Peter Williams, Chui Ying Wong: Where Are We Now?

Artist(s):

• Peter Williams
• Chui Ying Wong

Title:

Where Are We Now?

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH Asia 2024: Art Gallery: Neither Utopia Nor Dystopia

Medium:

360-Degree Photography-Based Interactive Artwork

Category:

• Interactive and Monitor-Based

Artist Statement:

Where Are We Now? is a 360-degree photography-based interactive artwork that reflects on recent histories and present moments of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a place of rapid reinvention where dramatically different cultures, economies and politics mix in unexpected ways. Especially since 2018, its people are experiencing some of the city’s most significant changes in several generations.
The landscape scroll is tremendously significant in Chinese culture and history. Modern and contemporary artists such as Wu Guanzhong (冠中), Hong Hao (洪) and Yang Yongliang (泳梁) have in more recent decades interpreted scrolls through abstracted, virtual, composite and augmented environments. The panoramic photographs seen in Where Are We Now? are printed onto horizontal and vertical scrolls which are woven together, creating a mashup of past and present. The printed scrolls are driven by motors to move in left/right/up/down directions through a combination of randomization and visitor interaction. While panoramic and 360- degree imagery is typically used to produce vast, navigable and immersive experiences, Where Are We Now? is a relatively small, dense, directionless object contemplating the intense, congested and dynamic city space of Hong Kong.