The Mass Ornament — Revisited: Hans Eijkelboom’s Photo Notes

Dieter Roelstraete looks at Hans Eijkelboom’s momentous photographic project of classification and documentation, Photo Notes, to argue for a humanism that staves off the fear of the same. By the time this issue of Afterall hits the newsstands, the Shanghai World Expo 2010, titled ‘Better City, Better Life’, will have been committed to memory, restoring the balance of power among China’s leading cities after the 2008 Olympic extravaganza thrust Beijing onto the world stage as a so-called ‘alpha world city’.