[ISEA2016] Artists Talk: Jason Cheung Yi Kai, Trent Fealy & Matthew Riley — Aria (HK): Planting Play in Public Space

Artists Statement

We present a work-in-progress titled Aria (HK), a socially participatory public artwork featuring a procedurally generated virtual ecology of colour, movement and sound responsive to human gestural interaction. Key features of the projects background and development are highlighted with an analysis of Aria’s (HK) intended affective connections between people, their environment, participation, data and play.

  • Jason Cheung Yi Kai is a Hong Kong based art director and digital artist at Skytree Digital Limited who works in games, interactive art, mobile media, illustration and 3D design. He has received notable recognition for his practice in both Hong Kong and Australia exhibiting at the Freeplay Independent Games Festival, Storey Hall and the Exertion Games Lab. Jason recently completed a Master of Animation and Interactive Media at RMIT University where he received an Award of Excellence for Best Use of Digital Design & Motion and an Award of Excellence for Best Interactive Production for his interactive installation project Aria. He also received an Award of Excellence for Research in the field of Animation & Interactive Media for his thesis titled “Procedurally generated spatial design in contemplative gaming”. He has lectured at RMIT University in the Bachelor of Design (Games) program in Imaging and Animation (2013) and Concept Art (2014).
  • Trent Fealy is a Melbourne (AU) based freelance programmer who specializes in graphics programming. He has lectured in the Interaction Design program (2015) at Monash University.
  • Matthew Riley is a lecturer in animation, games and interactivity at RMIT University, Melbourne (AU) and doctoral researcher at Swinburne University who has received international and national recognition for his practice. He has exhibited at venues including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Monash University Museum of Art, The Centre for Contemporary Photography and Field 36 Gallery, featuring in publications including HOW Magazine (New York), IdN Magazine (Hong Kong), The Architectural Review Asia Pacific (Melbourne) and Experimenta (Melbourne). He has been invited to speak at numerous conferences, festivals and institutions including The London College of Communication (United Kingdom), xCoAx (Portugal), ISEA2014 (United Arab Emirates), NHK Broadcasting Corporation (Japan), Milia (France), The Society for Animation Studies (Australia), CODE – A Media, Games & Art Conference, (Australia) and Freeplay Independent Games Festival (Australia). He is a member of the Playable Media Lab at RMIT University and GaRaG: Games Research Group at Swinburne University.