Scott Hessels
Memorial Birdsongs
Interactive Installation
K11 Musea

We worked with Prof. Scott Hessels from City University of Hong Kong to create Memorial Birdsongs (2023), an interactive installation enabling audiences to memorialise deceased loved ones by dedicating a bird and bird song to them. The installation was on display at K11 Musea, Nature Discovery Park from 1-14 October 2023. The work features over 50+ speakers in bird houses placed around the serene rooftop garden.

For the project, Hessels worked with the artist Li Changan to create oil paintings of each of the birds, which are presented alongside field recordings of the birdsongs from each bird. Through a web app developed by MetaObjects, users can select from nearly 200 birds which are searchable by name, colour and country of origin. Visitors can select a bird and bird song and enter the name of their loved one. The bird song is then assigned to one of the number speakers in the garden, where visitors can locate within the garden using a map in the app. Over the course of the exhibition, the garden fills with a choir of birdsongs from around the world, each representing someone lost but remembered. Audiences receive a digital memento of the bird painting and song for sharing via download, email or social media.

Credits:
Artistic Direction: Scott Hessets
Co-Producer: Zoe Chan
Technical Direction and Fabrication: MetaObjects
Bird Paintings: Li Changan
Research: Cyrus Leung
UI/UX Design: Marek Gollan
Logotype: Dom Chung

About the artist

Scott Hessels is a scholar and artist based in Hong Kong, US and Portugal. His projects span different media including moving image, data visualisation, kinetic sculpture, and site-specific installation. His artworks have been presented internationally in exhibitions focusing on both technology and fine art. His recognitions include patents for developed technologies, references in books and periodicals on new media art, and coverage in popular cultural media. Hessels is founder of the design studio FugitiveColor that creates public artworks using technology for social participation, with frameworks that include interactive collaboration and immersive spaces. He is Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.