Hong Kong wants to make a big splash in ‘art tech’. But what is it? From AI to NFTs, broad brush approach may need better framing, experts say
- Government has poured money into art and technology crossover, but experts struggle to define it and warn poor implementation may turn it into gimmick
- Everything from songs penned by AI to augmented reality exhibitions come under art tech umbrella, which curators hope will catch eye of young people
Four years after the Hong Kong government set aside HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) to kick-start the development of “art tech”, the question many are still grappling with is: what, exactly, is it?
“It is indeed very difficult to define, some say art tech, some say tech art. Different people would have different definitions of it as it’s a new subject,” said Professor Henry Duh, director of Polytechnic University’s Research Centre for Cultural and Art Technology.
He viewed art tech from the angle of how technology allowed artists and cultural practitioners to create new ways of presenting their work.
This could mean everything from using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to write music or generate paintings, to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which represent a wide range of digital assets of art, music, in-game items, videos and more.
These elements could also extend to immersive exhibitions with large-scale projections or virtual and augmented realities.
But the haphazard development of the scene reflected a lack of clear goals and vision for the industry, with few concrete measurements of outcomes, experts said.
