Either too Quiet or too Loud

This exhibition departs from a subtlety in the experience of sound: every time we try to adjust the volume, it seems like the volume button wedges us somewhere in-between, one click down is too quiet, but one click up is too loud. This is perhaps one of our fundamental interactions with sound: barely able to control it, always trying to maintain a balance.

This screening is a collaboration between Hong Kong’s Videotage Media Art Collection (VMAC), Hong-Gah Museum’s video art biennial (TIVA), and Taipei Contemporary Art Center’s Video Lounge screening program. Previously screened video works were selected from the archives of these three institutions and re-screened as new, auditory explorations. In addition to presenting the unique perspectives of the Taiwanese and Hong Kongese artists included in the show, this exhibition explores their creative use of sound and the various roles that sound plays in their video work, from harmony to discord and from order to chaos. At times, subject and object swap roles, and sound becomes the protagonist, guiding the work through lulls of low whispers or climaxes of roaring intensity. At times, even silent scenes can trigger involuntary reverberations in the viewers’ minds. This re-screening attempts to create a space in which viewers can re-interpret the works from new perspectives by replacing visual experience, which leaves little room for interpretation, with the ambiguous and speculative experience of listening.

Videotage is a leading Hong Kong-based non-profit organization specializing in the promotion, presentation, creation and preservation of new media art across all languages, shapes and forms. Founded in 1986, Videotage has evolved from an artist-run collective to an influential network, supporting creative use of media art to explore, investigate and connect with issues that are of significant social, cultural and historical value.

TCAC Video Lounge is a polysemous space for activities of and around moving images in Taipei Contemporary Art Center, opening the possibilities to engage and enact the concept of “image as archive” and “image as movement.” As a versatile space, it is a conceptual zone between a private room and public space with undefined destinations and determined aims—it is an imagery syndrome of the visual, audio, physical and cortical sensory activities. TCAC Video Lounge that functions as the floating memory space of TCAC is the new extension of artists’ archives, providing intimate encounters and dialogues between visiting researchers and video works.

Supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council（Hong Kong Arts Development Council fully supports freedom of artistic expression. The views and opinions expressed in this project do not represent the stand of the Council.）