Hugo Chan Ngo Fung is a media artist from Hong Kong. He is an alumni and a former member in the Multimodal and Embodied Interaction (MEI) Laboratory, a Human-Computer-Interaction research group in the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His research interest lies in tangible media, multi-sensory experience, and interaction design. Inspired by the prospective study in new media art, he started experiments on the unique possibilities of fine arts as well as new media technology and sought ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries.
Strange
"In the Mood For ... Strange."
"Seance III" (降靈會III) is a "non-literal" poem written by Taiwanese poet Hsia Yu. When I first read this poem, I struggled to understand its meaning. It was not until I came across another poem by the same poet, "Missing Image" (失蹤的象), that I finally found out what it meant. "Missing Image" (失蹤的象) is a reinterpretation of an ancient text with the author's creative symbolic graffiti. The poem explores the relationship between words as a tool of expression and the meaning they convey. In the poem, it is mentioned that "存言者非得象者也，存象者非得意者也", pointing out that in order to understand the meaning behind the words, one must forget the words themselves as a tool of expression. Hsia Yu even transforms all the word characters into various symbols, as if she wants the reader to forget the words themselves, hoping that the reader can actually feel the meaning behind the words. This became the key to my interpretation of the poem "Seance III" (降靈會III). In re-reading it, I tried not to focus on the words themselves, but to feel the imagery and feelings of the whole poem. I reinterpreted my feelings about "Seance III" (降靈會III) in a visual way. It is not as spiritual as the title suggested, but more like a strange, unfamiliar, broken and detached feeling to me. In the poem, different words are used as a patchwork, while I use different daily objects and movements around me to create a montage. In between movement and stillness, the objects derive a rhythm of their own; and what we have called "the daily life" gradually becomes unfamiliar.