The children’s game “Chinese Whispers” is the starting point of a reflection on biases within communication. By including artificial intelligence as a player, we confront ourselves with the notion of “Othering”. Image generating and captioning software is looped together to exacerbate the system’s biases, while an AI voice calling on a telephone complains about its work being criticized.
Twenty Five people from more than ten different countries and over fifteen different majors came together in the biggest city of Switzerland, Zurich. In four weeks we found out how to curse somebody with a spell, how to work together and what it means to hold a lecture in a transcultural environment.
Ready for a new adventure? On 29 March 2022 we are happy to share some information about the upcoming Transcultural Collaboration, International Semester Programme. Online Information Event29 March 2022 11.00 – 12.00 London12.00—13.00 Zurich18.00 – 19.00 Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei19.00 – 20.00 Tokyo Zoom: https://zhdk.zoom.us/j/5568218974Password: 468588
On 10 and 11 December, the participants of the 2021 Transcultural Collaboration programme presented their works at One Minute Space in Athens. The exhibition covers a wide range of topics. We invite you to take a look at the projects and be inspired. Projects presented: The Toilet II: What traces remain? Where do you come from? Kin Feasting Access Point microwave~d Looking Through Water Common Ground Group
Under the question “What traces do we leave behind?” the participants Lucy Fabian, Yen / Wing Yan Lin and Melanie Durrer tried to create a sustainable, safe space at Communitism. In doing so, they explored different questions such as: “What needs can a place have and how can different people interacting with different places change this state?”
The installation by TC21 participants Alexei Monney, Shimin Ji and Lo Wan Ki makes the question “Where are you from?” visually tangible. In the same act, the artists add a lot of sub-context that directs the viewer’s thoughts in particular directions.
Humans have an infinite imagination about the species of the universe and the universe itself. Would they express their thoughts and feelings the way humans do? Questions like these are becoming more and more interesting. “Kin Feasting” looks at these questions from different angles.
With “Access Point”, the artists attempted to show an improvised performance four times, incorporating four different but equally important concepts in one piece. The central object was a vacuum cleaner used to clean the exhibition space and the materials experimented with during the exploration process.
This project interacts directly with the body and the brain’s neuro system. An immersive experience that visitors to the final presentation of TC21 had at One Minute Space in Athens.
The three participants examined the element of water and what connection it has with memories. Are memories as fluid as water? Looking Through Water explores this topic.
The Common Ground Group was the glue that held the different groups together and made the final exhibition at One Minute Space possible. But not only that. True to the TC21 motto: contamination and affection, they contaminated the space as part of their own contribution.
On 10.12 – 11.12.2021, the international semester programme Transcultural Collaboration will present its final exhibition at One Minute Space in Athens. The works presented are the results of eight independent, but deeply intertwined projects.
On 28 October, the participants presented their works to the public at Communitism here in Athens. The artistic sketches presented offered an insight into the collaborative and transcultural working processes of the first four weeks of the programme.
Fascinated by the dazzling city of Athens, “Chasing Tears” is a reflection on its inhabitants and its many passages of population. Line Chevalley, Milena Schircks, Tanja Kapoglou, Vangelis Tzolakis and Otto Kolless questioned the hustle and bustle of the people in Athens and translated it into their works.
«Super Authentic Home Cooking with Tomatoes and Eggs» is a project by Chiara Giardi, Jiaxi Han and Sherry Xiao. It was presented as part of the exhibition “Saganaki on Ice”, which took place at Communitism (Athens, Greece) on 28 October 2021.
The Oracle Foyer is a joint project by three artists from different cultural backgrounds (Taiwanese/Japanese/German). In this project, they explored the differences between and relationships with their cultures on the level of superstition, proverbs and divination. Inspired by the myths surrounding the Oracle of Delphi. Their Oracle Foyer, a sensory interactive installation, set in an open-air interstitial space between the two buildings of Communism.
