Multimedia-theatre: video design for contemporary dance performance “City and the Self”

City and the Self was choreographed by Kwok-kayuen. It was a contemporary dance performance under the Emerging Choreographers’ Series held by the Hong Kong Dance Alliance, funded by Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

Visual ethnography: The Queen(s) & the Star(s)

Interview about HK identites; clips of interview with Chimo

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Where is my sea?

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“當某些事情被反覆論述時, 這些事情其實和原來所指距離了多遠? 變成了甚麼? 擴展到甚麼? … 集體回憶中的集體是怎樣構成的? 我(地)有無份? 我(地)是個體, 還是集體中的個體, 還是…??”

:: Introduction to my project

My original plan was to collect allegories about Hong Kong and through collecting and analyzing, to investigate how Hong Kong stories are interpreted and represented, as well as what symbols are being used and concerning about what lied behind the constructions of such narratives. The initial idea is definitely promising, but as what I foresaw, the scale was too big and I had to slim it down.

I started with browsing videos in youTube which are search results of keyword “Hong Kong” or “香港”. Most of them are tourism promotion videos, history documentaries and advertisements. My observation is they are full of stereotypical Hong Kong “icons” or “images”, for instance, a sailing boat in the Victorian Harbor, or a middle-aged chubby Chinese guy showing the audience a langouste.

I focused on identifying stereotypical icons of representations of Hong Kong, and then discovered that there is always a way of speaking lying behind these grand narratives of Hong Kong stories. Hong Kong is portrayed in a particular way which we all Hong Kong citizens are familiar with, in and only in representations. The portrayed Hong Kong images are imaginary ones, somehow is not really the Hong Kong we are living in.

Several terms are being over-used without careful considerations. “Collective memories” and “Hong Kong local identities”, etc. “Memories of Hong Kong” become no more personal, but discourses. Some ways of speaking are suppressed, while some are being dominant.

I then decided to confine the scope to only two overt symbols, “the Queen” and “the Star”. Obviously, these two symbols would be connected to current hot cultural issues which are the fight about conserving the tower of Star Ferry (天星鐘樓) and the Queen Pier (皇后碼頭). Meanwhile, these two symbols are embedded with a strong impression of the colonial period.

I interviewed five Hong Kong local citizens, beginning by asking them whether they would identify themselves as a “Hong Kong-er” (香港人) or not, then gradually went into their personal memories of lives in Hong Kong, towards “the Queen’ and as well as their views upon “the Queen” ’s issue. A collection part is also included. I invited the interviewees to provide me something representing “the Queen” and select from a batch of pictures which are representations of “queen”. Then I asked them to recall if any more “queens” are still remain in Hong Kong. The last part of the interview, I gave the interviewees several passages I abstracted from the internet which people wrote about “the Queen” ’s issue, and asked them to select a short piece and read.

Based on the interviews, I then went to take photographs and collect videos of what the interviewees recalled as the remaining “queens”.

In the following part, I will discuss how the process is and what my discovery is of the research.

:: Research process and discoveries – interview part

I started the interviews with asking the interviewees that, if they would declare themselves as a “Hong Kong-er”. Following this very first question, I then asked them to recall significant issues or memories they would put as highlights to signify their teenage lives in Hong Kong. As the framework was set to discussions about Hong Kong identities and collective memories, in the following parts the interviewees automatically direct themselves to think of and respond to my questions within the field. I actually just used the term “queen” in stead of “the Queen Pier” until the interviewees used the term themselves, but all of them made connections themselves already. As the frame applied, we were speaking in common language which “queen” was signifying issues about “the Queen Pier” and moreover, topics about cultural conservations, collective memories and also space politics.

In the interviews, I actually played with “the Queen” in different levels, cultural and semiotic. One question was, “Where else can we still find ‘queens’ now in Hong Kong, as you could recall?” There were diverse responses.

Colonial histories

“The Queen” icon obviously represents the whole period of colonial history to Mrs. Kwok as she focused on mentioning places about the colonial period.

For Chimo, he mentioned some share places as Mrs. Kwok, but he focused more on the figure of queen. For example, he mentioned the sculpture in the Queen Square and Victoria Park.

Monica made associations based on colonial period’s memories and geographical relation, as she mentioned the journey on Star ferries crossing the harbour, while pointing that the pier she often used is near the Queen’s Pier.

Carol jumped from memories of Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. She described the ambiguous identity of Hong Kong-ers being in UK and the strange intimacy between the colonial empire and the citizens of the colony.

