In this era of overflowing information and explosive production and circulation of knowledge, the digital media may not be able to fully and accurately carry our feelings at the moment of writing. That is why sometimes emojis are used to assist us. When we use calligraphy or handwriting, however, we do not need emojis to emphasise our emotions. The writing speed, rhythm, technique and connectedness reveal the feelings of the writer. The great calligrapher Zhang Xu ( 685-759) from Tang Dynasty produced the Stomach Ache Note, which contained only six lines and thirty characters. The content was a reflection of discomfort felt by the poet when he experienced a stomach ache. The first three characters in the note were standardised and independent, showing firmness in the strokes. Beginning from the fourth character, however, the energy level plunged and the speed of writing was very fast and rushed, showing signs of craziness. Characters were at times connected, but wild and bold at others. The final few characters suddenly became very large, free and unconstrained, while showing signs of cautiousness. The strokes were powerful and yet lacking in stamina. The note truly reflected the helplessness in the painful and soul-stirring experience. In his work Control Freak, therefore, artist Hung Keung attempted to create a journey of writing the ‘heart’ for this age of explosive digital culture. The participants had to return to handicraft and handwriting. The level of difficulty and challenges faced by every participant was different, and even if it was the same person writing the character, when he/ she wrote it for the second time, the experience was different. Every single experience was unique, because the participant had to control a tailor-made magnet brush and manipulate it against the forces of the moving magnets under the rice paper before the journey of writing a ‘heart’ was complete.  During the three month exhibition period, the artist collected almost 800 pieces of writing of the character. That means almost 800 people took part in the artwork and it also represented 800 different journeys of the ‘heart’. When viewed individually, the 800 hearts seem chaotic and deranged. Some carried uneven strokes, some were off balance, some written too quickly, some had little control over the use of ink. None of the writings, therefore, seemed to satisfy the traditional requirements of standard calligraphy. But when the writings were placed together, whether they were viewed collectively one by one, or compressed together and shown as animation, the feeling was totally different. By using digital media and time-based media methods, the 800 ‘hearts’ can be shown in a matter of a few seconds as time-lapsed or animated gifs. The audience cannot, of course, see each ‘heart’ clearly when they are presented as time-lapsed or animated gifs. When they were compressed together, however, the residual optic shadows form visual tracks/ imprints that were deeply engraved in the viewer’s mind. When you noticed a crooked ‘heart’, another crooked one appeared and complimented the first one. Each ‘heart’ seemed different and yet the same. This visual experience was abstract and philosophical: you could see individual ‘hearts’ in a chaos, but when all the ‘hearts’ were placed together, you could read their tracks. The character ‘heart’ seemed like an extension and essence of love. We must use our hearts to feel when we want to express love or experience love. Each person has different experiences with love. Some go through frustration, some enjoy smoothness, some overcome obstacles, some love without knowing it, and some do not even know what love is. Similarly, the experience with writing the ‘heart’ is unique and irreplaceable. Only the writer could put together their own journey of the ‘heart’ based on their own experience. When you view the 800 journeys collectively, you may realize there are tracks you could feel but they were invisible to the eye. From a macro point of view, minute commonalities could be identified.

 

The artist believes that every person goes through different experiences in life, which may seem individual and independent, but in fact, may be mutually dependent and influential. Every person may individually own their experiences that are irreplaceable, but when such experiences are placed next to other experiences, they become tracks of collective memory. Such tracks can be seen individually, and can be read together as a kind of symbolic meaning. This brings us to examine the relationship between contemporary technologies and writing, or redefine the meaning of writing. Chinese writing may no longer be viewed independently as calligraphic art, but can also be seen and read by using compressed elements of time. If new vision and experience can be derived from merging traditional calligraphy and new media technologies, it may represent new directions of research and creations for contemporary calligraphy, which is also the mission for the Control Freak series.