Press Release cum Invitation 14 March 2003
TIME-EYE AT HKUST PUTS HONG KONG ON GLOBAL HI-TECH MEDIA ART SCENE
An international media arts project that employs high technologies to track the continuous movement of sunlight round the earth has chosen Hong Kong to represent its time zone, with the scientific installation to be completed at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) next Wednesday (19 March).
Under the Sunpendulum Project, conceived and realized by Austrian artist Hofstetter Kurt, video cameras the Time-Eyes are set up in 12 of the world s time zones, directed towards the sky and connected online to the internet. The images captured will be transmitted to pavilions each with 12 screens installed in a circle. With the rotation of earth, sunlight will be moving within the circle of the screens, creating a unique experience of day and night in parallels in the pavilion.
Eight Sunpendulum Time-Eyes have already been installed in the Maui island of Hawaii, Ensenada (Mexico), New Orleans, Bermuda, the Azores (Portugal), Granada, Cairo and Dubai. Hong Kong is the ninth home for a Sunpendulum Time-Eye, and the process of identifying the location for a pavilion in this region is underway.
Mr Hofstetter says: Sunpendulum is a world-spanning, multidisciplinary project through which artists, scientists, architects, technicians, engineers and managers around the world work closely together. With the involvement of universities and research centers in different countries, Sunpendulum is building up an academic network which crosses borders and stimulates cross-cultural exchanges. We are glad that Hong Kong and HKUST will participate in this exciting project.
Prof Otto C C Lin, Vice-President for Research and Development at HKUST, says the University is proud to take part in the Sunpendulum project, which is helping to put Hong Kong on the world s innovative and hi-tech media art scene.
Since 1976 the main elements of Mr Hofstetter s artistic activities have been about parallelism and circulation, explosion-implosion, light and time. His music compositions, experimental photocopies and photographs, computer animations, media installations, as well as drawings and concepts show a continuous process leading to the Sunpendulum Project. With the support of the Vienna University of Technology as a collaboration partner, the Austrian Government and its National Tourist Office, as well as the City of Vienna, Mr Hofstetter was able to begin the Sunpendulum Project in 1998.
Members of the media are welcome to attend a presentation about the Sunpendulum Project. Details are as follows:
The Sunpendulum Project presentation
Date: 19 March 2003 (Wednesday) Time: 11:30 am
Venue: Executive Education Classroom I, 6/F, Annex (Lifts 29-30), HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Present: Mr Hofstetter Kurt, Media Artist, Director of the Sunpendulum Project Dr Armin Daneshgar, Vienna University of Technology
Prof Paul Chu, President, HKUST
Prof Otto Lin, Vice-President for Research and Development, HKUST Details of the Sunpendulum Project are available at www.sunpendulum.at
For media enquiries only: Adrian Cheung
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Tel: (852) 2358-6305 email: acheung@ust.hk