Big Jump

Maze, which is a very special one, associated varied examples as she took “queen” not only as representation or symbol of colonial history, but to more extents. For example, she mentioned the “queen” in Disney cartoons and the “Queen’s Cake Shop” in Festival Walk. Also, she mentioned “Queen’s Road Central” and “Queen’s Road East” because of linguistic connection, then she further associated to a song of Law Tai Yau, and more she linked to a film which the protagonist sang the song in. This is certainly a good demonstration of lateral-associative thinking and also a game of semiotics, which one signifier can actually signify diverse signified(s).

Maze’s association is also revealing how complex the symbol of “queen” is embedded in our cultural knowledge network.

Besides questions and discussions, I put some activities into the interviews, which is the second part of it. These activities have their own significance and stirred different kinds of discussions. They are also creative-collecting activities collaborated with the interviewees and I.

:::: Pictures of “Queen”

In the second part of the interview, I gave the interviewees a batch of printed images, which are search results of Google using keywords “皇后”, “女皇” or “queen”. Google’s search results are not only confined to those of Hong Kong, so “the queen” here is of more representations from all over the internet. Pictures tagged with “queen” differ a lot from “queen” in discourses of “queen” in Hong Kong, but here I bring these two aspects together by asking the interviewees to select picture(s) to represent their “queen” in such context.

::::: Collecting “Queen”s

I asked the interviewees to provide me some materials which could be collected by me as a representation of “queen”. I actually had a idea of collecting coins with icon of Queen Elizabeth bear in mind, but I did not suggest to the interviewees. However, all of them thought of the same idea with me. It is so strong to see that coin with “queen” is a shared deep memory of Hong Kong-ers from different ages and backgrounds.

The collecting activity stirred discussions from interviewees and rouse memories of everyday lives with coins. The coins are ordinary things we used almost every day but seldom pay attention to. Interestingly, Carol joined the interview with Monica after I interviewed her and they two discussed about the coins. Monica said she thought that coins were with “queens” as she had used for years and did not notice that now most of the coins have been changed into “flowers” [the Bauhinia]. She could not find even one coin with a “queen” in her purse. Then Carol made her contradicting comment, which she always thought that coins were with “flowers” in stead of “queens”. It is obvious to notice that Monica was born and grown up in colonial period while 1997, the year of handover, is just Carol’s.

::::: Reading about “Queen”

The passages I gave the interviewees were mostly abstracted from blogs where Hong Kong people wrote about the Queen Pier’s issue. All the interviewees said they did not read these passages so as the blogs before, and the main source to know about the issue is from TV news or online newspapers. I provided them an opportunity to read these passages but meanwhile the availability of articles is restricted by me. I then asked the interviewees to select one or more short paragraphs which they had strong feelings or they thought it is important to read. This is a multi-layered-selection and read-re-read process. The articles were selected by me and then by the interviewees, and then read by the interviewees, recorded and watched by audiences.

After reading-out, I asked them why they chose such paragraphs. Through the above activities, interviewees made dialogs to the writers. Reading-out others’ writings is like an echo. Audience will perceive the writings through the interviewees’ mouths, which consist of multi-layers of interpretations and performances.

::::::::: interviewing as an actively provoking activities (event level)

The interviews were not merely “collecting views”, they were events.

In the interviews, personal memories were raised upon the grand narratives of collective memories. Individual voices were preserved. The interviewees expressed their own interpretations on the same issue which were really diverse and surprising.

The interviewees got opportunities to articulate themselves. All of them reflected that they seldom talked about such issues, but they are actually full of opinions waited to be discovered. They did mention that they thought they were “powerless”(Monica) and “had no rooms”(Chimo) to speak up.

In front of the camera, the interviewees spoke more formally and really dug into the issue which I had not had such discussion with some of them before. So here the camera’s presence is significant, it provoked.

:: My interventionist game

Based on the interviews, I did some follow-up works. I took what the interviewees recalled as “Queen” and then went to sites they mentioned, to play a generative game.

Photo-taking adventure

I took pictures of what they mentioned and also during the walk, took pictures of things or scenes consist of symbols or printed words of “queen” or “star”.

I tried to locate the places where I might not pay attention to before and really went there to take a photo. Then I marked on the map where I took the pictures and the map will be shown in my installation to let the audience connect the taken photographs and the geographical positions.

Through such activity, I locate the “memories” mentioned by the interviewees into the living real places through my act. I really experience the places (or things) which previously were something heard from others, and turned into my own memories.

