University Review
Pioneering art tech research and development
Advancing the arts with technology
Nowadays, the boundaries between disciplines have become blurred, and interdisciplinary collaboration is an irresistible trend. Artists and scientists at HKBU are working together to push the frontiers of human imagination in the artistic and cultural disciplines using the latest technologies.
Last year, our commitment to transdisciplinary research and the evolving art tech field was recognised with HK$52.8 million in funding from the Theme-based Research Scheme (11th round) under the Research Grants Council for the five-year “Building Platform Technologies for Symbiotic Creativity in Hong Kong” project. The grant marks the first time that significant funding has been allocated for a major art tech initiative in Hong Kong.
Led by Professor Guo Yike, then Vice-President (Research and Development), and Professor Johnny Poon, Associate Vice-President (Interdisciplinary Research) and Founding Dean of the School of Creative Arts, the project reached a particularly significant milestone earlier this year, as a pioneering and bold attempt to apply artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the performing arts formed the centrepiece of the HKBU Symphony Orchestra Annual Gala Concert 2022.
The innovative performance was the first human-machine collaboration of its kind in the world, and it showcased how AI can be a creative force that can perform music, create cross-media art and dance. At the Concert, the HKBU Symphony Orchestra shared the stage with an AI virtual choir, which comprised the voices of 320 virtual performers, to perform a newly arranged version of the song Pearl of the Orient. At the same time, an AI media artist learnt from the lyrics of the song. Using textual lyrics as the sole input, it associated the underlying meaning of the lyrics with an appreciation of the beauty of Hong Kong to create a stunning cross-media visual narrative of the song. It marked the first time in the world that an AI choir had combined with a machine-generated media artist to perform interactively with a conductor and an orchestra.
Another highlight of the Concert was a ballet performance featuring AI virtual dancers in Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, accompanied live by the HKBU Symphony Orchestra. In collaboration with professional dancers, HKBU scientists trained the AI choreographic tool to learn the underlying emotional and aesthetic connections between the music and the dance. The generated ballet was performed by virtual dancers based on the machine’s own understanding of the music.
The research team are also working to develop platform technologies for symbiotic creativity, providing unlimited art content for humans, including an art data repository, an AI creative algorithm system, a research theatre, a digital art and policy network, and some unique and creative application projects to usher in a new era of art tech.
In many ways, the project represents our direction of travel, and HKBU will continue to be a thriving creative hub energised by the interplay of the arts and science and technology.
Exploring the opportunities presented by art-tech
Exploring the opportunities presented by art tech
The University held the “Next-Generation Art Technologies Forum” last August, and it brought together experts from industry, academia and government to discuss the fusion of science, technology and art, and the opportunities presented by the new era of art tech.
The Forum, conducted in hybrid mode, was co-organised by the Cameron Pace Group – China, a 3D technology and production company led by renowned movie director James Cameron; the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne of Switzerland; and the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong.
In the digital age it is essential to adapt in order to thrive. The Forum gave an overview of the latest developments in art tech, and it also shed light on the opportunities that this age offers both globally and in Hong Kong.
Excellence in the arts
HKBU won the Excellence and Innovation in the Arts award at the Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2021. The University received this honour for its strikingly original, creative and collaborative interdisciplinary research project “Space to Breathe”, which has attracted great praise from audiences and reviewers alike.
“Space to Breathe” was a multidisciplinary research project that combined big data analysis with immersive music and installation art practices to bring climate change research to life. By combining real-time climate and pollution data with subjective human experiences of air quality in Hong Kong, the resulting performance aimed to connect data with human experiences and climate science with personal action, and it used the human voice as a performative instrument to bring these concepts to life. The innovative idea behind the project was highly commended by the judging panel.
