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Written Response

Written Response

This written response re-presents Hito Steyerl’s In Defense of the Poor Image (2009) through the structural method of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style (1998).

Steyerl describes the “poor image” as a low-resolution file—copied, shared, and circulated—whose value lies not in clarity but in access.

Following Queneau’s approach, I retell this same idea in several stylistic variations, mirroring how the image itself changes through reproduction.

Neutral：

A poor image travels fast.

It is compressed, duplicated, and reposted.

Each copy loses quality but gains audience.

Authorship fades; circulation grows.

Like Barthes’ idea of “the death of the author”, it survives through others.

Metaphorically：

The poor image is a migrant bird.

Its feathers—pixels—are ruffled by compression winds.

It crosses borders carrying fragments of forgotten cinema.

While high-definition eagles perch in museums,

these small grey sparrows sing across unstable skies.

Retrograde：

First there was a blur on my screen, then a torrent link,

before that a lost archive, and earlier still a camera shutter.

Rewind further: a promise of high definition,

a belief that purity meant truth.

Now, the poor image flies backwards—from perfection to participation.

Surprises：

How fast it spreads!

And how tiny it looks!

Who would believe this smudged picture could speak louder than a film reel?

Yet it shouts across servers, pixels dancing like noise.

What clarity once revealed, compression now connects!

Reflection

Writing through Queneau’s forms turned Steyerl’s theory into practice.

Each variation repeats and distorts, performing what Steyerl (2009) calls “a copy in motion.”

Like Rock’s (1996) claim that design mediates rather than authors,

this translation shows how meaning survives through transformation.

The experiment demonstrates that degradation is also creation:

translation, like compression, shifts from ownership to communication.

Reference

Barthes, R. (1977) Image, Music, Text. Translated by S. Heath. London: Fontana Press.

Queneau, R. (1998) Exercises in Style. Translated by B. Wright. Richmond: Alma Classics.

Rock, M. (1996) ‘The Designer as Author’, Eye Magazine, 20(5), pp. 44–53.

Sontag, S. (1966) Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Steyerl, H. (2009) ‘In Defense of the Poor Image’, e-flux journal, 10. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/(Accessed: 8 November 2025).

Week1

These two weeks have been about learning how to “rethink” — to reclassify and reframe things we usually take for granted.

In Week 1, I started with the Shipping Forecast. I collected ten days of forecasts, broke them down line by line, and analysed every descriptive word — moderate, rough, later, showers. I built spreadsheets, made charts, and studied the syntax as if I were a programmer or a scientist. It felt systematic but also a bit too rational. I often fall into this habit: treating design like research data and forgetting to use my designer’s eyes. I realised that while precision is valuable, I needed more imagination — something more visual, more speculative, more alive.

Week2

In Week 2, I tried to bring that creativity back. I asked my friends how they felt when hearing those forecast words and what actions they might take. Their answers were beautifully diverse: one thought rough sounded calm, another imagined a storm; later could mean ten minutes or half a day. So I decided to make a short video combining BBC’s forecast audio with my friends’ voices and animation. The video turned out to be less about weather and more about perception — how language becomes experience.

Working between Foucault’s theories and the everyday tone of weather reports made me see how cataloguing isn’t just an academic method — it’s a design tool. The Forecast organises nature through language, and I re-organised that language through human feeling.

For now, I’m happy that this project is helping me find a balance: between analysis and play, precision and intuition, order and uncertainty.

Inventory of the Preface — Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (1966)

This written response uses the Inventory method to look at Foucault’s Preface through five lenses: topic, key argument, citing arguments, text structure, visual & layout.

Instead of summarising the text, it lists and examines how Foucault’s writing itself produces both order and disorder, the very tension that defines his idea of knowledge.

1. Topic

Title	Function	Form
The Order of Things	Frames the book as an exploration of how systems of knowledge are organised.	Philosophical analysis presented through archaeological inquiry.
The Table	Serves as a central metaphor for the spatial organisation of thought.	Spatial and conceptual metaphor.
Language	Operates as the medium through which knowledge takes shape.	Dense and analytical writing style.
Man	Appears as a modern construct rather than a fixed truth.	Anthropological and historical reflection.

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2. Key Arguments

Concept Term	Explanation
Order	Describes how knowledge is organised by cultural frameworks rather than natural laws.
Language and Space	Writing structures perception, turning language into a visual and conceptual space.
Episteme	Refers to the underlying system that defines what can be known in a particular time.
Representation	Explains how thought depends on resemblance and analogy.
Discontinuity	Suggests that modern knowledge arises through historical breaks rather than steady progress.

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3. Citing Arguments

Thinker	Borrowed Idea	Source
Borges, J. L.	His “Chinese encyclopaedia” illustrates the limits of classification.	Borges, J. L. (1998) ‘The analytical language of John Wilkins’, in Hurley, A. (ed. and trans.) Collected fictions. London: Penguin Classics.Borges， J. L. （1998）
Derrida, Jacques	The concept of différance, where meaning exists through difference and delay.	Derrida, J. (1995) Archive fever: a Freudian impression. Diacritics, 25(2).Derrida， J. （1995)
Mattern, Shannon	Knowledge systems are built on material and spatial infrastructures.	Mattern, S. (2014) ‘Library as infrastructure.’ Places Journal, June.Mattern， S. （2014）
Bracewell, Michael	Describes discomfort and instability as productive conditions.	Bracewell, M. (2001) The nineties. London: Fourth Estate.Bracewell， M. （2001）

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4. Text Structure

Motif	Description	Function
Laughter	Opens the text with a moment of disruption and reflection.	marks the emergence of a challenge to traditional ways of thinking.
Table	Represents the ordered space where ideas are arranged and compared.	Acts as both foundation and point of disappearance for knowledge.
Language	Described as the final space in which knowledge survives.	Demonstrates that meaning depends on linguistic and cultural structures.
Man	Defined as “a face drawn in sand” at the edge of knowledge.	Represents the human subject as temporary and historically bound.
Order/Disorder	The tension between structure and collapse runs through the text.	Reflects the fragile balance between categorisation and chaos in thought.

