November 2: Soojin Lee

For the next colloquium, held on November 2nd, 2018 (Friday), we are very pleased to welcome Korean Professor Soojin Lee, who will give a talk on the topic “Art and Creativity in the Era of Artificial Intelligence”.
The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

Date: November 2 (Friday)
Time: 4:00 pm
Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: Art and Creativity in the Era of Artificial Intelligence – Models, Transformations and Contextualization 

Abstract:

My research over the past 6 years has focused on the visual and cinematographic representation of robots, A.I. and post-humans. I’ve been looked carefully cultural codes and filmic codes, also principles and structures of various artistic productions.
Nowadays I examine A.I. projects such as Sunspring written by Benjamin of New York Technology University and The Next Rembrandt project of Delf Technology University, etc. Various experiments on A.I. Art (or Computational Creativity) are taking place in many fields, the results are evolving surprisingly and rapidly. This presentation concerns this current needs to redefine the concept of creativity in the digital paradigm shift.
First, I will briefly introduce the principles of A.I. Art through the art project based on A.I. technology and we examine the concept of the algorithm. In fact, media art researchers explain that algorithms do not only appear in digital media and A.I. technology.
I want to look through shortly the history of Literature, Installation and Algorithmic Art to understand how algorithms can be understood from a Humanities studies’ point of view. Furthermore, we will think about how the creativity in the era of A.I. should be defined. I will introduce one example <Life Writer> of artists Laurent Mignonneau and Christa Sommerer as a new type of production in which algorithms are introduced.

Biography:

Soojin Lee (born 1974) is a professor in the Department of Cultural Contents and Management at Inha University in Korea, and PhD of French literature at Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis University. Specialty is the Semiotics of Cinema.

She is also a member of the research team of the project Technohumanities of Inha.
Her publications include A Reading of IM Kwon-Taek’s film (2005, in France), Beyond Pictures (2013, in Korea), Transhumanities (2013, in Korea), SF, Possibility of humans and machines (2017, in Korea). And the Korean translations of Christian Metz’s books: The Essay on Signification in Cinema I, II (2011) and The Imaginary Signifier (2009).

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November 23: Alexey Marfin

For the next colloquium, held on November 23, 2018 (Friday), we are very pleased to welcome filmmaker and creative director Alexey Marfin, who will give a talk on the topic “The Neon-Lit Streets of Cinema”.

The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

Date: 23 November 2018 (Friday)

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: The Neon-Lit Streets of Cinema

Abstract:

What does ‘the future’ look like?

You could be forgiven for thinking of a dense neon-lit cityscape, a cross-breed of Shibuya and Kowloon Walled City, during a perpetual rainy night. But why do we have these associations? This particular vision of ‘the future’ appeared in 1980s movies because that was the rise of Japan as a superpower, during the personal electronics boom, when we walked around with Sony Walkmans, and neon signs illuminated streets across the world. Today we find ourselves in a very different society, with different hopes and fears – Japan as a rising superpower has given way to India or China, and even neon lights have been mostly replaced with LED ones – but these 1980s science-fiction cities still persist in our collective consciousness; once again confirmed in recent Hollywood blockbusters. The cities of cinema are mirrors of society at the time when they were written, but they also leave a tremendous cultural legacy for decades, shaping how we see our own world.

About the speaker

Alexey is a filmmaker and creative director, interested in life in contemporary cities. Many of his projects explore internet culture, and identity in the digital age. With a professional background in visual effects and an academic background in architecture, he brings a unique and visually rich approach to filmmaking, combining storytelling with world-design. Alexey’s work is linked to his academic research at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, where he co-founded the MA Fiction & Entertainment program in 2015. The work of the program explores speculative fiction and critical design, through filmmaking and new media. The studio works with collaborators from Framestore, the Sundance Institute, Disney Imagineering, Netflix, Digital Domain, and more. Alexey has taught and lectured worldwide, including the Royal College of Art, Princeton University, and UCLA.

November 20: Tanya Toft

For the next colloquium, held on November 20, 2018 (Tuesday), we are very pleased to welcome researcher and curator Dr. Tanya Toft Ag, who will give a talk on the topic “Urban Media Art & Change (Expanded Reality)”.
The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

Date: 2O November 2018 (Tuesday)

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: Urban Media Art & Change (Expanded Reality)

Abstract:

We face a task with art today – especially art that evolves in contingency with our urban media and communicative existence (urban media art) – which is to figure out what we want from it. In our current ‘aesthetic regime’, art is freed from specific rules, hierarchies, subject matter and genres (Jacques Rancière), and increasingly floating free of historical determination, conceptual definition and critical judgement (Hal Foster). In this horizontal artistic domain, since art is not what it used to be, rather than ‘what art is’ we can question ‘what art does’ (Susa Pop et al.). This leads to questions of how art is implicated with creating a sense of difference or change in the world, a perspective that has been raised by many art movements historically and that feeds recent initiatives of bringing art into labs and conversations of science, biology, architecture, and urban development.