Also, the adventure was completed by me, so the photos taken were the  interpretations of their memories by me, the ethnographer. It is shared authorship. In the interview, I first decided questions and directions to work with, then the interviewees’ responses became my rules and drove me to somewhere totally unexpected.

I and the interviewees, we together constructed alternative interpretations of “the queen” and becoming subversion of the discourse of collective memories of the Queen Pier.

Video : “Where is my sea?”

Passing through the new Star Ferry pier, walking alongside the harbour, I saw blockades which prohibited me from seeing the Victorian Harbour. I then took my DV camera, started from the first blockade, walked along the coast until I could see the sea without blockade again. With the help of the apparatus, I recorded the whole journey and turned into a video called “Where is my sea?”. Audience can experience the whole walk with me which surprised me that it took so long to see the harbour again. Also, scenes of the sea coast road were preserved. And for me, I created my own memory of the Queen Pier and Victorian Harbour .

:: Final output and my creative decisions

The final output will be an installation, an assemblage of my collectibles and my responses, which consists of video of interviews and “Where is my sea?”, photos taken in the generative game, a map with marks, collection of coins with “queen” and a small booklet with my own reflections.

The installation comprises of different interpretations rooting from the symbol  “queen” and “star”. Dominant discourses are re-considered and challenged but there is not a given new answer. So the title of my work is called “The Queen(s) and the Star(s)”. The “(s)” is emphasizing open-ended answers and questions.

- video / interview ( in DVD + booklet) : archives + my reflections (reflexivity)

I put the interview footages into a DVD within very simple editing, aiming at preserve the entire interview and make it accessible to audiences. I added few texts as my highlights instead of full transcript. Those highlights were keywords or sentences caught me most when I second read the footages. I wrote my reflections and printed into a small booklet to be put beside the television for audiences to read. The writings of mine expressed what I thought as a researcher and emphasize the presence of the researcher. Instead of single-channel video broadcasting, I choose the DVD format as I would like to leave room for audiences to surf through the DVD on their own choices, sequences and skip or pause or fast forward if they want. Also, they could refer the DVD to the booklet, to surf through these two media and choose what to read.

- video / “Where is my sea?” + map : highlighting

The video “Where is my sea?” is also put into the DVD. The coast line I walked through to shoot the video was highlighted on the map shown in the installation. Such setting let the audience to refer my representation to the geographical position of the pier and the harbour.

- photos displaying : archives + performative

As the above video, the photos will be shown and also marked on the map where they were shot. Varied kinds of images suggest diverse ways to interpret what “queen” and “star” could mean.

- collections

Collections of coins were put in plastic conservation bags and will be shown in the installation. The collections are input of the interviewees, in which they become participants, a more active role. Also, the act of putting the coins into bags is an act of conservation. Meantime, coins in bags can be symbolizing the suppressed, buried or dust-laden memories of colonial period.

:: Conclusion and evaluation

Operations during research

Camera skills should be enhanced and recording style and framing should be considered more carefully for the sake of editing and creative treatment. Some backgrounds of interviewees were too noisy, which caused difficulties in adding texts and diminished the visual qualities.

Cultural level

Beginning with interviews I gathered lots of information about how my interviewees thought of Hong Kong identities and issues about the Queen Pier. I gained knowledge of what other aspects of Hong Kong is like which I do not know from their memories and share views with them.

The collecting activities led to surprising results as the interviewees actively recalled memories and expressed views which I do not expect from my decided questions.

Processing materials and documenting

The process of making documents is not done quite well. I was over-optimistic and overlooked the workload I was going to encounter, so I was running out of time after the first stage of the research. I actually have not yet tagged and coded all my documents, as well as analysing them. This led to the difficulties I faced in the creative intervention part. So the output can only be considered as an assemblage of my research process and creative activities I have gone through. But this would be an excellent lesson for my graduation thesis and other research-based projects.

Materials gathered are to be made into documents in more careful decisions afterwards, in order not to minimize the lost of details.

But yet I like the diversity of materials that I collected, and displaying such diverse materials is a worthy activity for audiences and I.

After the process of making documents, detailed analysis is to be done. Drawing graphs and creating hyper-text documents would be helpful.

