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ADS2: Demonic Shores – Imaginaries of Indeterminacy in the Age of Logistics

Emily Chooi

Emily is a spatial designer whose research focuses on the reclaiming of spaces that have suffered as a result of the need for consumption. At the RCA, Emily's work examines the intersection of indigenous communities, coloniality of power, and mapping of networks. Her personal practice is developing through multiple mediums including world-building animation, film, and hand drawing. Prior to the RCA, Emily completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Sheffield. She currently works at Grimshaw Architects and as a graphic designer for Colla Voce, an independent theatre company.

Her work in ADS2 plays within the illegitimate loopholes to disrupt existing logistical systems and reclaim the means of production. The project necessitates a new supply chain that focuses on acts of care for both this life and the afterlife.

Her previous research in ADS8 titled Symphony in the Sea, focused on the ever-increasing human presence in oceans acoustically bleaching the soundscape of marine species. Investigating the anthropogenic effects and how humans have polluted the senses of marine species for their own gain. Emily proposed a network assisting non-human life forms to resist or coexist with the threat of a deepwater port. So that, if or when the harbour is built and their environment is compromised, they are not fully displaced. The project was shortlisted for the RIBA West Award, featured in the Het Nieuwe Instituut x TU Delft 'Repositioning Architecture in the Digital' Conference, and Cosa Mentale 'Dixit' magazine.

Emily Chooi

A Counterfeit Cooperative: Operating in a Textile Glitch

How can the oppressed garment worker resist the restrictions that containerisation places upon them and seek to go beyond purely modes of production towards acts of care?

How can the supply chain of the garment be disrupted, re-created or reclaimed to give ownership back to those who crafted it?

The spatial proposition lies within the slippery space between original and counterfeit, illegal and legal, consumer and the producer, life and afterlife. Departing from intense labour systems within the garment industry towards an infrastructure for everyday rituals of celebration fused with community cohesion. Reimagining the glitch of the ‘counterfeit’ interprets brands as a form of resistance to fracture the idea of exclusivity. Operating in an alternative logic of the handicraft village - where residents reclaim agency over their labour. Yielding a new supply chain gives opportunity for other points of delivery and distribution. That reimagined supply chain necessitates a new workspace that goes beyond purely modes of production and centres on acts of care. We only see the counterfeit through the lens of exploitation. Exploring its counter logic directs empowerment to the maker, giving ownership back to those who constructed it. 


Votive Papers — Recording of the culture behind burning votive offerings

"Children and grandchildren burn incense to invite their ancestors and belated parents on special occasions. Because we were made to believe that was the way to pay our respects and gratitude. We burn or send to our ancestors and belated parents depending on their lifestyle and necessities. If they liked to play football when they were alive, we burn a ball to them. Our father liked to play chess every day, so we burnt a set of chess for him so he could carry on playing. We also believe they send messages to us through dreams. We dreamt about our parents' house falling apart and they felt so cold, so we sent some warm clothing and a new house to them. Normally we dream about them before special occasions. Whatever your parents need, you send them, paper money, paper clothes, paper bags, and paper gold."

Medium:

Animation film
2 STREAMS OF COUNTERFEIT — They both coexist as products crafted within workshops in handicraft villages as part of the new supply chain. Overlapping realms of life in the contemporary fashion industry and needs in the afterlife. Redefining the boundaries of manufacturing emancipates the garment workers that are exploited as a colonial subject. A platform to contest existing oppressive conditions, this project seeks to orchestrate a network connecting multiple dimensions and various scales.

Beginning with the stratum of a single pair of hands - remaking the garment as a counterfeit leads to a large-scale logistical reconfiguration. What workshop space is the garment made in? How are materials and the finished product delivered, to whom, and how is it distributed? Reimagining the garment, the workshop, modes of delivery, and platforms of distribution. 

This project is placed within Vietnam, which holds one of the largest export garment manufacturing industries and is becoming more attractive to multinational companies due to cheaper labour and free trade agreements. From factory to bodies, our garments make journeys tens of thousands of miles in the process of production. 

The physical disconnect of dispersed management and labour perpetuates an emotive disconnect between those in charge and those employed. Someone somewhere bears the load of the whole system. These local-global tensions create logistical paradoxes that benefit consumers and captains of industry at the expense of labourer’s quality of life. 

