TechBox 2023–2024 Year in review
A learning journey of interdisciplinary experimental collaboration
TechBox is an experimental platform jointly established by WestK Performing Arts and the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Established in 2021 and following a four-year cycle, the platform was launched amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and the timing of its inception coincided well with the project’s research and learning-oriented approach, providing media artists and the TechBox team* with ample time for experimentation and development.
LEVEL 66—The Arcade Project (2024) marks the end of the first cycle of this cross-disciplinary experimental platform. This video traces the artists' creative journey over the year, including workshops and the various stages of the production.
In LEVEL 66 – The Arcade Project, Principal Artist Ip Yuk-yiu attempts to stage an experimental performance that explores issues of agency, performativity and the human condition. Ip draws inspiration from games to shape the creative framework. Building upon straightforward competitive concepts, he incorporates fundamental principles of game design into the performance narrative. The TechBox team faces the challenge of employing a range of elements, including lighting, projection, soundscape and spatial layout, to design both virtual and physical settings. Navigating through fluid and evolving spaces, the team guides the audience to co-create the present reality, playfully interpreting the intricate aspects of the real world.
* TechBox team members include teachers, students and alumni from the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, as well as Theatre team, and Technical and Production team from WestK Performing Arts.
Principal Artist: Ip Yuk-yiu
Lighting Designer: Rachel Ip Chun-lam
Sound Designer: Allison Fong Tsz-ching
Composer: Ian Tang
Moving Image Design: Homan So^
Set and Costume Designer: Jessie Lam^
Interaction Designer: Fong Ka-sin
Assistant Technical Director: Denzel Yung Cheuk-lun
^With support and kind permission of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Principal Artist
Ip Yuk-yiu
Ip Yuk-yiu is an experimental filmmaker, media artist, art educator and independent curator whose recent work explores hybrid creative forms informed by cinema, video games and contemporary media art practices. Ip’s work has been showcased at major international venues and festivals, including European Media Art Festival, New York Film Festival (views from the avant-garde), the Image Festival, VideoBrasil, Transmediale and WRO Media Art Bienniale. Ip is the founder of the art.ware project, an independent curatorial initiative promoting new media art in Hong Kong, and was recognised as Artist of the Year (Media Arts) at the 2018 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. He is currently Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.