EVENT: HUGH DAVIES, HONG KONG ARCHITECTURE IN THE VIDEOGAME VERNACULAR (MARCH 2 2019, HONG KONG)
Hugh Davies in conversation with Marie Foulston, moderated by Ikko YokoyamaMarch 2, 2019 (Saturday)2:00 pm–5:30 pm
Function Rooms, 2/F, Hotel Stage 1 Chi Wo Street, JordanHong Kong
Featured in over 150 titles, Hong Kong is curiously over-represented in videogames. Spanning nostalgic depictions of Kowloon Walled City to futuristic projections in the cyberpunk style, the visual reflections of Hong Kong exceed the territory on which they are based. What accounts for these prolific virtual depictions, and how do they correspond to the actual location? Discussing the intersection of the so-called ‘ludic century’ and the ‘Asian century’, this presentation explores representations of Hong Kong in digital games, and in doing so, reveals implications for the city as both a global hub and a cultural object. The presentation will be in English, with simultaneous interpretation in CantoneseHugh Davies is an artist and researcher who explores playful devices and the city as game board. Through practice-based research, he examines how play becomes a movable line separating games and the everyday, and reality and fiction. In 2014, he received a PhD in Art, Design and Architecture from Monash University, examining transmedia games. In recent years, he has researched Asia-Pacific game cultures as a funded researcher at Tokyo Arts and Space, and at M+ and Design Trust in Hong Kong. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT University. His previous writing on the ludic representations of Hong Kong can be found here.