[ISEA2022] Panel: Kyle Chung, Joel Kwong & Wei Su — Emerging Collaborative Preservation Projects in Asia

Abstract

Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving
June 11, MACBA – Convent dels Àngels. Panel

Keywords: media art, art archives, collaborative preservation, contemporary art, Hong Kong

How can archives encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to facilitate contextualization, preservation and presentation of media art? The panel brings together art professionals and researchers to share their projects and look at the issues of archiving media art in Hong Kong and China and beyond.

It has always been the case that artistic and cultural practices transform with new technologies. As technology constantly evolves, contemporary artistic practices have increasingly engaged with non-traditional media. Museums, galleries, and art institutions are adapting their approaches to the presentation, dissemination and preservation of new media art. While media artworks and exhibitions are ubiquitous nowadays, archiving plays an important role in preserving history and generating knowledge of art. What are the needs and challenges of developing a media art archive? How can art archives encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to facilitate contextualization, preservation and presentation of artworks?

As a media art archive based in Hong Kong since 2008, Videotage Media Art Collection(VMAC) has continued its development with the expansion of its collection of artworks from Hong Kong to China, Taiwan and Macau in recent years. Esteemed curators from nearby regions are invited to collaborate for the acquisition. Local researchers are invited to study and write about the VMAC archive, providing reflections and new perspectives in media art archiving. This panel brings together art professionals, researchers and scholars to share their collaboration experiences and look at the issues of archiving media art in Hong Kong and China, and beyond. https://www.videotage.org.hk

  • Kyle Chung (HK) is a curator and researcher whose recent exhibitions explore the dynamics between technologies, materiality and human agency. Selected exhibitions include 2³ or Not 2³: East Kowloon is on Minecraft in New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong; Ellen Pau: Time After Time Will Tell at 1961, Singapore; #YOU #ME #ourSELFIES at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre; One World Exposition 2.1: #like4like at chi K11 art space, Hong Kong; Carla Chan: To Outland at SMAC, Berlin, Germany; Conjunctions and Disjunctions: International Symposium on Electronic Art 2016, Hong Kong; Bright Shadow at The Morgue, London, UK. With a PhD in Creative Media, Chung is currently an independent curator; Curator at Videotage, Hong Kong; and Lecturer at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
  • Joel Kwong is an international media art curator, writer, producer and educator based in Hong Kong. She is currently the Programme Director for Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, as well as the founder of SIBYLS – a creative consultation and production agency. Kwong has a strong belief in the power of art and technology, and her curated projects have been shown in many different cities around the globe. Her most recent projects in 2021 includes Future Media Art Festival in Taiwan, Microwave Festival edition 2021, Glow Shenzhen online media art showcase “Fireflies: The Glowing Dots”, Connecting the Dots – a media art archaeology online exhibition & website etc.
  • Su Wei (born in Beijing, China) is an art writer, art history researcher and curator based in Beijing. He is currently a Researcher at the Tsinghua University Art Museum. In 2014, he was awarded first place at the first International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC). Su Wei’s work in recent years focuses on re-constructing the narrative—and radical imagination—of contemporary Chinese art history, and explores the roots of the legitimacy and rupture of contemporary Chinese art history in a global context. Pivotal to his work is the attempt to take the “post-1949” as the key in understanding artistic production in a contemporary situation, and in so doing he seeks to re-define the stance and possibilities of art in nowadays China. He thus engages in an anti-establishment critical practice by mapping the limits, contextual clues and unconscious energies of the post-1949 art production, which figures the dual presence of decay and emptiness.