#6: What does the handbook say?
Putting together The Handbook of Everyday Secrets
Putting together The Handbook of Everyday Secrets
handbook |ˈhan(d)bʊk| noun a book giving information such as facts on a particular subject or instructions for operating a machine. |
(I)
I always think of the cube form as an expression of rationality -- the most utilitarian and efficient of shapes, and by extension, space. The easiest form to transform and cut, with little or no parts wasted. However, though the cube can stretch far but still not contain everything. Some things refuse to be placed, or will somehow manage to outrun the boundaries of the cube.
Maps provide us with our projections of spaces, containing them in clearly defined boundaries such that you can only be, on paper, one place at any point in time. If the idea of a handbook is something that guides, informs and points people in a clear direction, it is interesting then to see how a collective of 7 voices tap on each other to present what is dear or compelling about Boon Keng. But I too believe that the fascination with a 'clear direction' is also misguided. Structure exists as a supportive anchor and foundation from which things can grow organically. I've never been a habitual employer of handbooks, but it doesn't hurt to pick one up. Especially one that doesn't pretend to be anything else -- to the community, from the community. |
(II)
Any topic worth researching on and writing about is usually one of great emotional value. As I listened to each participant share their subject of interest for the handbook, I picked up on a few common threads: chance encounters or curiosity were reasons to develop a relationship, while others chose to draw from a long-standing contact with something or someone.
Each individual's approach to life also really comes through in their choice: Hui Ying, for instance, has an affinity with the elderly, and ended up walking into a vintage watch shop run by an old couple. The years that Zihuan has spent growing up around the hawker centre led him to do an in-depth articulation of the stalls that matter to him. It's always easy to overlook the amount of organization and teamwork that goes into anything, and putting a book together is no exception. It was heartening to watch people guide one another, and making sure no one was overlapping onto another's topic. Touching, but never overlapping.
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(III)
Not everything that finds its way to a bookstore shelf may be well-written, but one can't help but wonder how so much content gets set and packaged on paper. They are a place for thousands of voices, harmonious or otherwise; ideas waiting to be discovered, borrowed, brought home or out into the world.
Apart from pocketing the occasional purchase, I go to bookstores to be inspired by the covers of books. And the bigger the bookstore, the better. Feeling the texture of pages, catching whiffs of pulp and ink, assessing how words and images co-exist. In addition to appealing titles and content, the most attractive books are those that embody the right sense of balance and weight in the right pair of eyes and hands.
And there is, for me, always a magic seeing text and image set on paper. There is something innately mesmerizing about such a physical manifestation of internal ideas; how they pour out from our thoughts and onto pages which are then touched by others and take on their own lives. Contact sheets. |
Copyright 2015 Ng Xi Jie, Geraldine Kang