Home Set — uni verse

Uni Verse,

a small poem

一

“一” in Chinese means one, simply one stroke.
I have always been wondering, when Cang’jie (仓颉, the ancient legendary figure who invented Chinese characters by observing the traces from earth and sky) invented the characters, what the first stroke was like. The one, “一”, was it from the horizon （經）? A tree trunk （莖）, a tibia bone （脛）, or a white horse vanishing into the night （徑）... Ancient people’s urge to encompass the universe in strokes surrenders me, and this is why the English title is “Uni Verse”, letting uni verse take on the appearance of the universe.

一是生发之前，也是未竟之整体。
“一”字，出发前须回，逆锋回顾，切笔，再中锋徐行一横，结束之前提笔，再顿挫回锋收笔，身去而复回。整个行笔路径，循环往复，周而复始，在儿时就听闻，直到在山山水水间走过，才意识到其中一二深意，这也是这本浮光掠影之书名字的由来。

Trailscape: Exile and Home-coming

Pilgrimage Trailscape in Upstate New York

The notion of trailscape allows us to see the trail not only as the infrastructure to get to the points of interest, but also to see it as a creative articulation of space and time, a physical and cultural remain of walking that enables the locals to expand their regional knowledge through an intimate relationship with the seasonal changes of the local ecology. The constellation of healed spaces and the paths in between the focal points together form a trailscape which itself is a mobility heritage. This embeds a notion of heritage into the landscape, as the paths are defined by the places along them which synthesize nature healing and spirituality. The trailscape is a mobility heritage, not only because the pilgrims and hikers articulate a physical trajectory which is informed by the acts of restoration, but also it forms an ever-evolving topography over time.

Collaboration: Yuli Wang 王雨力, Christopher Scheu and Mingyue Zhang in Prof. Ziad Jamaleddine ‘s studio at GSAPP, Columbia University.