Video work: Intimacy

Video work: Birth

Work Info

Work length : 00:07:01

Digital Video, Colour, PAL

Script : Samuel Beckett, “Not I”

Script / Director / Cameraperson / Setting / Lighting / Sound / Editing

Casting : Maze Chan Man Hei, Mandy Chan Man Yu

Artist Statement

讀了Samuel Beckett的劇本“Not I”，只有一個嘴巴不停說十多分鐘話的劇本；裏面說生育，說愛說痛說怕說光。一個鮮紅嘴巴在我腦海中縈迴不去，如果它不在劇場中而在錄像中呢。

在錄像的屏幕中，身體的被放置性已很強，而靜止鏡頭與固定擺設更把這被壓迫感無限放大；這和“Not I”中被拋入這世界的存在的無力感、又和我身邊的女性故事那麼相通。我嘗試放入女體，讓她(們)被觀賞。置放一長桌上，如被宰割的牲；又想到了進食。進食是需求又是苛索，用的是那說話的嘴巴；而女子，被入侵的陰道，似被強行的餵食。同樣的行為可以是愛，也可以是傷害。

因此陰道裏嘴巴是雙置的存在，吞進或吐出，包容或被侵害；它一直說話，但那又不是她的聲音。語言如此強大，語言如此乏力。

當我作為演員那一刻，被灌水的滋味如同窒息，身體的局限那麼大；我沒有想過被蹂躪的感覺會那麼強烈，無力反抗，我很想哭。折騰我的她卻得到快感，強行灌食是否一如入侵的行為？躺臥的半裸的她，身體被操控不由自主，無法言語；我們只能哭喊互相憐惜慰藉。我想到女子，在性的層面上的被動性；聽誰說過陽具是宣泄，是入侵，陰道只能包容，和愛。但我又想，陽具為何又不能是包容和愛呢？雖或許難。

我很喜歡尾段的紅布與白漆。紅布的包裹像喪葬但又像母體，當她溫柔地覆蓋時突然又緊捏我的頸項然後又撫我的臉。愛好複雜，又暴烈又溫柔，又鍾愛又憎恨。生如此痛楚，無論對母體或胎兒；生育和死亡如此接近，出生又推向死亡。

白漆是甚麼我本來沒定義，其出現是因為我想嘗試物的表演性，而我想要液體，但出來的效果很特別。有點像淚，又像陰道體液；最令我意外的是一位演員說，像精液。這個解讀力量很強。明顯地做work那時的我對男性的身體還非常陌生，現在再做的話，對精液的體會又強烈了很多。

Dance? Choreography…??

很難, 真的很難。

舞蹈能如何用作論述與表意的工具? 作為一個沒有真正浸淫過於舞蹈之中的人, 我乏力理解。

或者太困鎖於窘迫的所謂舞蹈詞彙之中, 突然無法自如地抽身看。不過這卻是每一個坐在”編導”位置者, 所必須面對的痛苦處境。它的魅力在這裏。

每個創作的排演都是痛苦、艱鉅的。在文字上工具手到拿來, 起碼錯了都只是按個backspace, 煩的只是你一個人; 在錄像之上要兼顧多很多機器, 機器不行就不行, 它不賣你的帳, 還有景、演員、crew, 並不是個人的事; 到了劇場之中, …… 多到簡直, 無法數說。

在文字工場的想像模式裏… 董啟章在<天工開物．栩栩如真>裏反覆強調的這種獨裁而自戀的創作世界的方式, 的確魅惑非常… 我只需要想像, 所有的可能世界倏然成真。

錄像於我而言其實是太過於實體化的。想像的經緯因為闖入耳蝸的聲響與刺痛眼簾的光影而被攔住, 切去了許多枝條。 所以起碼, 起碼不要直直的「說故事」。

劇場卻… 劇場竟那麼狐媚。

演員就站在觀眾的眼前, 伸手可觸; 他的呼吸看得見, 幾乎隨之而起伏; 景物、道具分分明明的躺在那裏, 連產生幻變燈光的燈筒、燈架 、電線, 至於強烈光芒的灼熱也是如此的實在。/// 想像的經緯卻愈來愈寬闊、愈來愈宏大、慢慢延展到地平線以外、意識與潛意識的交匯核心處// 我看到思緒的軌跡在交疊、運行，與那些微乎其微的呼吸、心跳顫動相互干涉，不斷擴展，直至無垠… …

關於City and the Self的筆記

在一些可能暫時界定作對立面的二元分位上感到迷惘。

事實上排練經過最初期的概念、到jam、到定下框架，現在進入整合微調的階段，我們陷失了一定的迷失。

從一個議題或論述出發去編排一個舞蹈作品，其難度與挑戰性是顯然易見的：我們並不想把事情簡化為幾個情緒感覺，或者一兩個題旨，便引申出一連串舞蹈動作。我們對議題持開放性的態度，希望留下討論空間，而避免下草率的結論，也增加了事情的難度。

