JUMPSTARTER 2022 is now open for applications.
 
This year, we have added a new category, Art Tech, in recognition of the rising trend of  “art tech”. The category provides an avenue to spotlight some of the most creative ways by which art tech has been leveraged in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
 
As places of culture and education, museums around the world are improving the ways they communicate and engage with the public. A growing number of cultural institutions are leveraging apps, QR codes, touch screens, virtual and augmented reality, and other interactive technologies that provide easy and direct ways to transfer information. 
 
Not only do these tools offer more engaging art viewing experiences, they also allow people with disabilities such as visual or hearing impairment to experience the exhibits in a way they hadn’t been able to.
 
In order to provide a truly virtual and elevated experience, museums would need to collaborate with technology companies. 
 
“Story of the Forest”, a permanent display of Singapore National Museum since 2016, is a perfect case in point.
 
This project was born out of a two-year collaboration between museum curators and renowned Japanese digital art collective teamLab. 
 
The display uses selected naturalistic drawings from the collection of William Farquhar, the first British governor of the colony of Singapore. Animated drawings of flora and fauna creates a mesmerising virtual biosphere that visitors pass through. Viewers could also interact with the display by way of a mobile app, which allows them to obtain information on the animals that appear in the animations.
 
Another example is the “Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass” project, created by the Museum of Louvre in Paris in partnership with HTC’s Vive Arts program in 2019 to commemorate the 500^th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.
 
The project allows visitors to ‘interact’ with famed Italian painter via moving images and sounds. Visitors could even experience riding on the artist’s ‘flying machine’. 
 
Last year, in Bordeaux, France, a submarine base built during World War II was converted into the world's largest digital art centre, Bassins de Lumières.  The centre combines digital graphics, sounds and lighting, and truly revolutionises how we appreciate the arts. I look forward to visiting it one day.
 
The intertwining of performing arts and tech is especially prevalent during COVID-19, when there are restrictions to the number of visitors in a physical space.
 
3HK, a long-term supporter of JUMPSTARTER, made use of their 5G technology to help the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chinese Orchestra live broadcast 4K concerts on various online platforms last year. 
 
In this new era of tech, performers and performing arts organisations are leveraging 3D printers to ‘print’ props, musical instruments, and various software to compose music and edit movies. By incorporating new digital display technologies including AR and VR, some of the more traditional stage effects like physical backdrops can be replaced. 
 
New technologies allow performers to more easily move from one venue to another, while bringing new experience to their audiences. It’s been wonderful to see performers making use of technologies to fuel their creativity-even during a period of lock-down.
 
As in other businesses, new tech shouldn’t be adopted in the arts just for the sake of it. Art tech should elevate audience experiences, ultimately bringing value to the industry as a whole. This also something we will be looking out for submissions to the JUMPSTARTER 2022 Art Tech category.
 
For instance, the benefits of using 5G to live-stream performances are multi-fold. As mentioned previously, digital backdrops make for a much easier location-scouting process, with performing arts organisations not having to limit themselves to certain locations or cities due to existing infrastructures. For a second, concert revenues would no longer be limited to the number of seats in the concert hall. This increase in revenue-and thereby resources-mean organisations can attract and retain top talents and provide better training for newcomers.
 
We define art tech as not being limited to contemporary art or art performances, and the things one can see and touch. Every artefact in a museum comes with its own authentication, tagging, its value backed up by copious amount of research on its history and unique features.  Every dancer needs music, props, costumes - all of which could be transformed through the use of new technology. 
 
Additionally, we believe that ‘art tech’ should not be confined to the arts, but should be applied to the whole creative industry - including advertising, architecture, printing, movie, music, design - which contributes to approximately 5% of Hong Kong’s GDP. 
 
We applaud the Government’s continuous support for the development of art tech, and look forward to seeing more interesting projects to be showcased in Hong Kong.