Upcoming Exhibition
October Contemporary 2008 – Attr/Action　
SECOND LIFE《第二生命》

Presented by Videotage
Supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Opening: Oct 4 (Sat), 7-11pm
Exhibition Period: Oct 6 (Mon) to Nov 4 (Tue), 12nn-7pm
Workshop: Oct 25 (Sat), 10am-5pm, RSVP

In SECOND LIFE, Videotage plans to play on the larger theme of
“Attr/Action” by discussing the second life of archives. As Videotage is in the process of reorganizing and re-emphasizing its media art archive as part of a longer transition to becoming a multi-faceted Media Art Center, we plan to utilize this as a jumping off point for a dynamic exhibition and series of events during October Contemporary 2008.

The archive itself is an attraction. It is an artificial system established to organize and preserve certain materials, and then by its very existence, begins to act as a magnet, “attracting” other similar materials and information, and also interested parties/ researchers due to its enduring research value. The archive is not dead after being set up. It has a second life. The “re-” actions (relive, retrieval, reframe etc.) involved give the archive a second life. In the exhibition, invited artists will respond to the topic by reprocessing physical or virtual materials that are possessed and archived over the course of a lifetime. The remix of history retracts the old and gives the personal or public
archives another remarkable life. With the use of different media, the blurred boundary between the virtual and the real will be presented.

To mark the closing of the program, a hands-on workshop* conducted by Douglas Easterly, Videotage's FUSE artist-in-residence, will be held on Oct 25 (Sat) to introduce creative ways of utilizing ubiquitous computing (cell phones, PDA’s, etc.) and the largest online archive, the World Wide Web, in making art.

*Materials fee: HK$280 / HK$180 (Discount price for students and members)
Please note that the fee is to help cover the cost of an Arduino microcontroller (US$36) that participants get to keep.

For further enquiries, feel free to contact:
Alvis Choi (Project Coordinator)
Email: alvis@videotage.org.hk
Tel: (852) 2573 1869 / (852) 9649 9865

主辦機構錄影太奇由香港藝術發展局資助

開幕：2008年10月4日（六），晚上七時至十一時
展覽日期：2008年10月6日至 2008年11月4日，正午十二時至下午七時
工作坊︰2008年10月25日（六），上午十時至下午五時，請預先報名


錄影太奇在是次名為《第二生命》的展覽，把玩主題「引／動」的意念，談論資料庫的第二生命。錄影太奇正進行重組，投放資源發展藝術媒體資料庫，冀盼長遠能成為全面的藝術媒體中心。拾月當代富動感的展覽，加上浪接浪的活動，將是錄影太奇飛躍成為藝術媒體中心的試點。

資料庫本身已具吸引力。它是組織和保存資料的人工系統，發揮著磁石效應。除「吸引」相關材料和資訊外，資料庫亦憑藉其持久的資料搜集價值，「吸引」有興趣人士和資料搜集員參與其中。資料庫不是在成立後便宣告死亡，它有著第二生命。要延續資料庫第二生命，依靠的是一連串「重整」動作（重新體驗／重修檔案／重新組織）。 展覽中，藝術家們會以重整已儲存之實體或虛擬素材來
回應主題。重新混合的歷史將取替舊有的，並賦予個人或公眾資料庫一個非凡的第二生命。展覽將以不同的媒介來表現虛擬與現實的模糊界線 。

展覽接近尾聲，錄影太奇的FUSE 駐港藝術家 Douglas Easterly 將親自主持工作坊＊，介紹利用全球最大資料庫互聯網及各流動電腦產品（手提電話、掌上電腦等）來製作富創意的藝術品。

*材料費： HK$280 / HK$180 (學生及會員優惠價)
學員於完成工作坊後，將可保留價值36美元之 Arduino微型控制器一個。

節目查詢，請聯絡：　
Alvis Choi (項目統籌)
alvis@videotage.org.hk
(852) 2573 1869 / (852) 9649 9865

Participating artists

Annie Wan (Hong Kong) recently achieved Ph.D. candidacy after 3 years as a Ph.D. student in Center For Digital Arts and Experimental Media University of Washington, Seattle, US. Her works including locative media, audiovisual performances and interactive installations, have been shown internationally.
Object Petit A is a robotic installation which attempts to create an unique poetic experience that encapsulates the idea of Lacan's concept on 'objet petit a' (the unattainable object of desire). The robot with big lips look for hes (his/her) desirable human, hes will response to different audience in different emotional behaviors and creates different narratives.

