The Power of ‘Design as One'
While the 2022 edition of deTour has concluded in its physical form, visitors are still able to engage and have their own input via the virtual festival
The 2022 edition of annual Hong Kong design festival deTour, presented by PMQ and sponsored by Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, brought participatory designs and activities to the city. Curated by Chi-wing Lee, Kay Chan Wan Ki and STICKYLINE and led by curator-at-large Shin Wong, the festival was designed as an open forum: 19 participatory installations and exhibitions featured, including one international collaboration, four feature exhibitions, and 14 selected entries, all illustrating this year’s curatorial concept of Design as One. The participatory nature of the festival aimed to convey visitors’ interaction and expressions into design solutions.
While the physical event has come to an end, visitors are welcomed to visit the virtual iteration. As with the physical festival, visitors are able to participate in the design process as they engage with timely issues. The data collected from the virtual festival will be documented alongside that of the physical festival to create a variety of design ideas and a large set of open data, which the curators hope will make a lasting impact on creativity and design into the future.
The feature exhibitions are designed as reflective journeys of interactive sensory experiences and evocative stories: Hello, Data! aims to reflect the community’s point of view on the Central neighbourhood; To buy or not to buy: What are the questions? investigates our buying intent and habits; Bring Romie 18 to the East tells the life story of a calf and explores how its journey relates to our food consumption; and Unlearn / Relearn\ explores dialects and Chinese characters.
The selected entries from emerging local and overseas designers touch on a range of pressing topics and social issues, including sustainability, gender, self-consciousness, well-being, and Hong Kong culture and society. The international collaboration About Time, designed and developed by Domestic Data Streamers, is inspired by how the aspects of time and memory can be reflected in its two installations, which change over time with participants’ input.
