3 Days/Weeks To Go

Work has been extremely taxing these few weeks, more so for Compasso than for my individual work. Let me correct that, my individual work is nothing compared to Compasso. Maybe it's the stress caused from knowing its a competition, or maybe it's the depth of the scope we have to consider, but whatever it is, it's definitely a challenge and it's taking it's toll on all of us. Because I haven't really talked about it, I shall do so now, though it's a bit late and we're about to ship it out anytime now.

My group consists of myself, another guy and a girl. Because our initials are M, B and W, this makes us Team BMW. Meanwhile, our project is entitled The Hooker (courtesy of me) and focuses on how the vernacular of Macau can be extracted and portrayed in this development. Details are as follows:

FX1Monumentalisation
Along the stretch of road leading to our site, we found multiple landmarks that are often visited by tourists as historical sites. There is De Marques Square, St Francis Xavier's Chapel, Ponte Cais De Coloane (Pier), and our site, the abandoned shipyards. Interestingly enough, each of these places are marked by a monument at the front, which we initially thought represented historical events that happened in the place itself. Upon further studies of the monuments however, we realised that these monuments are not site specific but rather capture historical landmarks in Coloane that happen to be exemplified in these places.

The square was built to commemorate a Portuguese general who fought for the freedom of Macau at the UN. The monument at the square bore a Cherub, a symbol of the omnipresence of God, hence representing the religion which was left behind by the Portuguese in Coloane.
The site in front of St Francis Church bore witness to the overthrowing of the rule of pirates in 1910. The monument bore a laurel wreath at the top, which is a universal sign of victory, assumingly over the pirates.
The pier was once used as a means to ferry people in from mainland Macau. However, it's monument, a giant anchor, held greater significance to Coloane's entire maritime history as fishermen and ship builders.

Hence, the monument we will erect in front of our site will bear both signs of the shipyards as well as a link to a present phenomenon. The phenomenon we chose to focus on will be the simultaneous progress and decline of Coloane, seen by the progress of its people which greatly overshadows the progress of the island. This leads to idea of Coloane rooting its people back while they progress further away. Hence, our monument resembles a fountain with a half sunken ship (Coloane) hooked onto a pulley (can be seen in the shipyards) balanced on the other side by a pulling man.

Pardon if this post is boring but I'm about to drop to sleep anytime now and I have an early day tomorrow at the gym and SMU to continue work. Deadlines are fast catching up on our tails and the pace can't go quick enough. Now if only this sickening pain in my chest would stop, I'd be really grateful.