Cells that fire together wire together

CELLS THAT FIRE TOGETHER

WIRE TOGETHER

How are memories formed in our brain?

When information enters our brain, the nerve cells fire together and wire together, and form our memories after being wired in groups for a long time.

“Memories” make up the source of inspiration in this exhibition. This place provides the raw materials – information, texts, sounds, data, myths, tales…etc. Memories can be true and real. But most of the time, they can appear as a blur, enmeshed with fabricated fantasies. This exhibition does not look for accurate recalls of past events, but explores where these myriad traces of memories, with a spark of imagination mixed in.

The exhibition venue is flooded with historical memories of Wan Chai turning over a new leaf in the past century. By perfusing renewable structure with modern architectural techniques, this allows modern technology to fill and support the original construction materials. The purpose of conservation and revitalisation is about extracting the cultural core and fill in new life so that people can reconnect with all those memories.

Four artists from different disciplines contribute to this imagination at M7: GayBird works with sound and media installation, Ip Yuk-yiu in game programming, Hugo Yeung in digital programming and Kachi Chan in visual installation. Using different techniques, memories will be analysed, data will be transformed. At this very interesting and fluid intersection of arts and technology, what forms and shapes can memories take?

2022.08.27 -
2022.09.18

12:00 - 20:00

3/F, M7, Wan Chai

Free Admission

Hong Kong Arts Development Council reserves the right to add, withdraw or substitute artists and/ or vary advertised programmes. In case of dispute, the decision of HKADC is final.
Hong Kong Arts Development Council fully supports freedom of artistic expression. The views and opinions expressed in this programme do not represent the stand of the Council

Anti-epidemic Measurements and Entry Guidelines

All participants must wear masks properly throughout the event and are required to take temperature check before admission. Visitors not wearing masks or have fever symptoms will not be admitted.
All visitors are required to use the “LeaveHomeSafe” app to scan the venue QR code and present their COVID-19 vaccination records or relevant exemption certificate to the on-site staff in accordance with the Vaccine Pass. (Latest arrangement: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/pdf/vp_t1_ENG.pdf)
Children who are twelve or below must be accompanied by an adult.
Unless otherwise specified, please do not touch any exhibits on display.
Photography and filming for non-commercial use are welcomed, but please do not disturb other visitors and stay safe at all time.
Hong Kong Arts Development Council will review the latest situation of COVID-19 and adjust the measurements and guidelines accordingly.
Hong Kong Arts Development Council reserves the right to decide and alter the operation of the events at its own discretion.

Inclement Weather Arrangements

Typhoon Signal No.8 or above and Black Rainstorm Warning Signal

If the signal is hoisted before 10:00 a.m., the exhibition will be closed and re-open three hours after the signal is lowered. If the signal is hoisted until 3:00 p.m., the exhibition will remain closed.
If the signal is hoisted during opening hours, the exhibition will be closed.

GayBird

GayBird is a Hong Kong composer and media artist. He graduated from the City University of Hong Kong with a MPhil in creative media and from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a MA in music composition and electro-acoustic music. Since 1996, he has started working in the Hong Kong music industry and arts scene.

His sound installation works have been exhibited in art festivals around the world including Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), OzAsia Festival (Australia), Digital Art Festival (Greece), EXIT Festival (France), Digital Performing Arts Exhibition (Taiwan) and ifva Everywhere (Hong Kong). Recently, his sound installation Fidgety won the 3D/Interactive Award in the renowned Lumen Prize for Art and Technology in the UK.

GayBird’s innovative projects in recent years have allowed him to connect the architecture, media installation, visual arts in live performances. He was commissioned by M+ museum to create a site-specific performance 18 Ways to Create or Mute Sound. He collaborated with the award-winning film director Tsai Ming-Liang in the visual music performance One Zero. He was commissioned by the Hong Kong Visual Art Centre in taking their 100-year-old heritage site for the work – 18 Scenes in a Cage, and Emergency Kit and Wishing Pool which was set at a swimming pool.

Hugo Yeung

Ip Yuk-yiu

Kachi Chan

Hugo Yeung Ming-him is an emerging digital artist exploring the possibilities of algorithms and computation as artistic media to expand the audio-visual aesthetics of cinematic experience. He debuted his solo show in 2016, and showcased his work at GENERATE! Festival for electronic arts 2017, Germany. Yeung was a commissioned artist at the Jockey Club ifva Everywhere Carnival in September 2018. In November 2018, he completed a month-long double-solo on Expanded Cinema with Wong Chun-hoi at the 6th Edition of the Writing Machine Collective. Hugo Yeung graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in New Media from the School of Creative Media, the City University of Hong Kong. He is a member of the Floating Projects Collective since 2015.

Ip Yuk-yiu is an experimental filmmaker, media artist, art educator and independent curator. His works, ranging from experimental films, live performances, media installations to video games, have been showcased extensively at major international venues and festivals including European Media Art Festival, New York Film Festival: Views from the Avant-Garde, Transmediale, the Image Festival, FILE Festival, VideoBrasil, WRO media art Bienniale, NTT ICC and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. Ip has over 20 years of curatorial experience in film, video and media art. He is the founder of the “art.ware” project, an independent curatorial initiative focusing on the promotion of new media art in Hong Kong. Ip is currently Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His recent works explore hybrid creative forms that are informed by cinema, video games and contemporary media art practices. In recognising his artistic achievements, he was awarded Artist of the Year (Media Arts) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2018.

Interdisciplinary artist Kachi Chan is interested in employing computational animation, digital reality technologies and robotics as lenses to expand the notion of moving images as well as to examine the connections between physical and digital realities. His works were presented internationally at occasions including Ars Electronica (Austria and London), Art Basel in Hong Kong, Interactive Architecture Lab at University College London (UCL) and NHK (Japan). He has received numerous awards, including Honorary Mention of the prestigious media arts competition The Prix Ars Electronica (2022), The Bartlett Medal of UCL (2022) and Golden Pin Design Award (2019).

In 2019, Chan was funded by the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme to pursue Master’s degrees at the Royal College of Art and Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where he developed a keen interest in robotics as an art form. His works in the UK mostly involve performative robotics as a research method to discuss socio-political and cybernetic topics.