First Impression of Girona, Group 8, MELODY s3672080 and GRACE s3574544

Melody:
According to the reading, technology speed up the development of media and communication the last half century has dominant daily experience of the general public. In this media age, one can have various ways to understand the culture heritage of a country that he/she has never visited. Among all the choices, cinema is perhaps the most accessible and enjoyable one to me. Generations of filmmakers from across the world have put their view on European/Spanish culture into works of cinematic art. Those European themed movies also gained more recognition in the last century, which makes me more excited to see the pieces for exchange learning in this course. Personally, I’ve heard very few things about Girona, but I heard some parts of Game of thrones is filmed there. Considering my travel as experiences, my overall impression of cities in Europe is the views are dedicated for its history. Some cities are similar yet unique, ancient but not old-fashioned. Social contradiction could possibly occur through technological transformation from “the city to private dwelling.” I know that Girona is a small city in Spain. There must be many private secret spots in a city that’s amazing for weekend hide-always. To unfold from my imagination, one of the very first thing that comes to my mind is the historic colorful architecture. It occurs to me my impression of Rome. I love Rome so much when I visited there. But I consider Rome a lot more like a tourist destination, especially with the fame of the famous romantic comedy “Rome Holiday”. My impression of Europe cities became personal once I visited. I realize about things like roads in major cities are narrow and hard to drive for beginners, even residences. I believe the beauty of Girona will provide unique perspective as a smaller city. I certainly hope more cinematic piece will be produced to introduce more destinations all over the world. Furthermore, I believe language is a big part of culture in a country. Since Spanish is a language also speak by Mexicans on the other side of the world. Spanish has adopted hundreds of English words and influenced by Arabic. The proliferation of Spanish as an adopted language, soI could imagine the original culture of the birth place of the language to be very accepting and diverse.

Grace:
Girona… Spain. I reach out to the recesses of my mind, patting around in search for fragments of an unfamiliar city. Sorting through the document folders of my subconscious, I “Command + F” my way around this living, breathing CPU of a brain. I find an embedded link and click open it; a window pops up on my mental screen. My memory plays a familiar scene: a little girl sits on the living room floor, eyes glued to the television. I am watching a younger me but what is she watching? My mind’s eye adjusts its focus on the TV screen and expose the actors’ faces. Oh, it’s an S Club 7 movie! Remember that song? “I never had a dream come true, till the day that I found-” Barcelona. Ah yes, yesterday’s pop stars were filming their movie in Barcelona, Spain.

The TV has now frozen on a shot of a large winding staircase: Tina (or was it Rachel? Bradley?) stands on a concrete landing with a hand on the white banister. Well, this is not very informative about Spain. I will the film to zoom out. Alas, the image stays frozen. I close this search window.

What is Spain like? Another window pops up: this time, my even-younger self is watching something else: a telenovela. A pair of girls switched at birth — the accidental princess and the pauper — stand on a staircase in a mansion. Ha! Another staircase. Hold up, is this Spanish America or Spanish Europe? Question. Would the Brazilian samba be relevant to Spain or Girona? I close this window too.

Let’s try a different vantage point, a different keyword. Girona, Spain… Spanish people — multiple windows suddenly surface, of Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem: these ambassadors of tanned skin, dignified posture and perfume meet at the Cannes Film Festival. What fine examples of the Bourgeois! Are they fine examples of Spain?

I open images of landscape. Does Girona have untidy rows of sand-coloured houses like its neighbour, Morocco? Perhaps, it presents a backdrop of urban city lights that outline banks, malls and apartments like Paris. Would they have heritage buildings which celebrate Ottoman domes, Greek pillars or Gothic arches? Would the wind waft in the smell of the ocean, trees or spice?

My mind attempts to map a web, a mosaic of Girona, by piecing together fuzzy idea-images of other places, people, food and sound.

“[A]ll phenomena must be observed from somewhere… every point of observation is connected to innumerable others.”
- McQuire (2008) on Nietzsche’s (1998) ‘perspectivism’ (pp.17)

Mcquire reads the media space as a constellation of information (pp.16). We form relationships by drawing a connection from one point to another. He explains that digital media lacks a ‘centre’; rather than a concentric space for knowledge, it is an interlinked web of information. Without a tangible ‘centre’ of origin I can access, I am left with only one option: my self. My body is the most concrete city that centres the mind, where knowledge is collected, sorted and linked; in this way, I mediate my lived experience in/of Melbourne (and other cities visited) and an imagined experience in/of Girona; through this mediation, this relating of space and information, I create new relationships and knowledge.

Mcquire, S 2008, ‘Introduction: The Uncanny Home’, The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space, pp. 1–21.