CityU graduates’ creative works integrate art with technology

The School of Creative Media (SCM) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) kicked off its annual graduation show, “SCM Annual 2010”, today (30 June) with an opening ceremony at the Cattle Depot Artist Village. The SCM students showcased their creativity at the event by exploring interactions with different media and by integrating art and digital technology. Around 100 artworks were on display under the theme “Dissemination by Sound Wave”.

The graduation show, a major event for Hong Kong’s creative industry, provides a platform for interactions between local professionals, artists and students. The opening ceremony was officiated by Dr Hector Rodriguez, Associate Dean of SCM; Ms May Fung, Acting Principle of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity; Mr Jun Kung, a prominent local musician; and Mr Wong You-nam, one of the film’s actors.

Chair Professor Jeffrey Shaw, Dean of SCM, said the current expansion of the creative industries in Hong Kong and Asia offers new challenges and opportunities for the next generation of creative artists. SCM graduates are set to become leaders and innovators in Hong Kong’s creative economy because they have received a holistic, interdisciplinary education that integrates technical expertise, aesthetic excellence and social engagement.

“The SCM’s greatest strength is our ability to identify and test new ideas,” Dr Rodriguez said. “This openness to change is reflected in the work of our students. They do not merely adapt to this new culture but play an active role in shaping it. They relate to science, technology, art, philosophy and cultural studies. They cultivate an attitude of free exploration and critical reflection, while drawing on the achievements of classical art and culture.”

“SCM Annual 2010” will display works created by students from the master’s degree, bachelor’s degree and associate degree programmes at the Cattle Depot Artist Village from 1 to 7 July. The exhibits include photography, transmedia artworks, animations and interactive installations.

All the works reveal a high level of creativity in form and presentation, breaking through traditional boundaries. For example, an interactive installation titled “Mu Sik” combines sound effects, dim sum culture, motion sensors, projection technology and performance. Other special works include a feature film titled 21 years after that tells the story of a secondary school student participating in the “5 District Referendum Movement”; an eight-minute stop-motion video installation produced from 10,000 photos of street scenes taken in Sham Shui Po; and an animation titled Daydreamer that depicts how a scarecrow achieves its dream.

The annual graduation show is organised by the SCM students. Tiffany Yu Chi-man, the president of the organising committee, said the show is a major event for students graduating from SCM before they embark on their professional careers and a collective memory for university life. “Through the show, we can display our work to the public, interact with others through different media and share our achievements in creativity,” Tiffany said. To promote multimedia art forms and art education to the community, guided tours were arranged at this year’s show. “Creation is not purely a personal matter,” Tiffany said. “Through guided tours, we can share our creative ideas with visitors and collect their feedback, which is very helpful for our future careers in the creative media industries.”

As part of the graduation show, 2D and 3D animations, documentaries, narratives and experimental films produced by the SCM students will be shown at Hong Kong Film Archive’s cinema from 29 June to 2 July and at CityU’s lecture theatre from 2 to 6 July. All the programmes are free to the public. For details, please visit www.theSCMannual.hk.

Media enquiries: Eliza Lee, Communications and Public Relations Office, CityU (3442 6121 or 9424 3823).