Heritage Unseen explores what sensorial stories exist beyond the archival documents we have available. What immaterial experiences of Chinatown contribute to the neighbourhood’s unique identity? Asking these questions calls into question more traditional sight-based archival practices of text and image.
看不见的遗产探讨除了我们现有的档案文件以外还存在哪些鲜 活的故事。唐人街有哪些非物质经历确立了街区的独特身份？ 提出这些问题将对更为传统的基于视觉的文本和图像存档方式 提出质疑。
Much has changed since the City of Toronto first designated Chinatown West an “Area of Special Identity” in 1980. Forty years later, Heritage Unseen questions: can (and should) Chinatown’s heritage still be defined as “illuminated signs, street furniture and architectural detail”?[1] The journey through the installation begins from the exterior, whose shape reflects the boundaries of Chinatown West as defined by the Chinatown Business Improvement Area. These artificial boundary walls are clad with crowd sourced imagery—all collected under the hashtag #torontochinatown—displaying the collective visual interpretation of Chinatown’s heritage. These images are strikingly reflective of the elements of heritage encouraged and protected by Toronto’s 1980 by-law and illustrate how city planning influences and shapes public consciousness.
In contrast, in the interior, we find the immaterial heritage of Chinatown—the personal experiences that are not accounted for in the City’s by-law. The interior walls feature quotes from archival documents recounting the narratives of Chinatown’s residents. The user then encounters a space dedicated to the often-untold struggles experienced by the community and local businesses, bringing to light the impact of global events such as the coronavirus and the 2003 SARS outbreak on the Chinatown community. Next, the user enters an isolated space deprived of sight, and instead, dedicated to sound, allowing them to fully immerse themselves within the sounds of Chinatown. Enveloped entirely within this sensorial experience through these diverse modes of seeing, Heritage Unseen challenges the sights of Chinatown we all know and love and hopes to recover elements of the unseen. The interior space illustrates how different modes of seeing can tell different types of stories; what is unseen through sound, can be seen through imagery, and what is unseen in imagery, can be seen through text. Within this immersive experience, Heritage Unseen asks of you to consider how even the format of seeing and the medium of recollection necessarily informs the future heritage of Toronto’s Chinatowns.
Heritage Unseen Website: https://heritageunseen.webflow.io/
Project Team
Maria Tevyants (she/her) is a graduate of the Ryerson School of Interior Design. Her interests lie in more than just interior design – she is also passionate about architecture, graphic design, and photography, and believes that these disciplines work together often. Maria received the RHSA Media Arts Award in 2016 for showing promise in the preceding subjects.
IG: @mariatevrsid
Joanne John (she/her)is a graduate of the Ryerson School of Interior Design. Her passion in the fields of interior and graphic design have largely influenced the way she thinks and sees the world. Her work ethos is founded on designing spaces inspired by people, their interactions and creating a community culture.
IG: @jo.anne.john
www.joannejohndesign.wixsite.com/portfolio
Katherine Fazari (she/her) is a graduate of the Ryerson School of Interior Design. Her interests in the design field include interior design, furniture design, art, and architecture. She takes inspiration from observing the environment she surrounds that helped create inspiration for past and present projects.
Victoria Ruccella (she/her) is a graduate of the Ryerson School of Interior Design. Her passion for design stems from an interest in creating unique spaces that blend both aesthetics and function, while further exploring the creation of designs in graphics and material art.
IG: @vicruccella
Linda Zhang (she/her) is an artist, a licensed architect, certified advanced operations drone pilot and educator. She is a principal at Studio Pararaum and an assistant professor at Ryerson SID. Her research areas include memory, cultural heritage, and identity as they are indexically embodied through emergent technologies, matter, and material processes.
IG: @lindayzhang @pararaum
看不见的遗产
自多伦多市于1980年首次将唐人街西区列为“特别区域”以来，情况发生了很大变化。四十年后，看不见的遗产发问：唐人街的遗产能否（也应该）被定义为灯光闪烁的招牌，街道设施和建筑细节？[1] 装置观赏之旅从外部开始，其形状反映了商业促进区所定义的唐人街西区的边界。这些人造的边界墙布满了人群的图像。这些图像全部收集在#torontochinatown标签之下，展示了唐人街遗产的集体视觉诠释。这些图像惊人地反映了多伦多1980年条例所鼓励和保护的遗产元素，并说明了城市规划如何影响和塑造公众意识。
相比之下，我们在内部发现唐人街的非物质遗产-城市条例未考虑的个人经历。内墙的特色是档案文件的引言，叙述了唐人街居民的故事。然后，参观者会遇到一个空间，该空间专门用于展示社区和本地企业经常遇到的难以言说的斗争，从而揭示了冠状病毒和2003年SARS爆发等全球性事件对唐人街社区的影响。接下来，参观者会进入一个漆黑的隔离空间，虽然看不见，但这个空间的主角是声音，使参观者完全沉浸在唐人街的喧嚣中。通过这些不同的观看方式将看不见的遗产完全置于这种感官体验中。它挑战了我们都熟知和喜爱的唐人街景象，并希望恢复看不见的元素。内部空间说明了不同的观看方式如何讲述不同类型的故事。通过声音了解看不见的东西，可以通过图像体会看到的东西，而通过图像看不见的东西，则可以通过文本了解。在这种身临其境的体验中，看不见的遗产让您思索，即使是观看的形式和回忆的媒介也必然会影响多伦多唐人街未来的遗产。
看不见的遗产网站: https://heritageunseen.webflow.io/