Found in 1996, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival is one of the pioneering festivals of this kind both in Asia and internationally. Since 2006, we have begun a grand re-branding with strengthened curatorial direction and new attempts in professional collaboration to engage the city in appreciating media art and facilitating individual artists to develop new works through our curated programmes.
In 2010, Microwave curated the festival with the theme of “Screenacadia” to arouse the interest of general public for the issue of screen culture, by bringing 6 international artworks to the festival. We have also marked unprecedented success on our festival programmes with the support of different local and foreign companies and organizations. The collaboration with Duncan Speakman (UK) on a live-movie performance “as if it were the last time - subtlemob” was a big success, over 700 people participated. All the programmes, included Main Exhibition, Project Room Exhibition, Conference and Artist Symposium, brought Microwave into the City, and serve as a great step to the new media art reception in Hong Kong. Over 10,000 visitors visited the festival, making a well-visited and participated festival.
By approaching Microwave’s 15th anniversary, we decided to make a step to challenge the traditional curatorial practice through giving up Artist as unit, but bringing the idea of “Lab as Creative Generator” concept to the public. Based on the observation and experience we gained in the previous projects and media art festivals, it is no doubt that the blending of technology and art is influencing the development of media art. And Lab as a physical space or hub to provide the best incubator for artists, scientists, and talents from other sectors to crossover and produces cutting-edge ideas and works. In the main exhibition, the labs and artworks selected are help pushing the technical limits and the very boundaries of concept, style and imagination. The representatives from the selected labs are all international well-claimed scholars and art practitioners. The common thread in the selected labs and works proposed below is all Inspirations from scientific theories or phenomena expressed in new and unexpected ways. Our main exhibition space in Hong Kong City Hall will be transformed into a multi-disciplinary laboratory, which gathering 6 outstanding media labs in the world to showcase cutting-edge technology and art project, and illustrates the power of collaboration between talents from various sectors.
The Festival includes two exhibitions (main exhibition at Hong Kong City Hall, satellite show at Hong Kong Design Institute), screening showcase at Hong Kong Film Archive, a keynote conference (co-organized with Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre Grand Opening Festival), and a series of artist workshops/seminars, screening sessions and outreach educational programmes. The representatives of the invited media labs are invited to present their works and share their creative experience with the audience.
Participating artists: etoy. CORPORATION（Switzerland）、Lighthouse（UK）、robotlab（Germany）、Swiss AIL（Switzerland）、Time's Up（Austria）及 UCLA Art|Sci Center（USA）
