Sudhee Liao
Going live: dancing with an enigmatic perception is an ongoing solo that I have been developing since 2018. The project is a live-streamed dance performance. The dancers are controlled by net-based interactions, all the while interacting with live audiences— interweaving supply and demand, the virtual and the real, thereby exploring their similarities and differences.
Social media has transformed interpersonal relationships. There are now virtual relationships that only exist on the internet. On the one hand, one can continuously peep into these virtual friends’ lives, intervening by way of likes and messages. On the other hand, these interactions enact an extremely performative lifestyle where personal developments are frequently updated. With this research project, I wanted to understand the contemporary dynamics of a live-streamed performance. How do we share the online space, and how do we play our roles as a performer or an audience?
Digital transformation
There is a ton of online content, do we even need more? I would also like to explore the “liveliness” of digital performances. And how we would view performances in future.
Going “Phygital” is probably the most common word that artists used in 2021. It is a portmanteau of physical and digital, blending offline and environments to deliver an enhanced customer experience. And I do question the efficacy of this.
Privacy and censorship
With all that has been happening in the city I currently live in, Hong Kong. Privacy and censorship have increasingly become a huge concern. How we often blindly sign our rights off to apps or social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, we overlook the consequences.
As an artist, to post our work, or “content” on these platforms, we ultimately become the “product.” Censorship is also another big issue that we have to deal with often. How do we work with these boundaries, or work around these boundaries? Through this research, I would like to bring more awareness to how much data and privacy we give away with or without realising it.
Why random filters?
- Randomness gives people the idea of a “feel-good fix”.
- Humans like something that is quantifiable, that gives us a certainty that fits into our image. (Eg, height, weight, hair colour…)
- Advantages to the ‘sharing with the group’ dynamic -there’s no risk involved. If you get a complimentary result, great. If you get an insulting one, you can act surprised and appalled in an amusing and engaging way, and nobody can judge you because it’s all meaningless.”
Many of us overlook the terms and conditions for social media websites that we use and yet this is what determines our legal relationship with them.
These relationships online are mediated and manipulated when we do not read the Terms and Conditions carefully, we wonder what we actually sign off to?
- Privacy rights (Data protection)
- Retention of data
- Intellectual and property rights
Born in Singapore, Sudhee graduated from The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Her works include performances in theatres, galleries, site-specific spaces and video. Recently, she choreographed “Going Live: Dancing with Enigmatic Perception”, which was shown in Shanghai Power Station of Art and Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong. Her “Handbook of Daily Movement”, a collaborative work with poet Marc Nair, was commissioned in Singapore Arts House in March 2020. “Haptic Compression” and “Hermetic Diode”, in collaboration with visual artist Andrew Luk, was commissioned by The Hong Kong Jockey Club, for The Hong Kong Art Festival in 2017 and 2018.
