CURVED: Literature for Bilingual Immersive Environments | 曲面: 關於雙語沉浸式多屏幕顯示環境的文獻
Originally hosted by the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong in 2016, CURVED was designed to explore bilingual literature in an immersive reading environment which literally curved 360-degrees around readers. International digital media artists, poets, translators, animation and soundtrack technicians collaborated in Hong Kong to bring the project to life. About the project, coordinator Jhave notes:
這不是一本書，不是一幅卷軸，也不是一個CAVE；但它的展示系統有著強大的能力，讓作家有新的表達模式，讀者亦能與文字進行互動。
It is not a book, not a codex, not a scroll, and not a CAVE; but its display system possesses an unprecedented capacity to allow writers new modes of expressions, and readers interactive access to words.
Following is a selection of digital texts, along with some analog counterparts, from the original exhibit.
“Basic Law” Erasures
The following three-panel gif is a segment of poems manipulating text from Article XII of Hong Kong’s constitutional Basic Law.
Article XII of Hong Kong’s Basic Law
第十二條香港特別行政區是中華人民共和國的一個享有高度自治權的地方行政區域，直轄於中央人民政府。
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be a local administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, which shall enjoy a high degree of autonomy and come directly under the Central People’s Government.
Poets: Ng Mei Kwan (left) & Collier Nogues (right)
Basic Law Erasure by 吳美筠 Ng Mei Kwan
香港人不可分離
人權的高度
終永久成保障
區別主義
原有的生活方式變
保護自然資源
別批給法團開發，收歸政府
習慣予以保留
可用特別香港文
權利、自由和制度、政策
不得牴觸
Hong Kong People is an inalienable part
The people authorize [our] rights [with] a high degree of authority
Final[ly] permanent safeguard
Separatism [makes]
The previous way of life changed
Protect the natural resources
(Don’t) grant organizations [the power to] develop, [nor] the government
Custom shall be maintained.
May use Special Hong Kong words
Rights and freedoms [versus] systems and policies
No contravening.
Article XII: Autonomy (Remix) by Collier Nogues
The autumn shall be a desert of the hard road,
which shall enjoy a high degree of brightness and floating clouds
directly under the white sun.
The white sun shall be the bright blanket of heaven,
which shall enjoy a high degree of sheltering the people spreading
directly over the hard road.
The hard road shall be an immensity of people,
which shall enjoy a high degree of perching and nesting
directly under umbrellas.
The people shall be a sword of ten thousand umbrellas,
which shall enjoy a high degree of brightness and billowing wind
directly under heaven.
**This poem remixes Article XII of Hong Kong’s Basic Law with imagery from 李白 Li Bai’s poem “古风 (39)” / Ancient Air (39”)
Note on Basic Law Texts
The above erasure texts are counterparts which echo each other, yet are distinct. Ng’s text is an erasure, while Nogues’ is a remix of the Law with imagery from 李白 Li Bai’s “Ancient Air (39”) / “古风 (39)”.
Nogues: We ended up doing it this way [creating different text versions] because erasure in Chinese and in English work very differently--there's not really a way to translate between the poems in the conventional sense.
Ng: In this [first] poem of repurposed text from the first chapter of print Chinese version of the Basic Law, I took away Hong Kong political terms […] leaving the words related to country, military, society & laws, forming poetic phases. In brackets, I’ve added grammatical structure to make it sensible in translation.
No Unknown
Ng: The sentence is difficult to translate because it is a kind of word play in which a reader can start on any phrase. I am asking, “Is there any real meaning for word and sentence?”
無辭也無句無法誰知有沒有明也好不明也好成章
No rhetoric. No sentence. No structure. No way. No knowing. No matter. No understanding. No revelation. No unknown.
This kind of word play also applies to “Curved”—A reader can read from left to right or right to left, in the round. The poem sounds strange when it is translated word by word, because it seems grammatically incorrect. But in Chinese, because a single character forms meaning, you feel the relation between words. Reading forwards and backwards, and reading in the round, connects characters that express the anger of people with tears in their eyes facing tear gas under umbrellas.
騰沸憤怨智民開啟 霧噴死抵忍淚下傘
boiling anger blame wisdom people open open spray fog just die endure tears umbrella
Digital Language Tunnel
(中文 Chinese)
Important Notice
(英文 English)
吳美筠 Ng Mei Kwan, Chinese Coordinator & Poet
Ng Mei Kwan is a writer from Hong Kong. She Holds a PHd in Chinese literature from The University of Sydney and has taught at the University of Kong Kong and Lingnan University. Ng was the Writer-in-Residence of HK Education University in 2018 She is the author of HK Biennial Award for Chinese Literature. Her major Publications are The fourth Morning [poetry collection], We Are So Close [poetry collection], Silence of Time [poetry collection], The lone Eye at Theatre, Image & Literature Across the Century [Collection of Criticism]. Ng’s latest Publication is rescue Ray Man. Her verses are collected in The Bluest Part of the Harbour: Poems from Hong Kong published by OUP.
Collier Nogues, English Community Coordinator & Poet
Collier Nogues’ poetry collections are The Ground I Stand On Is Not My Ground (Drunken Boat, 2015) and On the Other Side, Blue (Four Way, 2011). Her work has been supported by fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and Lingnan University. She teaches creative writing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is a PhD Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, where she studies experimental US anti-war poetry. She also edits poetry for Juked and curates Hong Kong’s English-medium poetry craft talk series.
David Jhave Johnston, Project Coordinator & Poet
David Jhave Johnston is a Canadian poet, videographer, and motion graphics artist working chiefly in digital and computational media. Jhave taught between 2014 and 2017 at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, after which he returned to Montreal. He is the author of Aesthetic Animism (MIT Press, 2016), and ReRites (Anteism Press, 2019).
張泰梁 Leoson Cheong Tai Leong, Technical Implementation, Creator, 3D Animation
朱穎甄 June Chu Wing Yan, 2D Animation, Promotion & Translation
趙倩 Echo Zhao Qian, Soundtracks
王文錦 Jean Wang Wen Jin, Translation
Contributors
Michelle Pun Ho Yan (“Human”)
Ginny Yeung (“Human”)
Susanna Chen (“Important Notice”)
Issue 10.2