"From Stake-holders to (Re-)grounders: a philosophical re-grounding of the role of artists and the arts for 21st century Hong Kong" (from seminar talk to essay)

The paper is the revised, written version of a talk I delivered for a seminar series by ART READER, a research project fully funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council with a book publication as its ultimate deliverable. This piece is bi-lingual, originally written in English and translated by the editorial team. Speaking from my subject positions as a media culture historian, an art educator with a Critical Theory orientation, and as an artist who cares about grounding, my tactical location is the moving images and all connected tissues and networks, institutional and techno, specific knowledge domains, existential instincts, and personal callings, aspirations and desires, doubts and questions of survival, and the dialectical relations of these different planes and moments. I draw from Bernard Stiegler’s concept of “pharmakon” and “general organology” to establish my tactical practice in moving image. An organological approach offers an expansive map showing moving images occupying the interstitial – between epochs, generations, between dream and awakening, representation and knowledge, control and enlightenment, and between consumerist marketing activities and artistic creation, which is supposed to be a realm of progressive thinking. Moving image is “pharmakon” – its drugs as much as cures. In this sense, I am not just a stake-holder in art, but also a (re-)grounder who seeks change and transformation. What kind of re-grounding? Re-defining ontological questions of art; ensuring a dialogical model; re-enlivening our sensual, cognitive-perceptual experience; re-activating the audience; opening up the meaning of art; engaging critically with the question of why preserving the autonomy of art is important and what that means... I use accessible examples from my practice to illustrate my self-examination.