Beyond Tech: Int'l forum Sheds Light on Future Art, Music and Film

2017-09-04 source：chinadaily

The opening party of the NEU Future Festival at the Ullens Center of Contemporary Art in Beijing, Aug 25, 2017. [Photo by Ma Song/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In a two-day extravaganza last weekend, the NEU Future Festival convened more than 30 speakers from both China and abroad to exchange ideas on topics ranging from art and music to film-making, science and technology – to explore the opportunities and challenges of our near and far future.

The event kicked off with an opening party on Friday night, featuring art performances from Berlin-based artist Marco Donnarumma, electronic music icon SHAO and his visual art partner Wang Meng, and GOOOOOSE, a pop legend in the Shanghai music scene.

The future of storytelling: Science fiction is reality

Compared to movies in the past, today's theaters offer more diversified experiences to their audiences, especially with the spread of IMAX, 3D technologies and the frequent use of computer-generated imageries (CGI).

With technology changing unprecedentedly fast in today's world, where will future's filmmaking lead us to?

Chen Qiufan, vice president of Beijing-based tech start-up Noitom, said during a panel about filmmaking that storytelling in the future will be science-fictional, multimedia driven and interactive. He quoted US science fiction thriller Strange Days as an example.

"In that movie written by James Cameron [and Jay Cocks] and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, people can record their memories and life experiences into a chip, and insert it into another person's (mind)," Chen said."Then they can feel and experience exactly what other people feel. I think that's the ultimate way of storytelling in the future."

Despite of the soaring development of new technologies, the speakers agreed that stories themselves should still be the core, instead of being overweighed by mind-blowing technologies.

"The story lines must be more important than anything else," Jesus Manuel Montane, Spanish writer and director, said.

GOOOOOSE, a legend of electronic music in Shanghai, plays at the opening of the festival on Aug 25, 2017. [Photo by Ma Song/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Music and style of a new global generation

In the West, electronic dance music (EDM) has become the new pop trend, while US-born hip-hop is grabbing more attention in China. Promoting attitude and self-confidence, rap music is getting more Chinese youth interested, especially with the airing of popular TV show The Rap of China.

With smart phones gradually dominating lives of the young population across the world, people are more broadly connected to the outside world with network wires and Wi-Fi, and the youth culture and the aesthetics of the new generation is getting more globalized and immersed.

People attend the NEU Future Forum at the Ullens Center of Contemporary Art in Beijing, Aug 25, 2017. [Photo by Ma Song/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]