Aram Bartholl (Germany) lives and works in Berlin. In his art work he thematizes the relationship of net data space and every day life. "In which form does the network data world manifest itself in our everyday life? What comes back from cyberspace into physical space?"
Evan Roth (U.S.A.) is a maker of things with a specific interest in tools of empowerment, open source, and popular culture. His work aims to inject open and free ideals into the public sphere. Evan lives in Hong Kong with his wife and enjoys spending his free time violating laws related to
copyright and vandalism.


Evan Roth and Aram Bartholl's collaborative work Web 2.0 is a gallery installation consisting of two internet enabled computers, a hacked mouse and keyboard, and a custom plugin for the popular (and free) Fire Fox web browser. Unlike many tools which enable Chinese people to freely surf the web via connections to computers outside of China, this plugin routes all internet traffic to computers on the inside of the Chinese firewall, allowing web surfers to experience the more restricted Internet identical to that of Chinese.

Michael Yuen (Australia) is an artist and curator whose artistic practice centres on interventionist installation traversing many artforms working in public and museum space. His work is associated with interdisciplinary, public space and media practices. Formally trained as a composer, Michael’s installation-based works use a combination of sound and light with a conceptual emphasis on technology.


In The Black-tee Project, a series of limited edition black t-shirts will be produced each mounted with a single bright blue LED on the back of a T-shirt. With striking minimalism, the artist's slightest alteration reconsiders the wearable and the wearer.


Ron Lam (Hong Kong) graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Art from School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. She constantly collaborates with artists from various disciplines including music, video and new media to explore the underneath meaning of text. Her performance and video were staged in Hong Kong and USA. She is currently the feature editor of CREAM magazine and the Editor of THINK SILLY.


While creating her new work Loosing Mneme, Ron's unconsciousness leads to relive her childhood into some virtual memories. Through a 7x7 square feet installation, Ron will present herself and her dark side as a Capricorn, and the nightmare of fairy tales that often come up onto her mind.

SWAMP (New Zealand/U.S.A.) is the collaborative effort of artists Douglas Easterly and Matt Kenyon. Their work focuses on critical themes addressing the effects of global corporate operations, mass media and communication, economies of scale, the military-industrial complex and other such systems that SWAMP defines as "Metahuman".


Coke Is It is a robotic performance commenting on the routine destruction we do to our bodies. A robot named C3 (parodying Coca Cola’s low-carb product C2) is a robot which uses sensors to find puddles of Coca Cola placed on the gallery floor. When C3 finds a puddle of coke, it sucks the beverage up through an electrical pump and then sprays it across itself. It is designed to consume until it kills itself with the acidic nature of the coke.

Victoria Scott (U.S.A.) is a visual artist who works with electronic media, sculpture and social relations. For over a decade she has researched and created large-scale analogue and digitally controlled installations, objects, digital prints and audio works.
Scott Kildall (U.S.A.) is cross-disciplinary artist working with video, installation, prints, sculpture and performance. He gathers material from the public realm as the crux of his artwork. Through this method, he uncovers relationships between media imprinting and human connection.


No Matter is an installation of 40 imaginary objects created both in Second Life and physical space. Examples include the Holy Grail and Time Machine. None of these imaginary objects have ever existed in the material realm, except as replicas and embody the tension between the ideal and real. The reconstructed objects are displayed on simulated wood plinths as a real-world gallery installation alongside their projected virtual forms in a Second Life gallery.

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Videotage
Unit 13, Cattle Depot Artist Village
63 Ma Tau Kok Road
To Kwa Wan, Kowloon
Hong Kong

tel: 852 2573 1869
contact@videotage.org.hk