An Interactive, Digital Installation by Linda Lai and Theresa Junko Mikuriya

Official Selection for the Hong Kong Art Biennial 11.2003-03.2004 (Hong Kong Museum of Art 3F)

Technical Artists: Keith Lam, Ray Chan / Producer: County Tam

Push is a digital media installation which explores the repressed voices of women.  The viewer embarks upon a journey into a world of hidden menace and lurking dangers, a vacuum space where the woman’s voice is suppressed and her face obliterated.  The narrative unfolds into a succession of images and scenarios in which the viewer participates to set the trapped woman free and to help her claim her voice and body.

The viewing of a photograph is often a silent and contemplative event.  In Push, the photograph is no longer a still, impenetrable image but, instead, an enigmatic plastic surface of visual codes, paralleled by sounds and mobile texts of exegesis, digression, allusion, or even challenge.  A world of impermanence emerges, marking a space in which thoughts and yearnings require no physical body to persist.

The installation consists of a dark room lit only by the light emanating from the photographs projected on one side of the wall.  A keyboard, a mouse-sensor and a microphone allow the visitor-operator to interact with projected world through tactile movements.  The participants discover the world as well as their own navigation habits or patterns as they attempt to force through the unfolding narrative. This work is not an easy journey. It challenges the destination-oriented and pure functional use of the mouse for a quick click; it slows down the user in order that she will begin to discover what is on the surface of an image.

*Creative Text: literary paraphrase of the mouse-click journey by Linda Lai ［English］[Chinese]

*Citation in the official catalogue of the HK Art Biennial 2003 [open]

Technical Description: parts + diagrams + system flow

"Push" is created with a combination of Flash Action Script and Director Lingo. The forward navigation is controlled by the "hidden buttons" located in different positions in each image; users need to find a key to move from one image area to the next. Each area has its own charateristic.
In the installation setup, we keep to the minimal: a computer box to disclose the computer, a pair of speakers, a projector and a screen. The four walls of the room are painted black. The projector is set 4 metres away from the screen, and the width of the projection is around 2 meters.

[Technial drawing and floor plan]

[Image-narrative design]

Samplers of individual episodes (interactive)

Play the full works

 

推」∶探尋嗓音、設置身體

黎肖嫻、陳超敏

技術協力：林欣傑、陳志恆 ／ 監製：譚敏義

《推》是一個數碼媒體裝置，旨在探尋女性被壓抑的聲音。這個裝置是一個用黑色隔板搭起來的黑色房間，房間裏的一面牆上是由投影儀展示的一組圖文影像。參觀者可以通過一個鍵盤、觸摸式滑鼠、米高峰等進入、並探究牆上的世界。

參觀者走進裝置空間的時候，會感受到一種暗藏著敵意與潛在危險的氣氛，看到一個女性的聲音被壓抑，面容和身體正在被擦去的“真空”世界。觀看照片一般是一個無聲的、引人思考的過程。在《推》的世界裏，照片不再是靜止的、不可穿越的圖片，而是亮麗脆弱、密碼連綿的謎面在黑暗中搖晃著，聲的碎片與流動的字句有時在解釋演繹，有時伴隨、惺惺相惜、或聲東擊西、旁敲側擊、策問、甚至向表像發出挑戰。不覺間，參觀者在這看得見、聽得見、卻握不住，瞬間流散化開的世界裏，欲望著要看見那些被囚困在無形桎梏中的女人的身體，要聽到她的聲音。她會否領回身體與行動？又按誰的願望呢？

又或，訪客發現的是自己的網上航行習慣，按鼠追蹤的技倆？