Image Courtesy of Invention & Intervention
For a very long time (from the 1970s until the early 2000s), Hong Kong was profoundly successful in the film, design and other creative industries—more so than any other Chinese city. This was largely a byproduct of British colonialism, which actually gave Hong Kong a rather open and peaceful cultural environment. In many ways, Hong Kong culture influenced the Chinese generation of the 80s—we still remember the time when Cantopop and HK films were the main source of the mainland’s entertainment throughout the 80s and 90s.
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Today, the Chinese mainland has picked up the pace both economically and artistically, undergoing more development and quite possibly brewing more creative potential than Hong Kong. But since the transfer of sovereignty back in 1997, the city has been protected by the One Country, Two Systems legislation (instated by Deng Xiaoping), which allows the metropolis to maintain its democratic privileges. All this helps Hong Kong preserve its cultural characteristics, freedom of speech, and its strong connection with the international scene. These factors, together with the peculiar peninsular cultural background, nourishes local creativity, and allows new media artists to work in a more open society, and be exposed to the latest in-depth information and technology.
An exhibition celebrating these artists, Intention & Intervention, opens tomorrow and will showcase a series of local new media talent. The Creators Project spoke with Joel Kwong, a curator specializing in new media art and the Program Director of the Hong Kong-based Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, about the show and the HK new media art scene.
How did the curatorial theme of Invention & Intervention come about? How does it relate to today’s society?
Joel: Invention & Intervention represents the nature of new media art, and is co-curated by Ellen Pau and myself. The original idea came from Ellen, she is an important figure from the first generation of new media/video artists in Hong Kong.
Invention & Intervention epitomizes the role of new media art in our lives nowadays. Technology itself is an invention, which intervenes with our perception of the world. New media art represents the best blend of technology and creativity, which has rapidly grown based on the principles of invention and intervention. Historically, Hong Kong has been particularly innovative in promoting new media art: the Microwave Festival started years before new media art began gaining the attention of press. The Hong Kong new media art scene began in 1979, after the first new media art exhibition, and it has continued to grow, spurred by independent non-profits art space like Videotage, with government funding from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
Hong Kong’s annual Microwave International New Media Arts Festival was established in 1996, and it has become one of Asia’s most important new media arts festivals. The Hong Kong new media art scene is getting more mature, as the number of tertiary institutes organizing courses related media art, cultural management and curatorial practices are providing many opportunities for the public to engage in media arts. At the same time, many young artists are reaching new creative heights through participating in regional and international art events.
The exhibiting artists [in Invention & Intervention] are—Miu Ling Lam, Chris Honhim Cheung, Keith Lam, Samson Young and Teddy Lo. They are the foremost young new media artists in Hong Kong. They have participated in many international shows like Shanghai eArts Festival, ARS Electronica in Linz, FILE in Brazil, 404 Festival in Taiwan, Luminale in Frankfurt, etc. I think it’s time to build a larger stage to continue inspiring them to create innovative works. This exhibition is a perfect opportunity for these artists to spotlight their works and gain recognition from the public and international art community.
In this project, they are featured as the rising stars in the art world and the quality and concept of their works are guaranteed to bring Hong Kong art acclaim and improve its reputation.
What are the highlights that we can expect from the show?
All the programs aim to construct a full picture of the curatorial theme. Works include Honhim Cheung‘s new commission work by HKADC, other artist’s new work and new versions of existing work. It will definitely bring a refreshing vision to the general public.
Artist Symposium—the artists will share their creative process, and their views on the HK new media art community. It serves an in-depth session for interested parties to learn more about their artworks.
Sense Live!—A cross-disciplinary performance. The artists will mix modern/ballet/contemporary dancers to perform five sessions of performance regarding to the body, nature, meditation, signals, data and mobile technology. It’s inspired by our daily lives and the signals around—e.g. brainwaves, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi etc.
We also designed an iPhone app to promote the project, featuring artist interviews—this will help the audience to gain an in-depth understanding.
Can you talk more about the artist selection? What are some shared essences that push their works together?
