Note

Once populous and an important trading post, Ma Wan Village is now an abandoned place. Located under the Tsing Ma Bridge, the village was inhabited since the 1960s but was resumed by the government in the 90s for development. Villagers were forced to leave their homes. The vacant village has however not been torn down completely, leaving empty houses and traces of livings by predecessors and visitors. Most of the structures of the village are still kept intact: it acts as a fragment of time that is sealed inside a glass case. Ma Wan Village: Space-Time Capsule is an audiovisual experience, participants will wear VR headsets and "meander” through each corner of Ma Wan Village. 

馬灣村曾是昔日繁榮的貿易港口，現為荒廢了的村落，位於青馬大橋橋下，自上世紀60年代已有人居住。90年代政府以馬灣發展為由收回村地，村民大舉遷離家園。然而馬灣村至今仍未完全清拆，到處仍可窺探村民昔日生活的痕跡，牆身亦保留著遊人佔據的記號，當刻的時空被封鎖了。紀錄以錄像及聲音與學生分享，學生帶上虛擬實境眼鏡，潛入馬灣村靜止了的時空，以第一身「遊走」荒廢無人的小巷，凝視當刻的一切。

Investigation

• To create an “experiential exhibition” in which the exhibition space itself is transformed into an art installation: one that encompasses moving images, spatialized sounds, and interactive elements.

• To explore the exhibition as a medium for story-telling: a linear and layer-upon-layer approach of which the exhibition experience is more curated. 

• To “recreate” and reimagine space or location that is no longer be. 

Implementation

The exhibition is divided into three sections. First, the audience enters the pitch dark space in which information, which is only visible under UV light, is displayed on the wall. They may choose from one of the four locations of interest for further exploration. Second, they are brought to the middle section where static videos of each of the locations are displayed on a CRT monitor. They are also instructed to listen to a short audio narration about the background of each of the locations. Lastly, each participant are brought to the VR station in which a 360 video of that location is displayed on the VR headset, along with binaural audio being played over a headset. 

The project is held in a “camera obscura-esque”blackbox, with videos projecting on all sides of the venue. The experience lasts for approximately 15 minutes.