Blog: Hong Kong Agent: decode the city
Hong Kong has historically been in the position of an agent, a go-between acting for others; in between cultures, economies and political systems. Where is the agency of Hong Kong and its people now?
Remix the city
You can watch, download and remix videos of the Agent as he decodes the city.
All media in this project are tagged “Hong Kong Agent” and are released for remixing under the Creative Commons “derivatives by attribution” licence. More about CC licences here
Pool asked Robert Iolini, the multi media artist who's creating the Hong Kong agent series to share with the Pool community a bit about his process, some of the challenges and also solutions he has come up with.
Robert Writes:
The Hong Kong Agent is a cross-media multi-platform project. With outcomes planned for online - interactive/video-on-demand, handheld devices – mobile phones/games/media players, radio, TV, cinema, DVD.
This is an ambitious brief to fulfil and presents an interesting challenge when dealing with rules of engagement and storytelling. Therefore it was necessary to devise a suitable narrative form that can accommodate reconfiguring and repurposing of narrative content without sacrificing meaning and dramatic thrust.
At the heart of the project is a growing collection of episodes. Each episode follows the adventures of an enigmatic protagonist, simply referred to as 'The Agent'. His poetic renderings of what he experiences, and the stories and dialogues of numerous characters reveal a richly layered complex world.
The modular nature of the narrative renders ordering of episodes arbitrary, as each episode is a self-contained, finely wrought audio visual setpiece. The Hong Kong Agent doesn't follow a linear narrative the story is directed by the protagonist’s experiences and descriptions of events. It's the information embedded in these events that's compelling, not how they came to be.
The narrative is vertical rather than horizontal (like the structure of the city which the denizens of Hong Kong inhabit). Thus the journey is into rather than along the narrative - Vertical Narratives.
Robert Iolini’s site
www.iolini.com
Exhibition
The Hong Kong Agent will be exhibited on Gallery 4A's front window from sunset to sunrise as part of the Nightvision series until July 26th.
The Hong Kong Agent functions in a "bluezone" - it has a bluetooth component which allows passers-by to be tantalised with sneak trailers of the entire work. Daytime travellers and night-time audiences will be able to download 10 microsodes of The Hong Kong Agent to their mobile phones, MP3 players and other handheld devices. These glimpses of The Hong Kong Agent will draw them back to see the entire work at Gallery 4A's front window. In the meantime, the 10 micro-sodes can be collected and mashed to the user's delight.
www.4a.com.au
http://www.dlux.org.au/artcinema/english/3.html and scroll down just a little bit
08.06.08 — Robert Iolini
Hong Kong Agent POOL/REMIX FILES.
I've uploaded some avi. hirez files from two episides - Daimaru Ghost Bus & Hello Kitty MTR Interlude. I'm happy to upload specific un-produced elements on request. Hope this is helpful.
robert iolini
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06.05.08 — Gretchen Miller
Hi Robert,
I really enjoyed these three little clips. Their sense of mystery 'works' and is quite compelling. I particularly liked Ghost Bus... leaving from who knows where, to a place that no longer has the point of reference after which it is named - funny how we associate that idea with places of antiquity, or at least distant history - not shopping centres!
Can I ask you a couple of questions about your process... As a composer, someone who's worked mainly in sound, when did you start using video? Do you find your sound experience gives you a 'different' approach?
Practically, I know these projects have limited budgets - so with Ghost Bus, did you set up the video yourself... and hope for the best?! or did you have help? Did you write the script for the young man based on his history, or did you use an actor to read something that is entirely fictional... Did you know the effect you wanted beforehand, or did you decide what to do with it post-recording? These may be secrets that create the mystery and that you don't want to reveal of course - but they're also interesting approaches for Pool members to understand and learn from, if you don't mind sharing your process as well as your content!
cheers
Gretchen
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20.05.08 — Robert Iolini
Hi Gretchen,
Thanks for your comments and questions. Apologies for the delay. Your questions are important and require lengthy discussion. However I'll do my best to answer them in an economical way:-)
>As a composer, someone who's worked mainly in sound, when did you start using video?
I began seriously working with images and sound in a non linear computer environment around 2001. During my artist residency at the ABC’s Listening Room in 2002 - 2003 I shot a lot of video and worked with sound archives and scripted text. I actually produced a 40 minute film, however I wasn’t satisfied with the result so I never released it. I was however, satisfied with the sound component which exists as a radiophonic piece, ‘The Sound of Forgetting’. My research during the ABC residency was invaluable and paved the way for this latest work The Hong Kong Agent.
>Do you find your sound experience gives you a 'different' approach?
All my work is influenced by my studies in music composition. My approach to creativity has always been inclusive. Even when I was working strictly with music I was always thinking of narratives and images. When I began producing pieces for The Listening Room back in 1994, I was introduced to a new way of working with sound. I learnt how to apply music composition processes to spoken word, archival material, environmental sounds etc. It was a liberating experience. I was influenced by film directors such as Jean Luc Godard and Peter Greenaway as much as composers like Luciano Berio and Holger Czukay. When it became affordable to edit high quality video on a generic consumer computer I was able to experiment with images and sound simultaneously. To this day I approach editing video as if I’m composing a piece of music.
>Practically, I know these projects have limited budgets - so with Ghost Bus, did you set up the video yourself... and hope for the best?! or did you have help?
In this particular scene on the mini bus I had a volunteer assistant camera person Beatrix Pang. Beatrix is a Hong Kong visual artist working in the ACO artist residency studio where I was staying in Wan Chai. During this project I was fortunate to have the support of various universities and orgs. For example the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong organised an intern to work with me named Ting Chan. He ended up ‘acting’ in various episodes eg, Daimaru Ghost Bus, and conversations we had we’re consequently incorporated into scripted dialogues. He also shot the PAYG Shamanic Mobile Service Centre episode. I was also offered ‘in kind’ support from the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre. They kindly gave me 'visiting scholar' status which meant I could access technical equipment and research facilities.
>Did you write the script for the young man based on his history, or did you use an actor to read something that is entirely fictional...
The script is a mixture of Ting’s real family history, plus themes relating to Japanese cultural influences and social research around memory and place, plus my own highly subjective experiences ‘drifting’ through Mong Kok.
>Did you know the effect you wanted beforehand, or did you decide what to do with it post-recording?
I had an idea of the visual effect of the bus scene beforehand. The vox treatment came later. We overdubbed all the vox in post. The other visual material was collected knowing it would be used somewhere. All the elements came together quickly once I started editing each episode. If I needed something extra I’d just go out and shoot it. 7 months allowed time to collect enough material:-)
Regards - Robert
Links below:
Beatrix Pang
http://the-artists.org/artistsblog/posts/st_content_001.cfm?id=2699
ACO Art and Culture Outreach
http://www.aco.hk/blog/
School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong http://www.cityu.edu.hk/scm/
University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Center http://jmsc.hku.hk/cms/
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