K11 and Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF) are delighted to present ][Liminal][, an innovative digital art exhibition by the winner of this year's Bloomberg Digital Arts Initiative. Hong Kong-based digital artist duo Kenny Wong and Marco De Mutiis uses swarms of quadcopters to force viewers to re-examine the surrounding space, or lack thereof, in their daily lives.
In recent years, quadcopters have continuously featured in headline news and TED talks. Inspired by the potential of quadcopters for encouraging community interactions and activism through art, Wong and Mutiis send swarms of quadcopters flying through Hong Kong over the summer. Programmed using open source code to mimic the city’s crowds, these quadcopters sense each other and fly in teams to occupy the in-between spaces of buildings, carparks and stairwells. Equipped with loudspeakers that emit amplified composed soundscapes and cameras that monitor motion, an eerie tense atmosphere is created, acting as a solemn reminder of our crowded daily existence.
At the exhibition running for three weeks only, the quadcopters’ flights through the city will be showcased through large video projections and installations. Narrow corridors will be filled with images and sounds of quadcopters and its mechanical parts. In a corner, quadcopters in flight will detect and imitate behaviours of crowds walking past in real-time, creating a tense sense of surveillance and intrusion. Two educational apps will be made available onsite via tablets, giving viewers greater behind-the-scenes insight. Schools tours will be available and the artists will run workshops throughout the weeks, sharing programming code to encourage participants to create their own works.
inDelighted emerging artists Kenny Wong and Marco De Mutiis said ‘][ Liminal ][ is not just where art meets technology, but it is an intervention of the public space. We hope to inspire communities to (re)explore unfamiliar places in the city they call home and to become more aware of their daily interactions with other people. We want to bring this technology to the mass, and to inspire them to use it to make their voices heard and creativity seen.’
HKYAF created the Bloomberg Emerging Artists Programme in 2007 to provide an artistic and community engagement platform for local emerging artists. In 2013, HKYAF and Bloomberg shifted the programme to the next level and launched the Bloomberg Digital Arts Initiative. This initiative aims to encourage artistic innovation and to develop new audiences for digital art in Hong Kong. It is an extension of a wider partnership focused on education and audiences for the arts in Asia. During a four-month arts residency which culminates in a debut solo exhibition, the selected artist(s) receives an artist fee of HK$50,000, art material budget amounting to HK$100,000 and professional support from the HKYAF team.
Wong’s first neuroscience-art work 10Hz received the Gold Award at the 16th Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards. De Mutiis’ works have been exhibited at Art HK and the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts. In April, these two recent City University of Hong Kong (Creative Media) graduates were unanimously selected amongst 70 applications as the winners of the Bloomberg Digital Arts Initiative 2013. They were hailed by the panel of judges for their creativity, innovative spirit and commitment towards inspiring young people to be experimental.
Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation Founder and Artistic Director Lindsey McAlister said, ‘We are very pleased to be working with two of Hong Kong’s most promising young artists, Kenny Wong and Marco De Mutiis. We would like to thank Bloomberg for their huge support in enabling us to create this unique platform, a place where we can further challenge and blur the boundaries between science, technology and the arts. We are sure this exhibition will ignite the imagination of all – young and old.’
