікірлер