• Self-presentations
• Mapping the semester topic Bonds & Ties
• Workshop with Elodie Pong
• Group building
• Workshop with Professor Sik Ying Ho, I support Jaqueline Wong …and die!
• Field trip to 480.0 Gender & Art Space in Yau Ma Tei

This year’s semester topic looks at different forms of bonds and ties, including those with our body, family, friends, society, cultures, animals, plants or objects. We gathered in smaller group and mapped the wide territory of the topic and visualized and discussed our individual understanding of Bonds & Ties.

For the workshop with Artist Elodie Pong, we were invited to bring 3–5 objects that relate or represent our professional inquiries. In a playful approach we studied the objects in their arrangement. We discussed the questions of how they are represented, how are the objects related to each other, the way they are arranged? How do we put meaning into things? How do people see art from different perspectives?
Later, each of us created a collage with prints, images and photographs we have collected in the recent days to tell a story that is related to what we are interested.
Elodie Pong creates video ensembles, installations, performances and film. Her interest lies in the immateriality because it creates a space to think. Something is there but not there. She enjoys playing around the concept of material/immaterial thinking. She is interested in smell and odors, using it as a metaphor for our time.

Professor Sik Ying Ho used the case of a Hong Kong cheating scandal as a lens to explore issues regarding gender, love, sex and marriage in the Hong Kong society. With reference to a feminist framework we looked at multiple inequalities involved in the scandal. Addressing these issues, we discussed how – from an activists perspective – oppression can be turned into empowerment and the connection of love and democracy.
Prof. Ho teaches at the Universitx of Hong Kong, Dept. of Social Work & Social Administration. She focuses on gender, sexuality, identifying injustice and discrimination.

After the workshop we met at 480.0 Gender & Art Space in Yau Ma Tei. The name 480.0 is a homonym of where does sexual violence come from in Chinese. The art space hopes to put the perspective of gender equity into arts and daily lives, exploring and debunking the myths and stereotypes through culture and the arts. Their goal is to enhance awareness and interest in gender and sexual violence.

The first step towards the group projects have been made in building the groups.