Artist Statement
The cultural legacies of “Chinatowns” the world over are rapidly fading due to aggressive urban gentrification, demographic change, tourism, and general neglect of cultural preservation in recent years. In light of this rapid change, it is imperative to acknowledge those who helped build the unique communities that have served generations of Chinese diaspora. The memories and experiences of those impacted and enriched by these cultural spaces need to be celebrated and preserved.
New media offer enormous possibilities for documenting cultural experiences and interpretations. The use of technology in service of cultural heritage can be challenging, especially when the artefact involves a tangible, physical site such as Chinatown, with intangible sensory features of spatial interactions and emotional experiences. The use of new media applications can focus and engagingly convey the immense richness and diversity of the emerging historical record within an intimately coherent and viscerally arresting narrative.
In capturing the plurality of transitory moments that constitute the life and times of Chinatown, rather than re-construct/reproduce/re-present the cultural heritage in linear fashion, this work-in-progress project, entitled, ComposingYou-Chinatown, adopts an experimental approach that integrates art practice and interactive media. Utilizing locative media and panoramic projection, the all-encompassing experiential interaction generates perceptual insights into-and reflections of-past memories, while offering opportunities to experience the present, and to envision the future, through a creative lens.
- Judy Jheung is a media artist whose interactive art games and installations are contextualized within global issues engaging with urban movements from globalization to glocalization. Her work has appeared at Vancouver Cultural Olympiad 2010; 9th Havana Biennial; ParaSite Art Space, Hong Kong; Inter/Access, Toronto; Surrey Art Gallery, TechLab, Vancouver; and Gothenburg Art Museum. Jheung holds a BFA degree from University of Calgary and an MFA from Pratt Institute, New York. Between 2012-14 Jheung conducted PhD research studies on interactive art games at Simon Fraser University, SIAT (Canada). judyjheung.wordpress.com