Locale | gonggong _ Golden Mile Tower

gonggong – Golden Mile Tower Zine

gonggong is the visualization of the ageing architecture of Golden Mile Tower in comparison to the new tenants that re purpose the space for a new young crowd. The zine places both raw textures and texts that are sampled from the brutalist architecture alongside organic photographs that capture the energy and life of the new entertainment spaces. In combination they create a sense of abrasiveness that reflects on both the vibe of the building as well as the energy of the people inhabiting it.

Cover

The zine starts with an ambiguous signage referring to a carpark, where the independent cinema and outdoor bars are located. It sets a prelude to the other pages to come with it’s dull and cool colours, suggesting the exterior of a building or book.

First Spread

The first spread features the interior space of the cinema. The zine follows a format where the untouched imaged is contrasted with the warped version. The warped version is accompanied with textures sampled from the building, with a mandarin text that rolls over them. I used the text to set a soundscape of the space. Throughout the whole level you can hear music leaking in through a door or booming right in front of you. The characters in the first spread sets a build up on the sounds that are occuring, , with this example the sound is creeping in similarly to the movement of a lift.

Second Spread

The middle spread plays acts as a crossing point for the warped images and the untouched ones. The texts are accompanied with a dog motif that heightens the energy through the colour and contrast. The texts “gong” when repeated at a loud volume mimics the sound of bass coming through the speakers. The loud and abrasive sound grows out of the frame as it grows larger and more textured. The mix of clean images and large distorted textured elements enhances the sense of discomfort caused by the music, crowd and sticky floors.

Third Spread

The third spread brings the viewer outdoors to the rooftop car park, where there’s a party going in a distance. The characters slowly diminish like a echoing cymbal as they grow smaller in scale. The use of blue and the night images brings the energy of the space down to a more calm mood. In this state the elements of the rust and decay the building has emerges from all the human activity that is occurring around the space.

Back Cover

The zine concludes with an original photograph of Golden Mile Tower. My approach for this project was to bring the user to the selected space via colours and abstract imagery of movement, therefore there are not much hints on what the building is throughout the spreads. This image brings a name to the abstract imagery that the readers have been following throughout the spread.

 

 

GONGGONG

 

research can be found here , and process here