About Hong Kong Garden 2020

Context:

Arts Electronica 2020 is being crystalized as an experimental, de-centralized global affair, in response to the contingencies arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Envisioning a journey toward measuring the ‘new’ world being realized today, this year’s festival extends beyond the customary venue in Linz, Austria, by opening up to additional 120 locations around the world under the theme Kepler’s Gardens.(https://ars.electronica.art/keplersgardens/en/)

For the Ars Electronica Garden Hong Kong segment, which is one of the largest ‘Kepler’s garden’ projects around the world, we feature programs that are made specifically for the event as well as showcasing various creative forays taken up by the host institution, School of Creative Media at City University Hong Kong. The event will take place mostly online, from Wednesday 9th to Sunday 13th September 2020.

Curatorial Concept:

Hong Kong Garden – City in Fusion
Hong Kong stands at a particularly critical juncture today, poised upon ever-shifting tectonic activities effectuated by historical, socio-cultural, political and economic factors that are unfolding in the present tense. Such dynamism and volatility impel a sense of urgency, to nurture a multifarious array of creative engagements toward engendering meaningful reflections, which can then become a means to intuit, navigate and influence the future as it emerges into reality.

It is in this tumultuous and indeterminate flux of things that both potency and dangers lurk, and thus artists and faculty at SCM strive to draw new perspectives emerging from the intersections of life, art, science and technology to better understand our time and its wanderings. The Kepler’s Garden in Hong Kong includes eight programs wherein which the artworks, exhibitions, interviews, a workshop, and a seminar we put together in this framework can be seen as magnifying glasses, distorting mirrors, or time telescopes, that are geared toward re-thinking the World we find ourselves in.

Please submit your contact here, for all LIVE streaming links. All other programs will be available for viewing on this website from Wed 9 – Sun 13 September.

PRESS KIT & PROGRAM IN A GLACE

SCM, CityU HK

City University of Hong Kong’s School of Creative Media (SCM, CityU HK) is recognized to be an international centre for discovery and innovation in Asia. Here creativity is nurtured as a cornerstone of Hong Kong’s social and economic advancement in the 21st Century. Our teaching and research facilities are housed in a stunning, one-of-a-kind, building designed by the world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. The School of Creative Media has gathered an impressive, internationally renowned, faculty of digital media artists, thinkers, and innovators, working in the fields of animation, sound design, gaming, software development, physical computing, film, digital media art, and media theory. www.scm.cityu.edu.hk

ARS ELECTRONICA

Ars ElectronicaFestivalis a major New Media Art festival that was inaugurated in 1979. Renownedfor its prestigious Prix Ars Electronica that is conferred annually, it is a pivotal entity that leads the field in the arena of electronicart.Based inthe city of Linz, Austria, it is operated from a cultural, educational and scientific institutethat is dedicated to interlinkages between art, technology and society, that is realized through various engagements including research and development in multidisciplinary media arts at its Futurelab,as well as its festivals.