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5. Visual & Layout

Feature	Analysis
Alphabetical enumeration (a–n)	The typographic listing creates the illusion of control while revealing the arbitrariness of categories.
Long paragraphs and dense syntax	The visual density reflects the complex and layered nature of Foucault’s argument, where reading becomes an act of analysis.
Parentheses and interruptions	Break the flow of argument and create small reflective spaces inside the text.
Repetition of motifs	Recurring ideas such as “table” and “order” build rhythm and reinforce key themes.
Spatial metaphors (“table”, “grid”, “surface”)	The text uses visual and spatial language to describe how knowledge is organised.

In conclusion, this inventory reveals how Foucault’s Preface operates between the visible and the invisible—between what can be organised and what continually escapes organisation.

By listing the text’s components, the method of cataloguing makes form and content visible as interdependent structures: grammar shapes meaning just as layout produces thought.

Yet every act of ordering also exposes what cannot be contained—the gaps, repetitions, and silences that resist classification.

Through this tension, both Foucault’s writing and this inventory show that knowledge is never simply seen or said, but negotiated between what appears and what remains unseen.

References

Anderson, B. (2006) Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso.

Borges, J. L. (1998) ‘The analytical language of John Wilkins’, in Hurley, A. (ed. and trans.) Collected fictions. London: Penguin Classics.

Bracewell, M. (2001) The nineties. London: Fourth Estate.

Derrida, J. (1995) ‘Archive fever: a Freudian impression’, Diacritics, 25(2), pp. 9–63.

Foucault, M. (1989) The order of things: an archaeology of the human sciences. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith. London: Routledge. (Originally published in French as Les mots et les choses, 1966).

Mattern, S. (2014) ‘Library as infrastructure’, Places Journal, June. Available at: https://placesjournal.org/article/library-as-infrastructure/ (Accessed: 28 October 2025).

Shared Orders

Blog 1 — First Observation

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Last Monday I finally decided to work on the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. I spent one hour sitting by the Round Pond, just watching. Swans, ducks, and gulls moved across the water while people ran, fed birds, or took photos. It felt peaceful but full of tiny movements — like a quiet system I didn’t understand yet.
Blog 2 — Recording Methods

I used photos, notes, and sound to capture what I saw.
Writing the time helped me notice patterns — who came when, who stayed longer.
It was strange how routine everything felt, even chaos had rhythm.
Blog 3 — First Findings
After reviewing the notes, I started seeing invisible borders.
People and birds rarely crossed each other’s space.
Only feeding moments broke that separation — short, messy, and alive.
Blog 4 — Mapping Behaviour
I drew lines showing movement — swans circling, joggers looping, ducks queueing.
It looked like choreography.
Maybe the pond is a stage where everyone repeats their own role.
Blog 5 — Boundaries
I identified three types of boundaries: physical, behavioural, and temporal.
They overlap, creating balance in the space.
It changes constantly — fragile but stable at the same time.
Blog 6 — Visual Outcomes
I created three hand-drawn posters, each showing one kind of boundary.
Orange marks show where humans and birds meet.
The drawings are not just data — they feel like a diary of observation.
Blog 7 — Reflection
Through this project I learned to slow down and really look.
Everyday life hides its own logic if we pay attention.
The Round Pond became a mirror — showing how we share space, quietly, with others.
Written Response – Round Pond Investigation
My investigation at the Round Pond began with simple observation — watching how humans and birds share one space through their everyday actions. I spent an hour taking notes, photos, and recordings of movements, gestures, and sounds. From this, I discovered three types of boundaries that shape the pond: physical, behavioural, and temporal. These small, ordinary patterns became a way to understand how a place holds its own social order.
The first reading that connects closely to my work is Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (1975). Perec’s process of observing a public square through time inspired the way I approached the Round Pond. His method is not about finding something extraordinary but about paying attention to what usually goes unnoticed — the slow rhythms of everyday life. I followed a similar approach: sitting still, watching, and writing down what happens. Both of us use repetition and time as a way of thinking, turning small fragments of observation into knowledge about space. While Perec works through language, I used visual forms — hand-drawn diagrams and charts — to map these rhythms. My drawings are a translation of his textual method into a visual one, transforming observation into something that can be seen and felt at the same time.
The second reading I found meaningful is Diane Borsato’s Olfactory Mapping (2007). In her project, she maps a city through smell, showing that knowledge of place can come from sensory experience rather than only from sight. This connects to my own work in form and intention. Like Borsato, I wanted to use my body as part of the research process — to observe through feeling, not just measuring. My hand-drawn style carries traces of that personal perception. It makes the data emotional, imperfect, and alive. Both Borsato’s and my projects shift away from objective documentation and move towards a more embodied way of knowing — where the act of observing is also an act of connecting.
Through these two readings, I realised that writing and drawing can both be forms of investigation. They are not only tools to record but also to think and sense. Observation, when done slowly and attentively, becomes a kind of knowledge-making. My Round Pond study continues this conversation — between text and image, between human and non-human, and between the ordinary and the poetic.

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