Art And Technology: A Perfect Combination For Innovation

Symposium:

• ISEA2016: 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art

• Art And Technology: A Perfect Combination For Innovation

• Cees de Bont
• Hanna Wirman

Venue(s):

• Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR China

• PolyU Design opened its doors to an ever wider range of international and local initiatives as we moved to the Jockey Club Innovation Tower designed by Zaha Hadid in 2014. Building on both strong commercial collaborations and significant social innovation projects, we aim to better the world by themeans of design. It is our great pleasure to be part of ISEA2016 team this year as we see value in workingside by side and collaboratively with artists with overlapping values and goals. Artists have the powerto push latest technologies, while our goal is to find
  sustainable and practical uses. Design and art can goside by side when major corporations invest in experimentationand interactive and electronic art oftenserve as inspiration for our students workingwith technology. We find ourselves sharing the goalsof various artistic pursuits when the local societyand social concerns are addressed by creative processesof the two kind – art and design. Developments in all kinds of technology fieldsare providing a mere-a-boire of possibilities to enrich our lives and to save the planet. Compared toany other discipline, the art field remains to be the most liberal of any types of conventions, with the exception of the mastering of some technical skills, in terms of selecting the topics to work on and in terms of choosing the form of expression. Artist, be it in film, poetry or installations, have always been able to carve out human feelings and emotions and they have been most sensitive to changes in society. The marriage of art and technology, as we will see in the ISEA conference, will inform us about who weare, about what we feel and about our common future. In the 2016 ISEA conference, CityU with a strength in media art and PolyU with a strength in design are the hosts. The conference provides a platform for the two universities to collaborate on bringing the marriage between art and technology to Hong Kong. Where media art is a source of inspiration, design thinks about how to take the inspiration further in to valuable products, services and systems further to the benefit of individual, organizations and society.
  Hong Kong is a special place with its own characteristics. Technologies are universal and travel for that reason, but art and design often have a local touch to it. They are about creating meaning that is embedded in social and cultural layers. Hong Kong being one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with a creative reputation that was built from the 70’s and 80’s of the last century is going through major changes in the transformation from a British colony to becoming one of the many cities in China. It fights to keep its identity and its uniqueness. The2016 ISEA will be a massive expression of feelings,emotions and it will also show and inspire many new possibilities. That will stimulate many discussions on the real issues, with inspirational pathways to a better future.