The collective is interested in the issues of identity formation through analogue and digital spheres and the power structures that surround these identities. The group, formed by feminities, wanted to create a space of exploration where all voices could be heard without discrimination. Combining spatial design and performance. A rhythmic chant with words and phrases created in the process of community healing.
Who can receive a postcard and who cannot, and why? This question drove the group led by TC participants Natania Prezant, Natalia SierraYen, Wing Yan Lin, Ting-Yu, Kenneth Lin and Zhaoyue Fan to their interactive performance shown at the Athens commune. In the created post office, the audience could pick up and deliver a lost or undelivered postcard.
Latent Community are Sotiris Tsiganos and Ionian Bisai, two filmmakers from Athens who are searching for hidden and untold aspects to create counter-stories. They provoke a field of tension by deliberately allowing different perspectives to collide. It is these tensions that convey a deeper message that cannot otherwise be shown.
Join us for an evening of experimental interventions by 32 thriving artists. This event is presented by the international «Transcultural Collaboration» programme in collaboration with Communitism.
Taking ‘to dream (發夢)’ – an expression used for the Hong Kong movement referring to going on the streets – as the title for the work, the collective invites the audience to follow their journey through the past few months: they display traces of their search in Hong Kong. They worked with interviews taken and material collected, as well as a fictional film essay concerning the future of the city in crisis. In order to overcome the distance between Hong Kong and Zurich, the work involves live performances such as moving Lennon TVs live-streaming the movement and a tea corner that invites people to talk directly with members of the group.
A live performance, installation by CHEN Zhenglang (Fine Arts in Dance (Choreography), The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts), Lena SEEFRIED, (Art Education Curatorial Studies, Zurich University of the Arts), LEI Xuan (Fine Arts in Dance (Choreography), The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts), Milos STOLIC, (Fine Arts, Zurich University of the Arts) at McaM Shanghai.
An installation by Gloria Hertig (Trends & Identity, Zurich University of the Arts), Liu Shiyan (Visual Arts, Baptiste University) & Joe Ma Kam Leung (City University of Hong Kong, School of Creative Media) at McaM Shanghai.
An installation by Bou1 and Dai2 at McaM Shanghai
A performative installation by Rose Li Zi-Rui, (Visual Arts, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University), Rafael Gil Cordeiro (Trends & Identity, Zurich University of the Arts), Brooke Jackson (Curatorial Studies, Zurich University of the Arts), Qian Yuxuan (Drama, Nanjing University), Nuriia Khasenova (Music Pedagogy, Zurich University of the Arts) at McaM Shanghai.
A self help office, Office of Voluntary Essential Riddance, by Kian Schwabe (Stage Directing, Zurich University of the Arts), Nick Ng (Theatre, Lasalle College of the Arts) & Fu Lingbo (Theater Nanjing University) at McaM Shanghai.
Encounters with strangers are unexpected. We see them as random coincidences or signs of fate. We pay attention to them or let them pass by. They might leave a trace in our memory and life that changes us. They offer us the possibility to experience ourselves in an unknown way.
In a 24/7 society, the need for beds has declined. Due to the constant demands of work, humans only spend short intervals sleeping on the go. This new phenomenon has made beds obsolete, and therefore the main working environment of bed bugs is disappearing. In the last 10 years, the unemployment rate of the bed bug population has risen to 82.6%. This level was last seen before the invention of beds.
By Simona Bischof (Art Education, Zurich University of the Arts), Vivian Chan (Music, Zurich University of the Arts), Wen Qing Kwek (Fine Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore), Mei Yan Miley Wong (Digital Art, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University), Sir Meng Yau (Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts)
A conversation in three parts with Professor Petula Sik Ying Ho, Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong. Next to being an educator, Ho is an author, researcher and videographer specialised in gender and sexuality qualitative research and cross-cultural comparative studies. The interview was broadly based on Ho’s lecture for TC participants titled “Alternative Knowledge Processes for Transcultural Collaboration”.
