A day at Hong Kong's Asia Art Archive, 31 January 2013
Mon, Jul 8 2013
A few months ago, on January 31, an 8-hour internet-free workshop took place at the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. The workshop had the objective of harvesting quotes from amongst the thousands of books, artists correspondence,
articles, exhibition invitations that are available at the archive, that made reference to three main subjects: "Influence" (on references, legacy, canalisation), "Itinerary" (on events, time, place, location) or "Moderation" (on collaboration, group dynamics, strategies for participation, partnerships).
The workshop was led by artist/writer and Moderation(s)
moderator Heman Chong, together with curatorial duo Latitudes, and counted with the participation of two Incidents of Travel artists' Nadim Abbas and Yuk King Tan, as well as with Spring Workshop founder Mimi Brown and Chantal Wong, Head of Strategy & Special Projects at Asia Art Archive.
The results of these processes or 'entry points' will be presented later this year (date TBA) on a temporary shelf within the Asia Art Archive, where a host of bookmarks, Post-it notes, and jottings placed within books and documents will reveal the traces of an extended interpersonal conversation. On a related note, and following on from that experience, Latitudes mantained a conversation with the above mentioned Chantal Wong, as well as with Hammad Nasar (Head of Research and Programmes) and Lydia Ngai (Head Librarian) of the Asia Art Archive in the context of Latitudes' #OpenCurating research project. The conversation was published at the end of April, as the concluding chapter of a series of ten interviews conducted since August 2012 with artists, editors, curators, archivists and new media specialists on how the internet and the ongoing expectation for new forms of interaction between publics is changing contemporary art museums programmes.  | ||||||
| Workshop participants (left to right) Artist Nadim Abbas; curators Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes; artist, writer and Moderation(s) moderator Heman Chong, artist Yuk King Tan, Spring Workshop founder Mimi Brown; Head of Strategy & Special Projects at Asia Art Archive, Chantal Wong; and Athena Wu, Programme Manager at Spring Workshop. |
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| View of Sheung Wan area from the Asia Art Archive. Photo: Latitudes. |
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| A quick database search before jumping onto the bookshelves. |
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| Reading, selecting, highlighting, noting down... Photo: Mimi Brown. |
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| Workshop participants amongst Asia Art Archive's library stacks. |
- (1 May 2013) "Archive as Method: An Interview with Chantal Wong, Hammad Nasar and Lydia Ngai" of the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. Final #OpenCurating interview.
- Soundscapes of "Incidents of Travel";
- Storify "Incidents of Travel";
- Flickr album of the four tours of "Incidents of Travel".
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All photos: Spring Workshop (except when noted otherwise).
