Imagination and reality collide in cosmic multimedia concert and dreamlike ‘mini’ dramas at New Vision Arts Festival
- Composer Choi Sai-ho, whose work was launched into the cosmos by a radio telescope in 2018, will combine electronic music with video imagery in Live ∙ Earth ∙ Space
- Zoetrope, an interactive theatre production mixing stage performance and videos, examines suppressed emotions at event showcasing pioneering performing arts
Few people have had the opportunity to send something they have created into space, but Hong Kong electronic composer and multimedia artist Choi Sai-ho is one of them.
He was among a group of musicians whose specially created works were sent out by a radio telescope in 2018 – in a message also containing basic information about humanity and how to decode the transmission – that is travelling 120 trillion km to a potentially habitable exoplanet, Luyten’s Star b, 12.4 light years from Earth.
The Sónar Calling project, marking the 25th anniversary of Sónar, Spain’s annual Barcelona music, creativity and technology festival, hopes the signals will be picked up by extraterrestrial intelligence.
“In the 1970s, Nasa sent the Voyager Golden Records [containing sounds and images, aboard two Voyager spacecraft] into space,” Choi says. “Commentators point out that, many years later, the Earth or the human race might not be around any more, but the Voyagers will continue to travel. Extraterrestrial intelligence will find out that we once existed.”
Composer shows fascination for space
The cutting-edge musician was invited to take part in the mission after showing his fascination for space through his works including his 2012 music video, Space Between Us, in collaboration with painter and singer Kenneth Tsang, and Black Moon, a 2019 creation, which paints the Earth’s satellite in a sinister light, with “singer-songwriter and theatre-maker” Jing Wong.