While art has traditionally operated in a symbolic, representational layer, dealing with representational issues and a ‘crisis of perception’, the real perceptual challenges today are however mechanisms of an expanded reality: a reality shaping with digital media, data aggregation and algorithmic operations cuing our human behaviors, structures of thinking and neurological evolution. With these, today’s data culture industries change the world by targeting our neurosensory systems – contributing to what neuroscientists have named a ‘cognitive crisis’. These mechanisms are radically changing what art – art that want’s to ‘do’ and create change in the world – is up against.

In other words: global urban environments are changing, and that changes the urban context for art and art’s forms and inquiries. This situation urges us to re-evaluate art’s role in the urban context as well as how we research, produce, curate, critique and further discourse around art. How can we seize the expanding routes of art that evolve very fast with media aesthetics, that take forms and idioms we cannot ground in one disciplinary discourse, or in perspective of conditions of previous times? What do we want from art – when implicated with how things change?

Biography:

Dr. Tanya Toft Ag is a curator, researcher, writer and lecturer examining trajectories of media art(s) and urban change. She holds a Master of Arts in Media Studies from The New School, and a Master of Arts in Modern Culture with specialization in Urbanity and Aesthetics from Copenhagen University. In 2017 she gained her doctoral degree from Copenhagen University with a critical perspective on urban media art as temporal, contemporary matter in perspective of conditions of intensity, intelligence and immersion in urban media aesthetics. She has taken up visiting scholarships at Columbia University, The New School and Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design (CuratorLab). In 2018-2020 she is a research fellow at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. She has presented her work at international conferences worldwide and held keynotes at Elektronika Festival 2018 in Belo Horizonte, Live the City 2016 in Bangkok, and City Link Conference 2015 in Copenhagen.
Her curatorial practice evolves with media art and media architecture in urban environments, as curator of the Screen City Biennial 2017 (Stavanger) and head of the biennial’s artistic research program, and associated with the Streaming Museum (NYC) since 2011 and Verve Cultural/SP Urban Digital Festival (São Paulo) since 2012. Independent exhibitions include Voyage to the Virtual (Scandinavia House, NYC, 2015) and Here All Alone (Copenhagen, 2015). She is chair and member of various conference and gallery boards (Media Art Histories – RE:SOUND 2019, Media Architecture Biennale 2018, Human-Computer Interaction Conference (HCI) 2017 and 2018, Open Sky Gallery 2015-2016). She is editor of Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2018/2019) and co-editor of What Urban Media Art Can Do – Why, When, Where, and How? (av edition, 2016). In 2017 she co-initiated the globally networked Urban Media Art Academy.
More info on http://www.tanyatoft.com

November 13 at 4pm Stephanie Teng

For this colloquium, held on November 13, 2018 (Tuesday), we are very pleased to welcome photographer Stephanie Teng, who will give a talk on the topic “Honesty and ethics in art”.
The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

Date: 13 November 2018 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:00 pm
Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: Honesty and ethics in photography

Abstract:

In the digital and political climate we’re in, honesty and ethics have never been more paramount. The industry has never been more crowded with photographers and content creators. So how can we remain honest and stay true to who we are in terms of aesthetic and building relationships? Is it possible to balance making a living while also pursuing making art?

Biography:

Stephanie Teng is a commercial photographer by trade and a documentary photographer at heart. From fashion, lifestyle to still life photography – she believes in the power of versatility and having transferable skills across different genres of the visual arts. Her creative vision is shaped by her passion for creating compelling visual narratives that challenge convention and inspire action.

Since embarking on her freelance journey in 2015, she has worked with: GQ Japan, Conde Nast Traveler, Pacific Place Magazine, IC Magazine, The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Swire Hotels & Restaurants, Design Anthology, #Legend, The Press Room Group, Grana, Clockenflap and more.

October 23, 2018 colloquium at 4pm: Jonathan Jay Lee

For the fourth colloquium of the semester, held on October 23, 2018 (Tuesday), we are very pleased to welcome Taiwanese-American artist Jonathan Jay Lee, who will give a talk on the topic “Journey of becoming an artist”.

The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

Date: 23 October 2018 (Tuesday)

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: Journey of becoming an artist

Abstract:

Jonathan Jay Lee will share his experience as an artist and engage the students in a discussion about what does it mean to become an artist today.

About the speaker

Based in Hong Kong, Taiwanese-American born Jonathan Jay Lee graduated with Departmental Honors in Illustration from Parsons School of Design with a style described as a mix between Eastern and Western styles of art.

He is an award-winning illustrator and has been published by Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal Magazine. His clients have included HSBC, San Miguel, Red Bull, WeSC, Omega Watches, Infiniti, Lamborghini, Black Sheep Restaurants and Superga. He has been awarded with an Excellence in Advertising from the GCIA, ’40 under 40 Top Young Design Talent’ from Perspective Magazine, and has exhibited internationally from Tokyo to NYC.

He also teaches courses as a Professor of Illustration and Sequential Art at Savannah College of Art and Design at the Hong Kong campus.