Date :
2014.5.23 - 2014.6.14

Location :
L1, L3, L8, L9, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre

Time :
Exhibition Opening Hours: 11:00-19:00 (Monday-Saturday)

Opening Ceremony

Date: 23 May 2014 (Friday)
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: Lobby, G/F, Run Run haw Creative Media Centre
Programme will be conducted in English
R.S.V.P before 9 May 2014 by fax (3442 0119) or email (aapinky@cityu.edu.hk)
Enquiry: Ms Pinky Chung 3442 6147

Freeze Frame

Last December, a team of students from City University of Hong Kong trekked to Antarctica on an art and science research expedition to find new ways to understand climate change.  Organised by the School of Creative Media, the groundbreaking Extreme Environments programme encourages interdisciplinary student teams of engineers and scientists to partner with artists and designers.

The 13 installations, which span academic spectrum, use emerging technologies such as immersive 3D, robotics and game applications to show the endangered continent from a new perspective.

The team travelled to Argentina backpacker-style, and canoed and hiked through the ecosystem in Tierra Del Fuego. They then boarded theAkademik Ioffe, a Russian science vessel that has been important in polar research for 25 years, and spent 12 days examining multiple sites in Antarctica.  The students, working with veteran scientists, conducted a series of zero-impact research studies, collecting over 30,000 pages of datasets and 70,000 photographs.

The students’ hybrid art and science projects are a surprising mix of important environmental information and a playful use of new technologies.

Global warming’s effect on baby penguins is explained through a mobile application that borrows its style from retro Hong Kong newspapers. Microorganisms in the Antarctic water are displayed on an overhead dome and their DNA interpreted into music. Air pollution is revealed through a towering fabric and light installation. In a 3D, 360-degree movie, Antarctica’s total lack of artificial light is contrasted with the world’s location with the most, i.e. Tsim Sha Tsui. A dramatic kite-surfing performance in Antarctica was directed by a film student using seven cameras and two sensors to inspire an animation about Hong Kong’s wind-blocking ‘canyon effect.’ Free from the grip of dry numbers, the students artistically explored the data they had collected. The team even arranged and sung a song about the experience and produced an MTV video to reach the masses.

The Extreme Environments programme began in 2012 with an expedition to the Mojave Desert in California. The acclaimed exhibition that showcased the outcomes of the programme provided many subsequent opportunities for the participating students and validation from the academic community.  The Antarctica expedition was open to students from any field of study and the projects on display were selected by an international team of scientists, artists and engineers.

The expedition was funded by sponsors, donors and the students themselves. The students organised an online crowdsourcing campaign and even landed major donors in Kaspersky Software and Lush Cosmetics. The Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation and Jay Chou-backed Ucann.com also financially supported the programme. Eco-tourism leaders One Ocean provided the extra resources needed to assist with the student research onsite and acted as the liaison between the students and the scientists.

"Freeze Frame" will be held from 11:00am to 7:00pm, starting 24 May until 14 June (closed on Sunday and public holidays) with free admission. All are welcome.

For more information of the exhibition, please visithttps://antarctica.scm.cityu.edu.hk