A Cautionary Tale of Urban Media Art: Media-Bait, Planned Censorship and Its Repercussions

How do curatorial initiatives in public spaces balance the critical pursuit of art vis-a-vis professional ethics within the relational context of the everyday? What are the pros and cons of conducting attention-grabbing guerilla campaigns versus running furtive and long-term initiatives in politically sensitive public arenas? What is at stake when corporate sponsors of art come under controversial media spotlight? This paper expounds on such inquiries by analyzing the collision of two artistic urban interventions, Open Sky Project and Countdown Machine campaign, that took place in the delicate political context of Hong Kong in 2016.