HK switches on to new idea of electronically created art
THERE are those who will no doubt feel that there is a contradiction inherent in an exhibition that calls itself 'Art and Electronics'.
Whatever art may be it, is not supposed to have much in common with science, engineering, mathematics or anything else that may depend on logic or machines.
Art for many must be inspired by feelings, emotions, creativity and a host of other values that cannot - indeed, should not - be quantified by science.
This view of art is certainly a very old view and even if it is not yet dead, it is on its way out, to be replaced with new ideas that will certainly shock and possibly offend some of the old-timers.
This new form of art is not so much 'art and electronics' as 'art by electronics'.
Last Thursday, Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang pressed a button and started the 'Art and Electronics' Exhibition at the Arts Centre.
The exhibition is part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival and is being coordinated by the Goethe-Institut.
The works that can be seen are mainly from Europe but with a couple of local artists or locals who now work abroad. For many who think that a computer is only important if you want to re-calculate your latest Excel spread sheet, this exhibition is a must.
If the Macintosh is the king of the publishing world, then Silicon Graphics International (SGI) is surely the king of the artistic one.
The machines that SGI has to offer can create Jurassic Park dinosaurs for Steven Spielberg and can let Tom Hanks shake John Kennedy's hand in Forrest Gump.
But they can also create the kind of work done by Carvien Shiu.
Shiu has an entire room to herself for Coniunx, an interactive that combines computer graphics with input from a camera on top of the Arts Centre that pans across the Hong Kong skyline and another camera that takes 'shadow' pictures of people in the room.
She has also added some twists to her exhibit by 'reading' the amount of sound generated in the room.
All of this is combined and displayed on a large screen that takes up one wall of the room.
The entire piece runs in real time with the graphic images coming from SoftImage's Creative Environment. (Microsoft recently bought SoftImage so you can see how seriously they are taking this subject).
As Dr Ewe Nitschke, the director of the Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong, said in his opening remarks, this is the first time an exhibition of this scale - there are 25 artists and 26 sponsors - has been held in Hong Kong or Asia.
The exhibition takes up the fourth, fifth and 14th floors at the Arts Centre and the Goethe-Institut.
It is obvious 'electronic art' is still in its infancy, and some of the work is rather simple and self-conscious. Nevertheless, the world of digital art is not only here to stay, it may well be the main form of artistic endeavour for the future.
Even in the world of creative art, computers mean business.