Medium:

Film
COUNTERFEIT FOR LIFE
COUNTERFEIT FOR LIFE — Acting as an unauthorised collection of western commodities, the counterfeit for life emerges out of the mundane. Taking precedent from the fashion house collection of everyday capitalist chic with DHL and Ikea, this garment plays on the infamous Hermès Birkin bag. Leaning on the multiple uses of the name Hermes between the fashion house, the delivery company and the God of trade and thieves, it repurposes fashion excess and used delivery packaging to craft a copy of the Birkin bag.
COUNTERFEIT FOR AFTERLIFE
COUNTERFEIT FOR AFTERLIFE — The other counterfeit is an emblem, a ritualistic offering to connect with the dead and admired spirits. Within Vietnamese culture, the tradition is burning votive papers or hang ma to show respect to the dead. Acting as collective catharsis, the ritual ensures loved ones are cared for in the afterlife.

Within the intervention, there are two streams of counterfeit fashioned for different worlds. The counterfeit for life. A part of a line of counterfeits that get incorporated into existing chains of distribution. The counterfeit for the afterlife, a ritualistic offering.




Medium:

Stills from film
RESURGENCE OF HANDICRAFT VILLAGES — Animation Film

Currently, within the cities, the pace of production is constrained by conditions of formality. Engineered around cheap labour, material availability, and quotas to fill. Moving beyond these contingent restraints, this proposal operates in the handicraft village. Since the “Doi Moi” period in the 80s, craft villages have seen a resurgence due to market liberalisation. The proposed site of production is located amongst a cluster of three villages that specialise in sewing and are in the outskirts of Hanoi. Clusters of villages makeup craft co-operatives and are linked together along waterways transporting on boats between them. Recouping labour practices via a deployable, smaller-scale operation allows garment workers to pursue these casual relationships. Work is divided up and each village fulfills a stage of the production. Villages function as nodes within the supply chain, relying on one another for materials, skill, production space, and workforce. 

Belonging to the informal sector means employment is flexible and can easily adapt to market demands or conditions of production. Aware they need to modernise to access new markets, the villages took ownership of equipment, buying and reclaiming them to continue production at home. They often use found or recycled materials as opposed to resourcing raw materials, which could be too difficult or expensive to obtain. 

Medium:

Animation film
EXISTING HANDICRAFT VILLAGES IN 1930
EXISTING HANDICRAFT VILLAGES IN 1930
EXISTING HANDICRAFT VILLAGES IN 2006
EXISTING HANDICRAFT VILLAGES IN 2006
LOCATION OF PROPOSED COUNTEFEIT COOP
LOCATION OF PROPOSED COUNTEFEIT COOP
1 100 ROOF ON
1 100 ROOF ON
1 100 ROOF OFF
1 100 ROOF OFF
APPROACH TO SITE
APPROACH TO SITE — Picking up tools and materials from surrounding villages

Communities come together in the handicraft villages to perform ancient rituals celebrating ancestors, guardian spirits, or protective genies that helped them learn the craft. As a community of care, they look after the dead who still need material things in the afterlife. Rituals and festivals are held after the lunar new year and revolve around the ceremony of burning the imitation or the fake. They are burnt as offerings and the deceased receive them via smoke. 

Much like the revival of handicraft villages, festivals were also once seen as illegal activities in the 40s. The idea of the proposed counterfeit plays with notions of legality, the project seeks to define itself within these illegitimate loopholes.



Medium:

Stills from film
A NEW SPACE FOR PRODUCTION — Animation Film

Amongst the twists and turns of the river bed,  we trace the edges of the site to approach one of the many entrances of the workshop. A tectonic shift from constrained conditions of the factory settings to the freeing landscapes of craft. The skin of the workshop is left open to be malleable to the occupant. Vast structures billow over the ground that comes alive with the hands of creators. Life lived outside opens up possibilities for public cohesion. There has to be more to life than purely production. The workshop will be the backdrop to collaborate and socialise among makers - blurring boundaries between work, family time, and community.  Rather than part of the human conveyor belt, space shared allows for the sharing of lives. We see the workshop operating without the presence of bodies, where trails of life hinted at. The aesthetics are glitching into the other world as it is injected with celestial magic; an abstraction of boundaries between mortal and immortal worlds. A comment on the invisibility of labour - work is unseen, unnoticed and unacknowledged.  

Medium:

Animation
[untitled]
— Grinding on the ground to emulsify it into a paste
[untitled]
— Sieving to dilute in pools of water to form a pulp
[untitled]
— Drying out the liquid to solidify
[untitled]
— Rolling out the residual liquid into a sheet
[untitled]
— Large dining tables are animated with food shared in the middle, except for individual bowls of rice
[untitled]
— Stools are the scattered props to cater to a transitory workshop space

The space vibrates from the rhythm of makers, the sporadic pulsing of crafting instead of the humdrum tones of producing. Breaking down the fibres of the harvested fashion waste and excess, extracting the found materials as they are refined into recycled paper.



