Exhibition Period: March 14-29, 2009
Opening: 14 March 2009 (Sat) 3pm
Venue: Videotage
Lecture: 28 March 2009 (Sat), 3pm

(Topic: Spatial phenomenon in Hong Kong)

In Hong Kong, many spaces have been commodified. McDonald’s restaurants are being
designed as “non-places”. The interior design, services and food are exactly the same
as all of the other McDonald’s over the world. Instead of recognizing the existence of
such “non-places”, local users unintentionally revolt such original design of space by re-
constructing a spatial identity through their everyday life experience.

McSoundscape is a soundscape work developed by artists Brian Kwok and Terrie Cheung
upon the “non-places” attribute of McDonald’s restaurants in Hong Kong. This research-
based project provides an awareness and understanding of how the space is commonly
transformed and appropriated and evolved into a visual spectacle, not only in Hong Kong
but also of Hong Kong. The document re-articulate the identities of the space or even
further indicated the governing factor of the ever changing spatial identities and thereof
its characteristics and extended meanings of our city.

In a simple wording, McSoundscape illustrates a cultural phenomenon of Hong Kong people
making use of McDonald’s as their “home” both temporarily and transitorily, and participating
in daily activities “McGamers”, “McRefugees”, “McStudents”, and a few more other types
altogether would otherwise have done in private space of their own.

These field recordings were collected by the researchers between February and March 2008
as they visited different McDonald’s restaurants at different periods of time, which covered
McDonald’s on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon, New Territories and even on some outlying
islands. This ethnographic document work serves as a foundation of informative visualisation
that was first presented as an artistic expression on the web site (http://www.mcsoundscape.com).

After traveling to international media art festivals, the work is presented again in a physical
space in 2009. By walking through the black box gallery space, you will experience the real
lives that once lived in McDonald’s and reconstruct your own personal experience from the
McDonald’s soundscape where the McDonald’s users’ personal spaces are all overlapping with
your present space. Video artists, Darius Lee, responding to the artists duo’s McSoundscape
with video clippings of multi-facets, barn doored view of the public space, reminding a broken
visual memory of a “Mcvideomaker”. Visitors further expanded the volume into anew experience.
The exhibition will be a third layer to the interpretation of non-places by visitors to the gallery.

LECTURE INTRODUCTION

Topic: Spatial Phenomenon in Hong Kong

Speakers: Brian Kwok, Terrie Cheung
Date: 28 March 2009 (Sat) 3pm
Venue: Videotage
FREE ADMISSION

*The session will be conducted in Cantonese.

From the commonly found space in housing estates, space underneath the Goose Neck Bridge to the space
inside McDonald’s, the lecture shows examples of different types of space in Hong Kong from research and
observations. These spaces range from public space to privately-owned commercial space. Artists Brian
Kwok and Terrie Cheung would like to explore on the everyday human usage of space and the transitory
transformation of the spatial identity in different scenes. These research works aim at unfolding the special
characteristics, identity, multi-dimensional and changing nature of the different types of social space in Hong
Kong. Examples are practical cases of the theory of space which Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991), the renowned
French scholar, describes in his book The Production of Space.

ARTIST PROFILE

Brian Kwok
Brian Kwok bases in Hong Kong. He received his Master Degree in Design from the
School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to be Lecturer at university, he has
been working as an Interactive Designer in both multimedia design and advertising industry for
years. Currently, he is studying Master Degree in Visual Culture Studies at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong. His area of interest ranges from new media arts to interactive installations. His
works have been shown in Tokyo and Milan respectively.

Terrie Cheung

Terrie Cheung received her multimedia design and animation training in Toronto, Canada and
was granted a M.A. in Design from the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University in
2005. In 2008, she was graduated with Dean’s List Award for her M.A. in Visual Culture Studies
from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was a Game Graphic Designer in Toronto and
Hong Kong, and currently has been working as a Teaching Associate at the Hong Kong Design Institute.

Darius Lee
Graduated from the Department of Journalism and Communication at Chu Hai College, Darius Lee
has been working as a Video Producer and studying Master Degree in Visual Cultural Studies at
the Chinese University of Hong Kong.