NerveLoop, Hong Kong Urban Machine Jazz, (2021)

An animated film and sound piece, 5 minutes and 33 seconds, 4k, mp4 (a first iteration)

The language of the city as a living entity has a hidden capacity to generate improvisational jazz as it is extracted throughout the city. