Macao media art exhibition and performance event announced

ProjectPlayaround – a Hong Kong-based arts and technology initiative – is debuting in Macao this month with FIRSTAGE, a new media art exhibition and performance event that will feature the works of 16 artists from the region. 

Scheduled between 31 July and 23 August (12 pm to 8 pm), FIRSTAGE will take place at Barra District’s Navy Yard No.1. Curating the event is Hong Kong new media artist Keith Lam, who is transforming the Navy Yard into a space where different fields, including electronic coding, artificial intelligence, sound design and physical performance intersect. 

Six art pieces, installations, tech systems and structures will be showcased at the Macao media art exhibition. They include Ecology of Post-Trauma, a multimedia interactive installation by Viktor Lin, Luna Cheong and Carl Fong; Under the Gaze, a fabric and digital art piece courtesy of Uly Chan U Lai, Franky Wong and Clare Lo Hio Ieng; I’m Looking at You, Looking at Me, a structure from Raymond Nogueira, and Archive of Waterborn Deities, an interactive kinetic installation created by Vividly and David Chung Siu Wing. 

Introduction to some of the art in this Macao media art exhibition

Other works include Damn!, an interactive installation symbolising the insignificance of the human condition, which invites participants to throw a real egg into a black curtain, leaving a trail of egg running down the fabric. 

Taking roughly four months to develop, Damn! was the brainchild of Johny Tam Chi Chun and Miracle Hao Tian Tian. 

“We hope the audience can undergo a mental journey from “hesitation” to “catharsis,” before finally returning to a state of tranquility,” Tam says in written comments sent to The Bay. 

[See more: Meet the artists representing Hong Kong and Macao at the Venice Biennale]

Meanwhile, artists Karl Ng, Casber U, Summer Ha and Matthew Hon Yun were responsible for Storage, an art installation that is intended to comment on modern humans being inundated with a constant flow of digital information and their dwindling ability to immerse themselves in an empty environment. 

The artists note that Storage attempts to help participants achieve “zero input” through its spiritual “air-raid shelter,” which isolates them “from the sensory overload of the outside world, creating a space where perception folds inward.” Within the installation is also a headset that reads the participants’ brainwaves. 

“When audiences enter the installation, their own mental rhythms awaken the space,” the artists explain. “As their brainwaves translate into shifting light, sound and reflection, hidden layers of thoughts and emotions begin to surface – memories half-forgotten, ideas not yet formed.” 

Exhibition curator gives insight

Curator Lam tells The Bay that this show has differed from his previous efforts, as it is his first Macao-based exhibition, as well as his first time exclusively curating for new artists  

He adds that the entire process has been multi-faceted and collaborative, involving workshops with the artists, project plans and several meetings with the creatives. 

When asked about how the diverse range of works and performances hold together as one cohesive whole, Lam points out that they all share the unique trait of being cross media products, which allows them to reach harmony, without necessarily being uniform.  

FIRSTAGE is organised by the Macao New Media Arts Association. For more information on the event, click here.