[ISEA2019] Panel: Hugh Davies, Kyle Chung & Yang Jing — Curating Games in the Asia Pacific Region

Panel Statement

Keywords: Videogames, Game Art, Curatorial Practice, Archiving, Media Art, Exhibition

Videogames are rapidly becoming a major medium of contemporary art. As videogames move into the popular and conceptual mainstream with exhibitions occurring at major international spaces, how are the complexities of this new medium playing out among arts workers, collectors and the spaces in which games are exhibited? More specifically, how are curators, artists and institutional spaces within the Asia Pacific region responding to the opportunities and challenges posed by videogames in arts practice? Are best practices being adopted from US and European models, or, given the Asia Pacific’s standing as the largest producer and consumer of videogames, and recognising its long history of videogame art from exponents such as Feng Mengbo and Cao Fei, are distinct and region-specific trends emerging? This panel considers future and present practices in the curation of contemporary videogame art.

  • Hugh Davies is an artist, curator and postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT, Australia, exploring game cultures in the Asia Pacific region. Following recent fellowships at Tokyo Art and Space, M+, and the Hong Kong Design Trust, Hugh curated the Longitude Exhibition of Asia Pacific Games and Play in 2018. Previously he was senior lecturer within the Media: Screen + Sound program at La Trobe University and co-director of the Centre for Creative Arts. With extensive exhibitions and curation of game and play based art in Australia and abroad, Hugh has also operated as Board Chair of both the Australian Network for Art and Technology (2009 2011) and the Freeplay Independent Gaming Festival (2011 2014). Hugh remains on the Freeplay board of directors.
  • Kyle Chung is a Hong Kong based curator whose recent exhibitions explore the dynamics between technologies, materiality and human agency. Selected exhibitions include Ellen Pau: Time After Time Will Tell at 1961, Singapore; #YOU #ME #ourSELFIES at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre; To Outland at SMAC, Berlin, Germany; Conjunctions and Disjunctions: Juried Exhibition of International Symposium on Electronic Art 2016, Hong Kong; Bright Shadow at The Morgue, London, UK. Chung was appointed as CoChair of Art Gallery at SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 in Tokyo, Japan; Jury of CynetArt International Festival in Dresden, Germany in 2016. Chung is currently Senior Research Associate in Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media, City University of Hong Kong; and House Curator at Videotage, Hong Kong.
  • Yang Jing is a writer, editor and curator based in Hong Kong. Her recent exhibition Video Game Cohabited was held in OCAT Shenzhen and at Design Society Shenzhen, China. She is completing a PhD in Global Art History at the Transcultural Center of Heidelberg University, Germany. In addition, she manages the game channel of the online Chinese media outlet Initium Media as well as writing her own fiction column in Hong Kong’s No.1 paparazzi newspaper outlet. Yang is interested in the social dimension of games and gaming culture within and beyond Chinese societies. Her recent adventures explore the intersection between games, DIY media in exhibition settings.

Full text (PDF) p. 722-724