Exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club -
SerendiCity presents 10 Arts Tech works including a Northern Lights experience, Borealis
Wayson Poon’s latest choreographic work PHONATE 
CrewKids Online Mission gives children a taste of theatre’s backstage experience

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (the Authority or WKCDA) is pleased to announce that the finale programmes of the “Creative Tomorrow” Arts Tech Festival, exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), will be presented in February and March 2023. A wide variety of media arts and performing arts programmes will be staged at venues across the West Kowloon Cultural District (the District or WKCD) including Freespace, Xiqu Centre and Art Park, as well as on WKCDA’s online platform, inviting the public to explore the infinite potential created by marrying arts and technology.

“Creative Tomorrow” is under the exclusive sponsorship of the HKJC, as one of the many initiatives supported by the HKJC's approved donation of HK$630 million to the Government of the HKSAR to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, demonstrating that the HKJC is resolute in pursuing its purpose of acting continuously for the betterment of our society, all in support of creating stronger communities together.

SerendiCity presents 10 free Arts Tech programmes by local and overseas artists
SerendiCity, the finale of “Creative Tomorrow”, is a series of spectacular free-admission programmes jointly curated by WKCD and Hong Kong media art curator Kyle Chung using technology to open up thought-provoking new perspectives on technology, art and urban lifestyles. SerendiCity illustrates the serendipitous dynamic relationship between data, the city and its people.

The 10 free media art programmes created by local and overseas artists will be staged at the Art Park, the Xiqu Centre and on online platform from 13 February to 5 March 2023, including outdoor and indoor large-scale art installations, live performances, online game applications, web shows and newly commissioned works that open up new perspectives on technology, art and urban lifestyles.

Two exciting programmes at the Art Park include Borealis, a large-scale outdoor art installation by Swiss artist Dan Acher, and Petrichor, another outdoor art installation customised by the Berlin-based artist Robert Seidel for the District. For three consecutive weeks from 13 February, Borealis, a vibrant digital simulation of the Northern Lights, will light up the night sky above the Great Lawn of the Art Park. The hue and density of the digitally controlled lights vary with the weather and the environment, simulating this natural phenomenon using state-of-the-art technologies. Petrichor applies digital projections, artificial fog and soundscapes to create a unique visual display that changes with the weather, offering visitors a new kind of immersive experience in the District.

The Xiqu Centre will present Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – Biometric Theatre, showcasing seven interactive audio-visual installations created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer between 1992 and 2022. The acclaimed artist specialises in applying technologies to transform audience members’ biological data into dynamic artworks. The programme also sees the Asia debut of Pulse Topology, a large-scale interactive installation that brings to life the pulses of visitors through thousands of light bulbs and sound effects. The installation immerses visitors in a performing arts space constructed using biometric data, providing them with an unprecedented innovative experience in which they interact with their own body.

SerendiCity also features three tailor-made digital programmes that take performing arts into the local neighbourhood, including The Orchestra of Temple Street, created by Hong Kong mixed media artist Chilai Howard, which is a network ensemble generated from location data contributed by the audience during their journey along Temple Street. Reinterpreting the interaction between audience members and Temple Street in an audio-visual way, the artist aims to inspire people to rediscover Hong Kong’s hidden gems.

In addition, a thematic lecture performance series featuring overseas artists will be held to explore the possibilities created by fusing contemporary performing arts with new technologies, covering topics such as the definition of voices in the context of contemporary life.

All programmes under SerendiCity are free of charge, though pre-registration is required for some of the events. Please visit https://www.westkowloon.hk/serendicity for more details.

Wayson Poon’s latest work PHONATE continues the exploration between body and consciousness
Hong Kong choreographer Wayson Poon will present his latest work, PHONATE, at Freespace from 17 to 18 February 2023. Inspired by the act of breathing, the work goes beyond the aesthetics of mere physical movement. Four dancers will perform on stage, each with a harmonica that will externalise dancers’ energy and turn each breath into a rhythm audible to the audience. The process of breathing connects the dancers with the audience, evoking introspection and self-observation and inspiring the audience to reconnect with their own pace of life. Tickets for PHONATE are now on sale at the WKCD website.

CrewKids Online Mission calls for children aged six to eight to join virtually as backstage crew
Lazarus Chan, a Hong Kong new media artist specialising in creating art that brings together coding and data visualisation, has engaged his professional team to create a multiplayer gaming platform to facilitate the CrewKids Online Mission, a 60-minute interactive play-and-learn online workshop in which live facilitators will introduce to the children some essential skills and technical equipment to stage a performance, giving them a taste of being part of the theatre’s backstage crew in a virtual space and a chance to learn about different roles such as the setup of the stage, props or lighting.

