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Ａｄｖｉｓｏｒ：Ｒｙｏ　Ｉｋｅｓｈｉｒｏ

BAS in New Media

School of Creative Media　Final Year Project

I. Artist Statement

As a prominent metropolis in East Asia, Hong Kong possesses a complex colonial history intertwined with contemporary social transformations. This intricate backdrop has given rise to feelings of confusion and dislocation among the city’s inhabitants, which became particularly pronounced during the zenith of social movements.

Being a Beijing-based artist who witnessed the mass protests in Hong Kong, I have been deeply affected by this collective trauma. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I have dedicated myself to comprehending Hong Kong’s intricacies and engaging with its residents through interviews. Concurrently, I have acquired a wealth of art theories and multimedia creation techniques via coursework, which have informed my artistic endeavors. Following my participation in the summer school, these disparate experiences and insights have coalesced into the nascent framework for my culminating graduation project: “River Talk”, partially collaborating with Yin Ziyuan.
River Talk is an interactive installation that incorporates voice recognition and real-time tidal data transcription, facilitating a speculative dialogue between contemporary Hong Kong and the River Thames—once considered the lifeblood of the British Empire ——under the post-colonial social structure.

The installation employs a readymade—specifically, an Epson 690K printer—to perpetually render the sound spectrum of the audience’s voice in real-time, amalgamated with live tidal data from the River Thames in a riverine transcription. As the audience interacts verbally, the Thames’ tide responds in time, resulting in an enigmatic and encoded dialogue between the two parties. The informative content and the ultimate outcome of this exchange are rendered ambiguous, leaving the audience with a non-informative form for speculation regarding potential “what if” scenarios and its answers. In so doing, the piece embodies a conjectural conversation between Hong Kong and its erstwhile colonizer—the British Empire—in the context of today’s post-colonial world.

II. [RE: VIVAL] SCM ANNUAL SHOW 2023

III. Process

Documentation Video: https://youtu.be/S4QL3vzmkkk

Final exhibition planning

Prototype of printed paper

#倫敦漫記 #後殖民思考 #疫情記憶

忘川之上，桑梓之下
一半是光，一半是影

與Isabelle從泰特英國美術館出來，沿著泰晤士河向東漫步。午後的陽光溫煦，微風輕拂。這是我第一次從一位英國人口中，聽見她對大英帝國殖民時代的真實想法。

Isabelle出身軍人家庭。兒時見到帝國擴張的版圖時，她也曾像所有孩子般驚嘆”大英帝國多麼偉大！”直到後來接觸許多來自苦難國家的人，甚至因英國人身分遭受諷刺——在那些”既得利益者”的指責中，她逐漸明白，那不過是塑造世界形態的一段歷史，談不上榮耀。

我拖著抱恙的身軀勉強回應幾句，她卻彷彿讀懂我的思緒：”我懂人們談及殖民時為何激動，那永遠是傷痛。”虛弱中，我想起香港山頭殘留的港英標誌，街頭激烈的抗爭標語，恍如隔世——這個美麗的世界，是否總將陰霾隨手一拋，便自顧自歲月靜好？但眼前這位西方學者，眼中分明漾著透明的哀傷，她與許多同儕早已開始反思後殖民城市的面貌。

我們談城市規劃、談階級、談雕塑，最終回到她自己。”我正親歷文化歷史如何快速消逝。”她說。當我問及這是否多數英國人的思考方式，她搖頭：”取決於家庭薰陶與個人成長。”鄉間農民可能只讀政府發行的報紙，而她的朋友圈卻常討論這些。這與我的認知如此契合：無論走到哪裡，總有比我更醉心學術的人，也有更耽於享樂的人。知識與愛，或許本無國界。

COVID紀念牆矗立在大本鐘對岸。我們細數疫情初期各國措手不及時的生命逝去。這是政府項目，毗鄰醫院。在溫熱的緬懷中，我看見民眾感謝NHS的留言——危難時節，人們只能將命運託付於更高權力機構。正當我幻想北上廣未來是否會有官方疫情紀念建築時，同行的台灣、巴西、瑞士夥伴卻在質疑為何牆名強調”National”而非”International”。這世界總有人比我更具人文關懷，看見我忽略的稜角。

四點多，大本鐘聲響起。聽說香港殖民時期也曾以此為課鐘。不遠處雖有現代建築，但那哥特式的金色尖塔仍張揚著帝國昔日的榮光。泰晤士河的波光中，我突然恍惚——分不清哪岸才是鏡中城。對岸那些曾令我窒息的沉重命題，此刻竟不如此岸的普世溫情來得真實。或許國與國之間，差的只是時間。

這世界處處有尖銳的社會問題，也處處存在認真生活的人。我自詡比周遭更理想主義，卻也困於自身經驗。終究要親自走過，才明白地球是圓的。

Investigation Note

Phase I

Making decision: I decide to make an installation related to sound data visualization under the topic of post-colonization;

Phase I to Phase II

Attempts:

1) I did literature review about the post-colonization

2)gradually narrowed down the scope to recording the sound data from Shing Mun

3) collecting the data and visualizing it via TouchDesigner

Problem: The method of visualization is difficult to grasp. When I tried to extract one frame of the data visualization out to print it as a 3D data sculpture, it was shown that the purpose remained unclear according to my advisor;

Revise: Ryo suggested I do more research about sound data visualization, providing software suggestions like MAX/MSP and speculative methods.

note by 2023 02 15

note by 2023 03 30

Phase II to Phase III

Attempts:

Reposition my purpose of making the project,
More research about sound installation
Adjust the media to realizing it: Instead of making 3D data sculpture of Shing Mun, I chose to collect the data from both River of Thames and the real-time audio from the audience after the processing of LiBrosa, and try to make an installation, which use Python to control the computer to recognize the audience’s voice and use the real-time data in River of Thames, and finally print it out from an Epson Printer constantly through the control of the computer.

Revise: After getting recognition and the high permission from Ryo, I bought three printers on my own and tried to connect either of them with a computer by Python.

Problem: 1) The creative decision of the combination of spectrum and voice shows an unclear aim, according to Ryo’s reflection

2) Whether sound stream should be included in the project

3) The weak knowledge of python

Revise:

Need more explanation about the decision
Decide not to use the sound, after the discussion with Ryo
Invited another student to collaborate in this project, and learn Python together.
notes