Medium:

Stills from film
COUNTERFEIT FOR LIFE — Video of counterfeit for life
COUNTERFEIT FOR LIFE
COUNTERFEIT FOR LIFE — The counterfeit for life. Patchworks of leftover fabric and used packaging. Our consumerist excess is repurposed with each design being different from the last. Collected fragments are woven with hands and abstracted into entire products.
MODE OF DELIVERY// MOTORBIKE
MODE OF DELIVERY// MOTORBIKE — A low-tech container that facilitates the delivery of material and scraps from the city to villages, and in return counterfeits from the villages to the city. Transitioning through space, the container box shifts from storage, to the back of a motorcycle and to a final destination to be sold. The motorbike connects the contemporary counterfeit made in the villages to a wider system of the city and beyond. The box acts as a mode of delivery and display.
TECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORM //WEBSITE
TECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORM //WEBSITE — As these villages are receptive to machines’ proliferation, the proposal uses a technological platform to widely distribute the counterfeit. In the form of a website, it will act as the interface between maker and consumer: the point of contact to access insights into the supply chain and inspect the feedback loop of suppliers and delivery times. It moves consumers beyond the immediacy of consumption to understand the experience of how the counterfeits are made and used.

Acting as an unauthorised collection of western commodities, the counterfeit for life emerges out of the mundane. Taking precedent from the fashion house collection of everyday capitalist chic with DHL and Ikea, this garment plays on the infamous Hermès Birkin bag. Leaning on the multiple uses of the name Hermes between the fashion house, the delivery company, and the God of trade and thieves, it repurposes fashion excess and used delivery packaging to craft a copy of the Birkin bag. Using the language of mimicry and the unauthorised in the glitch of the counterfeit to disrupt existing supply chains. Rather than a by-product of faceless factory figures, garments are given their own identity and rebuilt through creative modifications. Concoctions become so departed from the original, it overcomes the definition of copy and the mutated variation assumes originals of their own.

Medium:

Animation film, Stills from film
COUNTERFEIT FOR THE AFTERLIFE — Video of counterfeit for afterlife
COUNTERFEIT FOR THE AFTERLIFE
COUNTERFEIT FOR THE AFTERLIFE — The counterfeit for the afterlife. A medley of broken-down paper packaging is mutated into something of beauty. A gift for the ancestors who still require luxury amongst necessity.
DELIVERY MODE// FISHING BOAT
DELIVERY MODE// FISHING BOAT — By moving away from strictly productive relations and focusing on community, there can be more importance placed on care and lifestyle. Boats not only operate as the distribution mode between villages but line the waterways exchanging goods and dialogue. A culture of floating markets making use of the waterways as a way of transport but also as a means to do business.
DISTRIBUTION NODE//OVEN
DISTRIBUTION NODE//OVEN — In the violent erasure of material offerings, we find solace and are relieved of ancestry guilt. Crafted as presents in the present and burnt as material offerings for the past. Flames dance uncontrollably but contained in the oven, augmenting the gifts into another realm, the otherworldly. Its lack of infrastructure is personalised through the containment of family's stories providing for the dead. The facets of the oven becoming singed with the remnant layers of the offerings.

The other counterfeit is an emblem, a ritualistic offering to connect with the dead and admired spirits. Within Vietnamese culture, the tradition is burning votive papers or hang ma to show respect to the dead. Acting as collective catharsis,  the ritual ensures loved ones are cared for in the afterlife. The spiritual realm is seen to be equal to this life and is not free of materialistic goods. Many families create life after death, constructing imitations as votive offerings including modern houses, clothes, jewellery, bags and currency. The current industry burns large quantities of this paper emitting a cocktail of harmful substances because of the nature of printed ink and plastic. By reusing paper packaging and breaking it down into pulp form to then be fashioned into a crafted offering, contests current levels of sustainability in this industry.


Medium:

Animation film, Stills from film
BURNING OF VOTIVE BAG
COLLAGE OF SPACES — Summary Video
FULL PRESENTATION VIDEO
PORTFOLIO

So in the glitch of the counterfeit, there is a reconfiguration of the supply chain. Supporting villages and garment workers to reclaim agency over their labour. It is an infrastructure to support already existing processes, allowing makers to come together and overlap aspects of all life. The intervention’s programmatic incompleteness allows for the unpredictable and leaves room for inhabitants to shape it. Acting as infinite nodes within a network allows for the continuous growth of other links and logistics.


Medium:

Animation film, Portfolio