The Garden of Forking Paths
TEAM: Poyun Chang, Taiwan, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
The Garden of Forking Paths / Museum As A Social Condenser
The Garden of Forking Paths refers to Jorge Luis Borges’ brilliant short story of the same name. The Garden of Forking Paths can be seen as a museum without serious exhibition spaces. But unlike any museums, people don’t need to worry about gaining education, studying seriously of the “exhibits” here; instead, it is a place to relax where people live their lives – going shopping, dinning with friends, dating with lovers, watching shows, exercising, and even parading… It extends people’s day-to-day use into the urban fabric, folding the museum into the citizen’s daily routines.
As if you are reading a novel or watching a movie, you will be exploring the meanings by every action made. The sense of mystery or even the sense of suspense is essential when you suspect seeing clues that might suggest stories behind. And the answer to those stories is full open to self-interpretation. The museum can perform as a graphic symbol of a city to be viewed or thought from varied perspectives, thus the city can have diverse histories and be fertilized by rich cultures. A city is uncertain – and uncertainty is a luxury that allows for 100 different parallel futures to coexist.