Opening Showcase: City Reverie
Programme Info
Synopsis
Tap into the emotional pulse of a city and its people
City Reverie is a 50-minute interdisciplinary performance that uses piano, media art, and emotional tracking technology to tap into the emotional pulse of Hong Kong.
At the core of the work is the concept of “pianographique”: the meeting of piano music and digital visualisation. Here, Fung Lam's music direction meets Vvzela Kook's media art. When the tactile touch of the keys extends into lines of light, music is not only performed; it is painted into the air. Through a shifting audiovisual landscape of layered city lines, harbour contours, and fields of abstract light, Hong Kong is reimagined: not merely as architecture or skyline, but as memory, rhythm, and an inner terrain shaped by those who inhabit it.
A pivotal chapter of the performance incorporates emotional tracking technology, which collects real-time affective data from that night's audience. These ephemeral signals are transformed into compositional material for a unique final movement, generated and performed live. Sound and image converge, forming an audiovisual landscape shaped by shared feeling in the room.
The score is born of the here and now – a resonance that will never occur in quite the same way again.
City Reverie is part of “ARTS · TECH 4.0”, presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
About the Artist
Joel Kwong
Curator & Producer
Vvzela Kook
Media Artist
Fung Lam
Music Director
Silver Cheung
Art Director
Joel Kwong
Joel Kwong is an experienced media art curator and producer, currently the programme director of the annual Microwave New Media Arts Festival in Hong Kong and the founder of SIBYLS, an arts and technology consultation and production agency. With over 18 years of expertise in media art, spanning research, curation, and production, her most recent projects include Pluriversal Futures (co-curated with Ars Electronica Export Team) (Hong Kong), Microwave New Media Arts Festival 2025 (Hong Kong), ARTS·TECH Exhibition 3.0 – The Lighthouse (Hong Kong), Through the Lens of (Chengdu), and the Daito Manabe & Maywa Denki Performance at TTXC 2024 (Kaohsiung).
In addition to curation and research, Kwong has been delivering talks and lectures in different festivals and institutions, including Shenzhen Media Art Festival, ACT Festival in Gwangju, the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, and FILMART & Entertainment EXPO in Hong Kong. Currently, she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Lingnan University.
Vvzela Kook
Vvzela Kook is a new media artist working across audiovisual mediums, including computer graphics, drawing, performance, and theatre. Her work demonstrates a sustained fascination with the byproducts and outcasts of modernity, seeking to unearth the hidden stories embedded in the technological and urban landscapes that define our era.
Her research-based projects masterfully combine delicate drawings, 3D printing, and video game optics. Through this transmedia storytelling, she guides audiences on cybernetic journeys that condense texture and sensation, reintroducing the unexplored potential of videos.
Kook has collaborated and exhibited her works at various organisations, including Tai Kwun (2025, 2023), Echigo-Tsumari (2023), Kathmandu Triennial (2022), Para Site (2020), and C-Lab Taipei (2019). Her works are in the collections of M+ Museum, KADIST, and private collections. She was the recipient of the Award for Young Artist (Media Arts) from the 14th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards in 2020.
Fung Lam
Classically trained as a composer, Fung Lam has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a composer, artist, and artistic planner. Lam holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Sussex in the UK. His music has been performed at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Proms and in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Sydney Opera House, and Royal Albert Hall and the South Bank Centre in London. He holds the distinction of being the first Hong Kong composer to be commissioned by the BBC. His prolific and diverse output includes over 10 orchestral works, including three BBC commissions and two works commissioned by Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the recipient of the Award for Young Artist (Music) of Hong Kong Arts Development Awards in 2011.
Silver Cheung
Born in Hong Kong in 1966, Silver Cheung apprenticed under the renowned Hong Kong film production and costume designer, William Chang.
Cheung began working in film art direction in 1985, making his debut with Wong Kar-wai's As Tears Go By. In 1993, he officially became a production and costume designer. His first film as production designer was Too Many Ways to Be No.1 (1995), directed by Wai Ka-fai.
Throughout his thirty-year career in Hong Kong's film industry, Cheung has contributed to over seventy film productions and has collaborated with numerous leading film directors. His works span a wide spectrum of styles and subjects, placing particular emphasis on cultural identity and actively supporting emerging Hong Kong filmmakers.
Remarks
- Free seating.
- You are recommended to arrive 15 minutes before the event starts. Latecomers will be admitted at appropriate times.
- Programmes are subject to change without prior notice. HKPAX reserves the right to final decision regarding programme arrangements.
