Joint ACM SIGGRAPH Traveling Art Show and Playful Media exhibition on display at CityU
June Tse
The participation in the design of the Art Show venues and posters and the organization of the Playful Media exhibition demonstrate students’ strong sense of creativity.
The Asian debut of the ACM SIGGRAPH Traveling Art Show, from 2 June to 31 July in Hong Kong, features more than 50 masterpieces of 22 world-renowned computer graphic artists. The roving exhibition is being held in six locations in Hong Kong. CityU is the second venue and the first educational institution where the exhibition takes place.
At the opening ceremony of the Art Show and Playful Media exhibition at CityU on 18 June, Professor Richard Ho Yan-ki, Acting President of CityU, said he was glad to have the ACM SIGGRAPH Traveling Art Show held in CityU and was deeply impressed by the students’ innovation showcased in the Playful Media exhibition.
“I believe that the School of Creative Media makes great contributions in developing students’ talent and training them to become professionals in the creative media industry,” said Professor Ho.
Seven SCM students have designed the exhibition venues of the Art Show,
integrating architectural arts and technology. They have designed some movable wooden display boards which can be assembled into various shapes to fit different features of the venues, thus forming a stylish artwork by themselves.
Another unique design by the students is the “Info-Bar” in the centre of some of the venues. By simply placing the specially designed exhibition brochure on the interactive table of the Info-Bar, the pattern representing each artist shown in the brochure will be detected. Detailed information about the artist will then be projected onto the interactive table of the Info-Bar.
Ray Cheung Ho-yin, Year 2 student of the SCM, who helped design the venue, was glad to have the opportunity to play a role in the Art Show which has enabled him to develop his potential in venue design. “I feel very happy that we can actually present our design concepts to the visitors,” he said.
The concurrent Playful Media exhibition from 18 June to 21 June, showcasing innovative computer games, interactive installations and applied artworks by SCM students, is organized by the Special Interest Groups of the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Creative Media programme.
The Groups were initiated and organized by SCM students and faculty members. Students initiate projects of their own interests ranging from innovative computer games, interactive installations to applied artworks using different digital-electronic technologies. “The Groups provide excellent opportunities for students to immerse in both artistic and scientific aspects of digital media creation,” said Professor Liu Zhi-qiang of SCM, who is the Programmme Leader of the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Creative Media programme. “Through participation in supervised extracurricular, professional research and development activities under the Groups, students can gain in-depth learning experience and build up excellent portfolios.”
“To let students learn effectively and become successful professionals, they should have the opportunity to learn and practice in addition to the curriculum and internship practice. To achieve this it requires motivation and passion from students. By developing an in-depth learning programme through the Special Interest Groups, teaching and learning are highly integrated with well-defined projects,” said Professor Liu.
The Playful Media exhibition, he added, provided an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and fulfill their dreams.
At present, about 30 Year 1 and Year 2 students in the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Creative Media programme have joined the six Special Interest Groups in games and animation, computer graphics, interactivity and installation, motion generation and tracking, photography, and Web radio. Apart from making their first showcase in the Playful Media exhibition, the Groups plan to organize exhibitions regularly in future.