More than 30 sessions of CrewKids Online Mission will be held from 11 February to 26 March 2023. Members of the public are welcome to apply for the workshop. Registration details are available on the WKCD website.

For more details on the “Creative Tomorrow” programmes, please visit the WKCD website at https://www.westkowloon.hk/en/creativetomorrow.

Appendix: Programme details of “Creative Tomorrow” in February and March 2023

Remarks

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on 40 hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances and cultural events, providing 23 hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.

Appendix

Complimentary programmes

1. SerendiCity: Borealis
Swiss artist Dan Acher’s large-scale outdoor art installation Borealis presents a magical northern light for three consecutive weeks from 13 February 2023. The event spans Valentine’s Day, making the close to real aurora experience even more romantic.

2. SerendiCity: Petrichor
Berlin-based artist Robert Seidel has created a large outdoor video installation Petrichor with digital projection, artificial fog and soundscapes, with the trees of the Art Park as the background, to create a wonderful moment of communication with nature as visitors stroll around.

3. SerendiCity: Distributive Intelligence | A Group Mind
Distributive Intelligence | A Group Mind by Swiss artist Lukas Truniger transforms the Xiqu Centre with an immersive kinetic light installation generated by hundreds of robot-like mechanical modules. Performing together in a spontaneous form of digitally choreographed dance, the robots interact with each other, the audience and the environment around them, creating an unexpected experience.

4. SerendiCity: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – Biometric Theatre
Produced by Antimodular and Factory International, seven works by artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer bring together the various physical characteristics and data of the visitors and present them in an aesthetically pleasing way with the application of technology, transforming unique data of human beings into a series of dynamic artworks.

Music and dance performances by local artists are arranged on some Sunday sessions that respond to the dynamic art installations.

5. SerendiCity: Remembering the Red Chamber
An experimental performance with a mix of psychology, Cantonese opera and The Dream of the Red Chamber. The story of Lin Daiyu, an emotionally delicate character from the novel, is portrayed in a futuristic world by Xiqu trained actors Hong Wah and Li Pui-yan. Cross-disciplinary artist Enoch Cheng permeates the performance with exposition and narration, drawing on modern data to analyse the story from a new perspective.

6. SerendiCity: Word Game Special Edition: A Practical Poet
Hong Kong poet and artist Milo Tse joins forces with Taiwan game studio Team 9 for a special edition of their award-winning adventure game, A Practical Poet, which is available to the public at the Xiqu Centre. As a text-only role-playing game, players embark on a quest of creation as a ‘Poet’ to participate in the world of poetry in this video game.

7. SerendiCity: Lecture Performances
International media artists Eugenia Kim and Erica Scourti share their insights into arts and technology with performances.

8. SerendiCity: The Orchestra of Temple Street
Designed by Chilai Howard, a Hong Kong mixed-media artist, The Orchestra of Temple Street encourages participants to visit Temple Street and use locative data and algorithms to generate their own personalised experimental musical piece; all pieces collected on the online platform will be contributed to a collective soundscape that represents Temple Street.

Thematic camera filters of different parts of Temple Street have been created by Chilai to share with the participants the artist’s perspectives of Temple Street.

9. SerendiCity: A Village Idyll on a Radioactive Field
Multimedia artist Vvzela Kook continues her research on nuclear disasters in the web-based role-playing game, player will control the protagonist navigating in farmland, an amusement park and a plutonium weapon factory and witness implications related to the use of nuclear power throughout this 20-minute gameplay.

10. SerendiCity: Hong Kong’s Next Top Artist
Conceptual artist Mak2 creates a mockumentary short Hong Kong's Next Top Artist. In the web series, Mak2 will try to transform an amateur artist and set him a foothold in the art field by interacting with various artists, curators, professionals and gallerists in the arts and culture circle. The mockumentary series is divided into five episodes and aims to provoke the audience’s reflection on the art market.

Ticketed programmes

CrewKids Online Mission
CrewKids Online Mission brings together children aged six to eight in the online world to be trained as backstage staff in the virtual theatre space, completing various tasks in the "Set and Props" and "Lighting" sections.

PHONATE
The latest choreography work of Wayson Poon, PHONATE, reflects the exploration of body and consciousness. The process of breathing connects dancers with the audience.