水塔—誰的水景？誰的地方？

Abstract

供給著人們每日生活所需，今日的水塔位在生活中的邊緣；曾為台灣百姓所崇敬的新科技代表，今日的水塔是自來水部門極欲汰換的老骨頭；那一端引自杳無人跡的自然水源地，水塔的這端連繫著都市的文明；乍看下是座誘人一登究竟的巨塔，其實是不容攀爬居住的水塔；幾十寒暑鑄成的歷史蒼勁，不敵資本開發的韃伐。本論文所探討的社區老貯水塔本身寓意錯綜，其一塔分飾多角，且角色間對照尖銳，如同一超現實的存在，然而擁有這般超現實本質的水塔，在日常生活的展現卻再平凡不過。若沒有藝術家將其寓意轉譯，常民眼中的水塔究竟是什麼模樣？本論文援引人文地理學所探討的地方理論─以認同感定義貫串的「空間、地景、地方」之空間認知架構，來界定並串接兩個社區水塔案例所牽涉之族群心像。台北的華江社區水塔與高雄的灣愛社區水塔同屬民國六零年代產物，在技術與機能上並無差距，但今日卻面臨一個恐將拆除、一個被升格為地標的迥異處境。社區居民、水塔維護管理者、都市的漫遊者以及什麼都不是的過路人，各自循著生活領域的勾連，異化或分享著一份認知與認同。認知的切入點決定了「地景」的樣貌，而認同的深淺決定了水塔僅是一個「空間」或是一處「地方」。不同的認知來自不同的生活架構，不同的生活架構建自不同的絕對空間，但身居異地的人卻能共享一分認同，而同處一地的人也可能各自懷抱相異的認同。水塔，集結著不同的認知與認同，身為一個實體空間的定點，但卻是群體意識中流動隨安的地方。

Water Towers in Taiwan are of the surrealistic essentiality as playing many contradictory roles in our daily life. The aim of this thesis is to examine the mutually constructive relationship between water towers and people in the aspect of identity. That is to explore what images are reflected from people of different relationships to water tower and how these images are formed and affected by their self-identities and perception. Based on in-depth interviews of 15 habitants from two aged water tower communities, one photograph journalist, one community organizer and two elder staff of piped water business, the analysis showed that one single object such as the water tower can possess many different identities due to dissimilar approaches. On the contrary, it also revealed that people living in different places can share similar senses of one place by cultivating the same identity. As a result, their interaction with water towers is more influenced by the recognition of these structures’ indispensabilities of varied aspects of life. This realization is gained through daily life practices and education, which can be referred to the identity of a place.