We have been following projects involving the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) - the largest cultural project in Hong Kong focused on providing a vital district for the local arts scene – since its early developments, looking at architecture, but also at performances of Cantonese Opera. The latest project, presented and produced by WKCDA and co-curated by Fieldwork Productions and the Hong Kong Film Archive, is an engaging audio visual online platform that will please film and music fans.
Entitled Decade the new digital project features ten 5-minute films matched with ten new soundtracks of solo Chinese and Western instrumental scores composed and performed by ten local musicians from different musical backgrounds (Shadow Kim, Chin King, Alain Chiu, Shane Aspegren, Leung Yan Chiu, Wong Chun-Fai aka Sin:Ned, Sascia Pellegrini, Kung Chi Shing, Wilmer Chan, and Choi Sai Ho).
Steve Hui, Music Director of Decade, stated in an official press release: "I believe the ten musicians all have their own memories and feelings towards the imageries of Hong Kong's past. Music gives us new eyes to view images and images enable us to enjoy music by unconventional means."
Music is indeed a key element of this project: Decade actually made its first public debut at Freespace Fest 2013, but this new digital format was created to allow users from all over the world to discover more about Hong Kong through a cinematic journey enriched by new and exciting sounds.
Each video represents a decade in the life of Hong Kong, the various samples of footage have therefore got strong historical connections pointing towards architectural developments, politics or manufacturing and production. The resulting visual soundscape forms an audio-visual modern narrative recounting 100 years of history of Hong Kong.
The videos start at the end of the 1880s with Hong Kong as a small fishing village filmed by a crew sent by the Edison Company. This is actually a rare piece of footage since it represents the earliest existing video record of Hong Kong. The audience is then transported to the colonial past, with a foreigner's perspective of the place, portrayed as glamorously exotic. The focus shifts in the next video to Hong Kong as the hub of international trade and on people's lives, customs and economic activities.
The '40s look at the Japanese occupation, while the following decades analyse the architectural changes from wooden huts and squatter areas to the industrial era with the consequent social tensions caused by such developments. As the population grew from three to five million in the '70s, the city transformed into a metropolis, a cultural melting pot where the East and the West, the old and the new, combined and blended.
The '80s marked the economic development of Hong Kong, but the end of the colonial era in the '90s also brought dramatic changes in the city and in the mood of society with the consequent instability of the more recent years caused by the financial crisis.
Music goes from classical compositions to experimental noises and modern electronic samples and poly-rhythms that perfectly mirror the multi-layered narratives told by the documentaries.
"As the curator responsible for the selection and production of the visual images, particular efforts were made to source the most representative images of each decade, to cover not only the city texture and landscapes, but also the overall sentiment of the populace at their respective time and space," stated Winnie Fu, programmer of the Hong Kong Film Archive.
Thanks to the feature "Create Your Own Decade", users can also rearrange the film clips and music extracts and come up with their own digital art piece.
"Decade is an exciting collaborative effort among the curators, musicians and the public to open up new possibilities for creative exchanges and art making," Low Kee Hong, Head of the Artistic Development (Theatre) of WKCDA, added. "Everyone is welcome to create a unique version of Decade to express his/her interpretation of Hong Kong's history and share it with others online."
Image credits for this post
1. and 2. All the artists involved in the "Decade" project. Courtesy of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.
3. and 4. Decade 1950 – 1959, Post-War Landscapes. Image source: Michael Rogge and his Hong Kong of the 1950s (1950s)
5. and 6. Decade 1960 – 1969, Work Hard & Play Hard. Image source: Three Love Affairs (1963); The Window (1968)
7. Decade 1970 – 1979, Fly High & Aspire. Image source: China Behind (1974)
8. Decade 1980 – 1989, Boom & Drain. Image source: Video Power (1989-90)
9. Decade 2000 – 2009, Networked Metropolis. Image source: Infernal Affairs (2002)
10. Shane Aspegren working on the "Decade" project. Courtesy of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.
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