HKDI Gallery Kick Starts World-Class Exhibition Line-Up with Inaugural Launch of “Interactive and Playful – Swiss Design from Zurich University of the Arts”
Committed to promoting excellence and advancement in design through international partnerships, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) and Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) (Lee Wai Lee), member institutions of the Vocational Training Council (VTC), are delighted to launch “Interactive and Playful – Swiss Design from Zurich University of the Arts” – a multimedia exhibition hosted in celebration of the partnership with Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Bringing world-class visionaries to the city, this is the first of HKDI Gallery’s three large-scale exhibitions curated as part of the 2018 programme.
From now until 27 January, 2019 at the HKDI Experience Centre, “Interactive and Playful – Swiss Design from Zurich University of the Arts” showcases 10 distinctive projects by ZHdK students and graduates, spanning across industrial design, visual communications, sensory explorations and interactive installations. Exploring narratives inspired by the social, experiential, and conceptual parts of the everyday life, the multimedia exhibition challenges the limits in the digitalisation of design through providing an immersive, interactive experience that transcends purely technical functions or fashionable qualities, as design was once perceived to be.
On Friday, 5 October, the exhibition was launched to great success in an opening ceremony. Esteemed guests in attendance include Mr. Reto Renggli and Mr. Andreas Rufer, Consul General and Deputy Consul General of Consulate General of Switzerland in Hong Kong, Dr. Lay Lian Ong, Principal of HKDI & IVE (LWL), Mr. Karr Yip, Chairman of Hong Kong Designers Association, Mr. Steve Yeung, President of Industrial Designers Society of Hong Kong, and Mr. Gabriel Pang, Chairman of Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association, as well as elite professionals from the design industries. A Master Lecture was also held by ZHdK’s Prof. Hansuli Matter (Head of Design, ZHdK), Prof. Michael Krohn (Head of the Master of Arts in Design, ZHdK) and Ms. Karin Zindel (Exhibition curator & Research Associate of the Master of Arts in Design, ZHdK) followed by an engaging guided tour to allow VIPs, industry leaders and students to get a glimpse into current trends in the practice of design.
Addressing the impact of digitalisation on the design industry, “Interactive and Playful – Swiss Design from Zurich University of the Arts” not only explores and challenges the boundaries of today’s design practice beyond physical limits of objects and spaces, but also reinforces HKDI and ZDhK’s insights and understanding of this vital, emerging trend that has been refining the role, value and understanding of design over the past decades. Shifting from superficial to immersive, practical to experiential, designers worldwide have been forced to appropriate and transform everyday artefacts into something new.
Addressing experiences, emotions and senses outside the visible and the tangible, the exhibition places emphasis on narration as a perplexing, ever-shifting context that has been looming over design practice today. The name, “Interactive and Playful”, draws roots in the intertwined relationship of the narrative and the experiential – a playful approach to experimenting new realities and imparting knowledge of the increasingly digitalised world through curiosity and amusement. Presenting various possible realities surrounded by immersive media and intelligent objects, the exhibition explores the symbiosis of human interactions with intelligent objects in future, physical realms.
Highlights from the show include the interactive kinetic light installation “Through Momentum”; “Titan Arum”, an interactive exhibit of the extremely rare moment of the blooming of the largest flower in the world; and “Smell Forward”, a fictional exploration of the scents of the past, present and future.
