A group of Master of Fine Arts students led by the lecturer Mr. Luke Ching gathered at the Learning Garden in the evening on the 20th February. They were investigating the meaning of a virtual underwater learning space when it is influenced by an additional object in the form of a performance arts installation. The Learning Path has two 50-metre-long curved tables situated in the Learning Garden with big skylight windows filled with a few inches of water above. The Learning Garden area thus creates a landscape of virtual underwater learning space for this observation. The students placed a remote controlled Fish Air Balloon on the roof of the Learning Path and just under the skylight windows. In this position, the Fish looked liked it was "swimming" in the water when observed from the outside of the windows. The visual effect was so amazing and beautiful. The lecturer, Mr. Ching, commented that the Fish balloon was a natural match for the Learning Garden and bonded them together. The area, the Learning Path, looked like an underwater landscape, in that it created a photo frame for the underwater landscape when people looked into the Learning Garden and at the Fish through the water from the top of the windows. Mr. Ching also added that the Fish artwork freely swimming in the learning space made him think about freedom, the freedom of the Fish to swim.
After the observations of the performance arts aspects of the experiment, the classmates gathered at the Open Forum to discuss their observations. One of the classmates felt that this performance artwork transformed a study space into an exhibition space. Another classmate commented that the Fish artwork also transformed a boring and quiet learning space of the library into a learning space with funny and active ambience. The Fish changed the definition of the learning space in the Library. A classmate also commented that the Fish and the users in the Learning Garden looked like they were in a fish tank when he observed them through the top of the skyline windows.
The artists installed a performance arts object into the Learning Garden to create a new vision and landscape of the Learning Garden. A fun and pleasant learning space can stimulate your creativity and to relieve your study stress.
Acknowledgements:
Mr. Luke Ching, Lecturer and Practicing Artist
Mr. TAM, Hing Kai, student of Master of Fine Arts
Mr. Gary Man, photographer