We are aiming to have the project be a showcase of HK new media artists. The participating artists show different strengths in new media, and they come from different backgrounds and artist paths. I will explain each artist in detail:
Keith Lam at an Urban Invader lecture
Keith Lam is the award-winning candidate of ARS Electronica 2008, with his first kinetic work Moving Mario (commissioned by Microwave Festival 2007). He was educated in HK, and studied in the States for a while, which was the starting point of his artist career. He recognized an interesting art form that blends art with technology. In recent years, he’s started exploring more data visualization, and established a series of artwork named Urban Invader. He will show the third edition from the Urban Invader series in the exhibition. It is a kinetic sculpture that reacts to invisible data signals around us. The artwork completes the idea of how data and invisible signals around us morph our society (intervention).
Samson Young: Machines for Making Nothing #1: Triumph of the Spectacle (2011)
Samson Young has a background in classical music training, and he is interested in engineering, mechanics, game culture and human behavior. He illustrates how strong media artists use their magic hands to blend various elements into their work. He grew up in HK, went to Australia to study when he was 16, continually receiving professional music education—he is actually a self-taught artist. Machines for Making Nothing, illustrates how technology uses basic seductive responses to attract human attention, providing feedback to the machine itself for making meaningless reaction loops.
Miu Ling Lam: Streaming Nature
Miu Ling Lam researches physical computing and mobile technology at ULCA. Her work Streaming Nature allows you to pick a place/city, and listen to its live soundscape. This is a good example of invention, not only morphing a city’s landscape and human behavior, but intervening in our immediate environment as well.
Teddy Lo
Teddy Lo is an outstanding LED artist. After receiving his tertiary education (BA and MA) abroad, he is now based in HK, exploring his artist career as well as a lighting design business. His participating work completes the angle of how invention intervenes in our daily lives in soft ways, like screens on the street, public transport stations etc. He will show another large scale work, Mega POV, at the Sense Live! concert.
Chris Honhim Cheung
Last but not least, Chris Honhim Cheung is the commissioned artist for this project. He was raised in Hong Kong and graduated from the School of Creative Media, City University, who received the Young Artist Award from HKADC this year. He’s a 100% HK-groomed media artist. He’s concerned with the local culture, social movement and human behavior. This commissioned work is an interactive installation which focuses on handwriting. He intends to make the audience think about the culture of handwriting and its evolution as technology has seamlessly blended into our lives.
You are an experienced curator with a specific interest in the new media field. How did you become interested in this medium?
I was working as an intern in the summers of my second and third years in college. I started learning about video art and media art during that time. Ellen Pau is definitely been a mentor of mine. She is a self-taught artist with great strength and vision, and founded Videotage and Microwave. I start working at Microwave as project manager in 2006, and start meeting and working with local and international artists and curators, who I learnt a lot from. I always believe that technology, science and art are important elements to blend into one. It can make our society grow and become a better world.
The presentation of new media art and the artist’s approach are often controversial topics for art critics. What do you think about this? Did you ever try to define today’s new media art? What is the difference between a new media artwork and an interactive video game?
Being controversial is good. Reviewing the history of new media art created new ideas of how we make art, how we see art, how we perceive art. It integrates several important disciplines to create its own form, and evolves in various forms to intervene in our lives. New media art is an unstable media, it goes with the flow of technology and science development. I guess no one can absolutely define what is it because it is evolving every day, it’s an art form about the moment, that’s why it is so difficult to be archived.
There is always a grey zone in between art and design. Given the example of device art by Maywa Denki, lots of people question whether or not it’s art. They seem to be doing commercial design rather than art, but it is actually a concept for re-examining art/science/technology relationships, from both the contemporary and historical context. It involves the discussion of pop culture, entertainment and the integration of art and science. All of these wouldn’t happen in the context of an interactive video game. I curated a exhibition called Mario Viva, which posed the question of video games as art, inviting scholars around the world to discuss its historical development, to try and reach the consent of how elements in popular culture and game culture have been put in the context of art work.
Hong Kong is the Chinese city that stands out the most in the international new media arts scene. In your opinion, what should a city provide to artists in order to help their realize creative work?
Freedom. Lots of artists around the world and trying their best to get resources and opportunities. HK as a cosmopolitan city, allows us lots of freedom to express our free will. Apart from that, we can always find opportunities and support from around the work to make creative works and projects.
Do you have any interesting future project that can be shared with us now?
Microwave International New Media Arts Festival 2011 will take place in Hong Kong in November. It’s our 15th anniversary, and this year’s curatorial direction will be challenging the traditional way for curatorial practice. Also we would like to bring in a showcase of artworks and highlight practices from other cities. This will definitely be a show that’s not to be missed.
