PROJECT 5
THE EDUHK VIRTUAL ART LAB
Year: 1｜SDGs: 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 17
Project Leads: Dr. Liu Jindong and Dr. Eric Feng, with the support of Prof. Song Yanjie (MIT), Mr Wu Kaiyi (Learningverse VR and MIT); affiliated postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Pengnan Hu (LCS)
Collaborations: MetaAI and Cometa (both closely linked with the research and infrastructural projects of Prof. Song and Mr Wu).
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Synopsis
The EdUHK Virtual ArtLab is a 21st century virtual artist-in-residence programme designed to bring together practice-based researchers from around the globe to engage in design thinking in response to global challenges related to the SDGs. A pilot project during the first phase of the RCCAPV’s existence, the EdUHK Virtual ArtLab will recruit 8 local and international artists twice a year to engage in virtual collaborations. Their activity will span one month and will involve design thinking in response to grand challenges.
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Objectives
1. Create opportunities for practice-based researchers and creative artists in Hong Kong and China to collaborate in ‘grand challenge-style’ ways with members of related communities in other countries, not least those encompassed by China’s “Belt and Road” framework.
2. Facilitate purposeful, SDG-informed collaboration between creative practitioners and research teams in selected countries. The RCCAPV will build on the Hong Kong government’s call for East-West exchanges and will further expand the scope for meaningful issues-oriented exchanges to include Belt and Road countries in the Global South.
3. Foster dialogue between diverse cultural traditions, thereby deepening understanding of the public value of art, in particular with reference to the challenge of designing sustainable futures.
4. Within the context of Hong Kong’s emphasis on Art Tech, demonstrate the value of re-thinking traditional institutional frameworks—that of the Artist-in-Residence programme—in light of technological innovations.
5. Based on transnational artistic collaboration in the EdUHK Virtual ArtLab, develop educational assets for the benefit of EdUHK, universities in Hong Kong and elsewhere, and for the school sector.