‘The Video Diary of the Crowd, to the Crowd’ Exhibition
[Hong Kong: 26 April 2019] WYNG Media Award (WMA) is a series of programmes developed to spark awareness and engage the public on social issues of great importance to Hong Kong, with a view to fostering positive change. Every year, WMA invites artists and the public to respond to the theme through visual images. ‘1 July 2017—A Day in Transition’ was WMA’s first-ever crowd-sourced documentary film project. Members of the public were invited to submit videos taken on 1 July 2017 (the day that marked two decades after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong). In 2018, WMA commissioned three independent filmmakers to develop their renditions of the day of transition in Hong Kong using the crowd-sourced footages. In 2019, artist-curator Wong Chun Hoi is invited to create an exhibition for the project, providing a fourth perspective to the moving image crowd-sourced initiative. With the release of the submitted footages online, WMA hopes to encourage more sharing of the documentaries and inspire creative works, thus keeping alive the discussion of a topic most pertinent to our society. The exhibition will be held at WMA Space from 3 May to 9 June, 2019. public programmes extending from the exhibition includes a workshop involving speakers from the legal field about intellectual property rights in the creative sector, t and a marathon screening of all the submitted videos plus discussion forum with an academic.
The crowd-sourced documentary film project, ‘1 July 2017—A Day in Transition’ launched by WMA gathered more than 200 videos from the public. With these footages, WMA would set up a video archive to encourage further creations as well as discussions of the issue. This exhibition is held in the transitional period before all the footages were uploaded to the archive to serve as an opportunity to review the e project. ‘We are very accustomed to creating images in this day and age. Whether they are original, second or even third loop creations, we are surrounded by a multitude of images that are chosen, tailored, and edited every day’, said curator Wong Chun Hoi. ‘Apart from sharing, what other factors motivate the production of these images? Amidst heated debates about social issues and an intensifying political climate, what else warrants our gaze?’ said the curator Wong Chun Hoi.
In the digital era, where everyone keeps their own archives, WMA hopes to invite more vocabularies and references regarding the categorisation and understanding of video archives through this exhibition.
When images permeate our daily lives, is intellectual property promoting or hindering creativity?
By pressing a button on the smartphone, and publishing it on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, one can create and own an image. When everyone is a content creator, intellectual property rights become of the most hotly debated issues. Starting in theSpring of 2019, WMA will present a series of workshops to discuss intellectual property issues relevant to the development, sharing, and co-creation of visual art works, and the use of archival materials. At the first workshop co-presented with Mayer Brown on 3 May 2019 4pm at WMA Space, intellectual property lawyers Amita Haylock and Karen Lee will focus on copyright, trademarks and passing off, and Creative Commons and licensing. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. WMA Project Manager Luna Chan will facilitate a panel discussion with the speakers using case studies from both WMA projects and examples provided by artists to highlight the relevant issues in relation to these topics.
Diary videos reflecting helplessness of HongKongers
Among the 200 videos collected from the ‘1 July 2017—A Day in Transition’ project, many were soliloquies of insecurities in Hong Kong with the Victoria Harbour as a backdrop. However there were also many videos about daily lives, such as making instant noodles, watching a cat taking a leak in a park,the view from a bus window, and a number of clips on someone lifting weights in a gym room. Commenting on these submissions, Wong Chun Hoi said,’The creators of these videos may not have stated the clips as diary videos, but together. But I view these as monologues of many Hong Kongers, and the clips together gives a bigger picture of Hong Kong and associates the sense of helplessness and the positive non-intervention attitudes of the people.
A marathon screening of all video footages collected from ‘1 July 2017—A Day in Transition’ Open Call and a discussion forum will be held on 25 May, 2019 (Saturday). Interdisciplinary artist and Hong Kong Video Art Historian Dr. Linda Lai will discuss with how these unique gazes and amateur image-making can be read in parallel with the narrative approach and documentary impulse in video diary. Case studies on communities and collectives, using video as a medium of documentation, will also be discussed at the forum to shed light on how open calls or crowdsourcing projects may strengthen a community.
The Video Diary of the Crowd, to the Crowd –
‘1 July 2017—A Day in Transition’ Crowd-sourced Video Exhibition
Date: 3/5 – 9/6/2019 (Tue – Sun)
Opening Hours: 12nn – 7pm
Venue: WMA Space (8/F, Chun Wo Commercial Centre, 23-29 Wing Wo Street, Central)
Free admission.
Two public events will be held during the exhibition period:
- Intellectual Property Rights Workshop (1)
Date: 3/5/2019 (Fri)
Opening Hours: 4pm – 5:30pm
Speakers: Amita Haylock (Intellectual Property lawyer), Karen Lee (Intellectual Property lawyer) and Luna Chan (WMA Project Manager)
2.Discussion Forum + Marathon Screening of all ‘1 July 2017—A Day in Transition’ videos
Date: 25/5/2019 (Sat)
Opening Hours: 4pm – 7pm
Speakers: Dr. Linda C.H. Lai
Please visit http://wma.hk for more information and the latest news.
To register for the events, please visit: wmahk.eventbrite.com
About WMA
Initiated by WYNG Foundation, WYNG Media Award (WMA) is a series of programmes developed to spark awareness and engage the public on social issues of great importance to Hong Kong, with a view to fostering positive change. They include WMA Masters, WMA Commission, WMA Open, WMA Student and WMA Film. The programmes have been encouraging dialogues through selected annual themes, including Poverty, Air, Waste, Identity, Mobility and Transition in the past. The theme for the 2018/19 cycle is Opportunity. For more information, please visit wma.hk.