LASER Talks in HONG KONG: CONVERGING PARALLELS: Human-machine convergence in Art and Creativity 

Converging Parallels opens a newly inaugurated LASER program by the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, coinciding with SCM’s 25th Anniversary exhibition that features the work of outstanding alumni of the school.

Chaired by: Dr. Lisa Park SoYoung and Prof. Alvaro Cassinelli

EVENT INFO

When: Wednesday 3rd April, 2024, 6 - 7.30pm HKT, Find your timezone here

Where: School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. 1F, Multimedia Theatre.

Access via ZOOM

Website: https://www.scm.cityu.edu.hk/events/LASER_HK_1

This hybrid program marks the newly inaugurated LASER HK hosted by the School of Creative Media (SCM, City University of Hong Kong). The title of the first LASER HK event echoes the name and the theme of an ongoing exhibition celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the institution, curated by Ip Yuk Yiu and Kattie Fan. The panel combines the perspectives of media artist, Chris Cheung (h0nh1m), a media artist/entrepreneur, Kenny Wong, and creator-scientist-entrepreneur, David Hanson, to articulate the new aesthetic horizons lying at the intersection of Art, Robotics, and AI.

SPEAKER BIOS 

David Hanson, CEO and founder of Hanson Robotics, develops robots that are widely regarded as the world’s most human-like in appearance, in a lifelong quest to create true living, caring machines. To accomplish these goals, Hanson integrates figurative arts with cognitive science and robotics engineering - inventing novel skin materials, facial expression mechanisms, and collaborative developments in AI, within humanoid artworks like Sophia the robot, which can engage people in naturalistic face-to-face conversations and currently serving in AI research, education, therapy, and other uses. Hanson worked as a Walt Disney Imagineer, both a sculptor and a technical consultant in robotics, and later founded Hanson Robotics. As a researcher, Hanson published in materials science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and robotics journals — including SPIE, IEEE, the International Journal of Cognitive Science, IROS, AAAI, and AI magazine. He wrote two books including “Humanizing Robots” and received several patents. Hanson was featured in the New York Times, Popular Science, Scientific American, WIRED, BBC and CNN. He also received awards from NASA, NSF, Tech Titans’ Innovator of the Year, RISD, Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and the co-received the 2005 AAAI first place prize for open interaction of an AI system. Hanson holds a Ph.D. in Interactive Arts and Technology from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a BFA in film Animation video from the Rhode Island School of Design. (https://www.hansonrobotics.com/david-hanson/)

Chris Cheung Hon Him (aka h0nh1m) is best known for installation art and audio-visual performance, whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, image and creative technology in new media. Cheung’s reverence for Eastern and Western philosophy are central to his oeuvre, which he blends traditional ideology and futuristic imagination to create immersive soundscape, generative art and data art. The RadianceScape project he initiated in 2014 has garnered critical acclaim and was featured in Ars Electronica, FILE Festival, EMAF and other international art festivals. The live performance were toured in Sónar Festival and WRO Art Biennale in 2017. The project won ZKM – Giga Hertz Awards in 2020 and completed the new commission work in 2022. In his contemporary calligraphy installation series No Longer Write – Mochiji is acquired in Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts and Hong Kong Museum of Art. InkFlux is selected in 24th Japan Media Arts Festival and has been collected by United Overseas Bank. Most recent works Ink | Pulse and Waving Script are commissioned by M+ and Hong Kong Palace Museum respectively. Chris is always eager to explore new mediums and look for aesthetics in technological intervention. He established artist collective, XCEPT and XCEED in 2008. The collective works are showcased worldwide and have won prestigious international awards in the Reddot, TDC, Frame, A’ Design, Golden Pin, GDC 11, Design for Asia awards, Lumen Prize and New York ADC Young Guns 11. He received the Young Artist Award from HKADC and the Young Design Talent Awards from HKDC in 2010 and 2011 respectively. In recent years, he established XPLOR lab and created a platform called FutureTense, devoted his focus in sustainable living and media art education. (https://www.instagram.com/honhim/?hl=en)

Kenny Wong was born in 1987 in Hong Kong. Wong’s works explore the delicate relationship between daily experiences and perceptual stimulations by hybridising analogue and digital representations. Wong is interested in exploring visual patterns, motions, and sound textures, as well as presenting works in the form of computational kinetic sculptures. Wong actively works as a collaborating artist, multimedia designer, mechanical engineer/designer, and art researcher. Wong’s solo and collaborative works have been exhibited in over 10 countries, including Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), WRO Media Art Biennale (Poland), Athens Video Art Festival (Greece), Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre (UK), NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery (UAE), BIAN Montreal (Canada), FILE Festival (Brazil), 404 Festival (Argentina), Seoul International NewMedia Festival (Korea), Pearl Lam Galleries (Hong Kong) and numerous international exhibitions. Wong has named one of the Golden 15, as part of the 3rd International Emerging Artist Award (UAE). He also received the Award for Young Artist 2014, Media Arts (Hong Kong) and was unanimously selected for the Bloomberg Digital Arts Initiative 2013 (Hong Kong).

Wong is currently an independent artist and designer and founded a creative and research studio Things That Move, and has pursued his MFA in Sculpture at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He was a part-time Lecturer at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2015. And received his BA in Creative Media from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2011.

(https://www.thingsthatmove.xyz/)

SPONSORS

School of Creative Media + City University

Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM)

ΑΒΟUT

Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks is a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of LASER is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities and 5 continents worldwide.

The region’s first such institution, the School of Creative Media was founded to nurture a new generation of interdisciplinary artists and creative media professionals, and to develop new ideas and technologies for the creative industries in Hong Kong, mainland China and abroad. Now after twenty-five years of growth and development, we are one of the leading institutions in the field. Our students are trained across a range of disciplines spanning photography, animation, film, interactive media, gaming, installation art and digital media art. We bridge the boundaries between art and technology, and between traditional and new media. Our internationally recruited faculty members are amongst the foremost artists and researchers in the field. Our graduates have consistently demonstrated high employability, with over 90% of those who graduated now working as independent artists and professionals in the creative industries, film, television, advertising, publishing, and media production. Many have won prestigious international and local awards for creative and technical innovation. To learn more about SCM, please visit https://www.scm.cityu.edu.hk/.