On View: Hong Kong

Background Dance film portraits problematize the simple dichotomy used in music video between "performance clips" and "conceptual clips". Unlike a filmed vocal delivery that directly services the foregrounded music, a filmed solo dance performance (or collection of solo performances) shares a different relationship to sound. Unlike music videos, the figure in dance is mute - which opens ups possibilities when determining audiovisual relationships. As such, On View Hong Kong was an opportunity to research how the soundtrack can push and pull the vision between the two categories across the ten films. Contribution Each portrait was treated as a new experiment. The approach for Mok, Cho and Egami, for example, was that of a music video - where the internal momentum of the music and absent diegetic audio prevents any registration of the "salad of images" (Carlsson,1999). Yeung and Yuntao, by comparison sees location sound used to open up and close down space. Yuntao went even further and employed moments of non-diegetic sound design. This had the added effect of pulling the portrait towards a "conceptual clip" rather than simply a performance. Significance This work is an important addition to the growing field of cine-dance studies. Whilst the literature (Brannigan, Dodds, Mitoma, Rosenberg, Spain, Morelli et al) is biased towards exploring dance on film through lenses of embodiment, the somatic, or camera vs filmic movement, the perceptual influences of sound through subtle design choices is yet to be considered. On View Hong Kong was a major commission from the West Kowloon Cultural District and won the Hong Kong Dance award for best visual design. (If we believe Michel Chion's principle of sound's conferred value on image, the award reflects the soundtrack as much as the vision!) It was accompanied by a week long mentoring workshop, where I presented these principles to 10 young composers as they re-scored the films under my supervision.