舞蹈可能是一種比較精煉抽象的語言，因此當用來討論在文化以至理論層面皆複雜的城市議題時，年輕的編舞感到乏力。

採取以即興、舞者肢體出發的排演方式，編舞遂墜入一個困局：當form或pattern成為主要的著眼點時，與出發時的意義脫離了緊密的關係。然而這未必是真正的困局。

我們必須更為抓緊中心的題旨，並以舞蹈語言把題旨轉化成一個可觀可感的演出。

在排演以情感(emotion)為主導的舞蹈作品時，事情是否較為容易呢？觀眾容易陷入情緒的流之中，受到共鳴，被感動。Bertolt Brecht的alienation effect關於要觀眾抽離思考的部分，在舞蹈之中又可以怎樣實踐、如何詮釋？ Preview那一天嘉源被critic得很厲害，那幾小時的談話非常harsh。這樣的critic是彌足珍貴的。在旁觀察的我在想，這個作品所挑選的題材和方法，均是令critic更為harsh的原因之一。如果說是一個敍事性的演出，焦點會放了在如何表現情節，這或許對於一個新編舞家來說，是比較易於入手的；而一個以情緒或感覺為主導的作品，排演上會比較易處理，舞蹈動作的肢體表現感體到底是比談論一個話題輕易。而在一個議論性的演出中，大家的腦袋都會理性起來、分析起來。咦…如果能夠做到是讓觀眾思考的話呢…

觀賞經驗(viewing experience)是極重要的考慮環節。

既然稱之為一個「演出」，即是當中有觀眾，因此必須考慮觀眾的觀賞經驗。Theatrespace上scenography時有一個同學問，舞台上那麼多象徵、那麼多符號，其實觀眾閱讀到那麼多嗎？Bee Wan這樣說，那些厚重的東西、背後的意義推演，是冰山的基底；而觀眾看到最後提煉出來的，是冰山浮在水面上的一角。

但是這一角，是否意味著創作者可以以「留待觀眾闡釋的權利」為由，任意做出讓觀眾難以理解、晦澀難明的艱深作品呢？這是很需要討論的一點，斷不能以簡單的對或錯來妄下定論。我認為，「以商業化及通俗口味、直接的語言來迎合觀眾」或者「曲高和寡的藝術門檻」均有其偏頗之處。於我來說，表演藝術的魅力在於其即場性，它必須發生在某一個時空，演者與觀者共同呼吸的奇妙場所－－這是溝通，是交流－－而藝術作品之所以要成為藝術作品，難道其本質上能不包含「分享」這個元素？在這個信念之下，藝術家於創作時，觀者／讀者的位置已然存在。

作為創作者，我們要更為清楚自己的走向。

The form is the content.

考慮形式與內容的緊密關係。

沒有甚麼形式是好或不好，任何形式都有其獨特之處。但當我選取了這個形式時，我是知道，我認為，我相信，這個形式在表達這內容時是有它特殊而不可取代的作用的。好像阿yuk當時critic我Emotion Plagiarist 那個用影印機做的錄像作品時，質問我選取的第一張影像－－我那時只是想了一個form，我覺得那個form非常的好，在process中表現了很多；但阿yuk卻提醒，content究竟佔一席位，觀眾會想，為甚麼會是這張影像，而不是別的？是否有任何特殊的意味？Every little parts count.在一個作品之中，每一個決定都是那麼相互交纏，密不可分。

對過程的看重

嘉源感動於一眾舞者在排練中逐漸培養出默契，於即興中表現出來的肢體的sensibility和awareness，在我看來是極為有趣的。嘉源重視舞者的創作與個體性，這是一種信念，也是一種方向。排練的過程極有意義，我們所看的，未必是一個演出。在目前的階段，我會說是艱困的，因為嘉源採取了許多並不容易的方法。看黑鳥之後，他有感而發的說，為何自己未做過很typical 的dance piece，就要去做一些很「突破」的事呢？

我也不是很清楚如何說，但我想起Walter所說的，又想起Grotovski的para-theatre。劇場(或者表演藝術)，是不是就只是讓觀眾看一個演出，僅此而已？Walter談到的是承傳，與及修煉；中得心源，不只是一次演出，而是long term的。

kiki大人的BU humanities錄像製作