Zuni Experiment with Art Tech Zuni Experiment with Art Tech Zuni Experiment with Art Tech

“Technology is important. From candles to electrical stage lighting, and from unmodified sounds to loudspeakers, a technological breakthrough always affects art. Zuni always experiments with art technology. Here is an open platform crossing boundaries. Everything can be tried here.”
Mathias Woo
Co-Artistic Director, Zuni Icosahedron
Curator, Z Innovation Lab

Technology helps artists think outside of the box and provides new possibilities for artistic creations.

Zuni’s performances, especially experimental works, always applied with the advanced technology. New equipment is applied for creating innovative stage effects.

Much theatrical equipment from different periods was applied: from 80s slideshow, film, projection, video recording, electronic screen, cathode ray tube, light bulb, fluorescent tube, multitrack audio mixing, mechanical operator, to recently motion capture, soundscape, projection mapping, live streaming of a telematic performance of two cities, digital puppet synthesis, server-based system, immersive theatre, Zuni has done multiple innovative experiments in regard to theatrical technology development – it is, by itself, a lab.

1980s

In the year when Zuni was founded, “Media Events” Series employed movie projectors, slide projectors and television monitors as the media to conduct Art Tech experiments of multi-image projection, different points of view, quadraphonic audio… in the theatre.

1990s

Zuni started utilising the large scale projections commonly seen today, at theatres and concerts, early in the 1990s on stage on the experiment of space with light and shadow, in Romance of the Rock 97, The Blue And Brown Book, The Magic Flute, Memorandum of the Rock, Four Grand Inventions and other shows.

2000s

In early 2000s, Mathias Woo started creating a series of installation theatre works focusing on showing the theatre space with the use of multimedia projection and stage technologies, including 2001: HK Odyssey, 1587, A Year of No Significance, Hua-yen Sūtra, the Multimedia Architectural Musical Series Looking for Mies even highlighted the theatre architecture.

2010s

Entering the 21st century, Zuni has constantly discovered sound and image interactive technologies, pushing forward the combination of technology and performing arts, promoting integration of tradition and modern arts and innovative experiments. Examples include the use of Audio Detection Images in Opera performance in The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, experimenting traditional Chinese Opera with new technologies such as Motion Capture.

Created by Mathias Woo in 2017, “Z Innovation Lab” is the first performing arts programme that focuses on integrating the latest stage technology and innovative ideas, that shares knowledge with cross-disciplinary professions, nurtures new blood and promotes sustainable development of Hong Kong’s creative industry.