Visiting Scholar - Dr. HUNG Keung - Public Lecture

Public talk for all faculty members and students

New Concepts of Time and Space: From the Chinese Past into a Mediated ‘Presence’

In this research project, traditional Chinese thought and manner of approaching art is appropriated onto a different platform: interactive media. This transformation expands the notion of time and space and forges new interdisciplinary correlations by addressing traditional Chinese philosophy, calligraphy, painting, and relief sculpture. I investigate how the Chinese philosophy of Dao, the manner of handling time and space in early Chinese thought and art – i.e. in traditional Chinese painting, sculpture, and the fine art of Chinese calligraphy – and the idea of the Yellow Box can together provide a novel approach to the concepts of time and space for digital art history. In developing this thesis I first posit that the concept of time and space has been handled in traditional Chinese scroll painting & calligraphy through applications of multiple perspectives, binary visual modes, visible and invisible space, the passing of time, and non- linear narratives. When these potentials are reproduced by media artists and animators, novel insights, experiences and knowledge about space and time are not only expanded for their audiences, but the history of time and space tends to collapse. This research project therefore sets out to further analyse the subjects of time and space within my own media-art production process (custom software and hardware). It is hoped that other researchers and artists may benefit from my own attempts to illustrate Chinese art theories and to document and reflect upon different ways of perceiving the position and role of the audience, and that they may thus gain a unique insight into the incorporation of Chinese philosophy into media art practice.