Event Guide: Detour Design Festival 2013

Since its humble beginnings in 2006, the Detour design festival has grown to be one of Hong Kong’s biggest cultural events, showcasing young and relatively unknown creative talents from Hong Kong and overseas. This year, Detour is on the move; with the help of four innovatively designed trams, it’s spreading across the city in pursuit of its theme: “From Microtopias to Social Innovation.”

Rhapsody on a Theme
It’s a concept even the curators had a hard time articulating when we asked what exactly it meant. The idea of “microtopias” is that instead of trying to achieve a utopia on a large scale, we should instead create mini-utopias in various domestic spaces and aspects of our lives—a concept that’s ideal for the tiny and crowded Hong Kong. “It is to believe your own capacity to change and act on your own surroundings,” says Alvin Yip, one of this year’s curators. “A celebration of diversity and the collective effort to create difference—and create good.” By creating these microtopias, we can improve and build on our own lives.

The “microtopia” theme is played out in various events across five different locations. Plateau 4 of the former Police Married Quarters will host the opening ceremony as well as a series of workshops, while Central Market’s Central Oasis will showcase graphic design, books and magazines. The Hennessy in Wan Chai’s Podium Garden makes use of its half-open, half-closed space to feature pop-up stores for young designers to sell their unique wares. Finally, the Oi! Complex in North Point hosts the closing ceremony and a fashion show curated by Six Lee, an up-and-coming fashion designer who recently made headlines for his contribution to the W Hong Kong’s 5th Anniversary party, as well as an art installation for Kee Club during Pink Season.

Making Tracks
The highlights of this year’s Detour, however, are the four repurposed trams that will connect these locations together. Curated by local designers Linny Sze and Alvin Yip, each tram is based around a specific, microtopian theme, and will run along the tracks for the entire 10 days of Detour. “We decided to use trams because they are very ‘Hong Kong’ in culture and history,” says Sze.

The Detour Classroom has been stripped back to show the vehicle’s skeleton. The upper deck is a mobile art and design library, which will host workshops, seminars and art classes, while the lower deck is dedicated to the history of trams.

Detour Black Box has a mirrored surface on the outside, reflecting the city back at passersby. On the inside, the tram is pitch-black, but six sets of cameras and projectors will capture the view outside the tram in real-time, and project these images back into the interior. Afterwards a discussion session will take place, where participants will share their experiences of seeing Hong Kong from this new perspective.

Detour Music Box will be the only tram that you won’t be able to catch a ride on. Resembling the party trams we usually see trundling down the streets of Hong Kong, the tram will feature DJs and other live music performances, blasting music into the streets of the city.