OLD & NEW
by Cátia and Tiago
This photo shows old buildings at close, and new buildings at long distance. It confronts the viewer with his/her notions of Old and New. But the photo also speaks its “mind”… through its composition.
The New, though far, can be seen by its neon light ads – it’s appealing, sophisticated, provocative.
The Old, privileged in more than ¾ of the shot, is characterized as decadent – closed and abandoned. It reflects the general attitude towards the old. Youngsters despise old people’s advices. No way a wealthy kid’s gonna play in a 5-year-old computer, or use a 2-year-old cell phone. New houses built every day, enlarging already large cities, and lots of beautiful old buildings just seem to get… older.
People don’t care much about preservation, only innovation and investment, unless it pays. Well, the government should pay or make it profitable for people to preservate and restore. The market is so concerned about the new, that they passed the useful new and began creating all those ridiculously new products.
We think one should have the mind set on the present with a critic thought of the “new”, but also knowing there’s a lot to learn from the past. Just by learning anything from the past, we’re already enduring it. And only then, can we innovate.
1 comment:
Cátia and Tiago, you've got a point but we have to agree in one thing: nowadays people are starting to worry about preservation much more than before. I'll talk about Lisbon and it's people 'cause that's what I know best to speak of. There are city programs working on old and traditional buildings. In some places that's just not possible, you know... some buildings got to an extreme point with no turning back and in that cases the only choice is to get them demolished and build another one (I would say plant trees, but as we know, they think about stone and steel first). Lisbon is a city with a long ong history and only "now" they realized how tipical the really tight streets with old fashioned building fronts and clothes hanging in front of each window are Portuguese. They're working slow but if you check some interest places inside the tipical Lisbon neighbourhoods, the City is investing on restoring! Private entities, on the other hand, exploit the old appartments till they fall appart and then they think about doing something.
About the cell phone and computer, I'm not rich but that doesn't mean I can't afford a new computer or a 3G phone but my pc is almos 7 years old and my cell phone is a cheap one and a half generation. Ok, I must confess I am thinking about getting a new computer (due to memory issues...) but I believe that
there are lots of people that like old things and don't trow 'em away just because they're old and there's a new and better one in the market... If it still works, why not using it?
P.S.: About the old buildings again, I believe that Portugal is behind the rest of the Europe in many things. Protecting our Culture is one of those things and our old buildings are surely part of who we are. We are starting to learn...I hope...
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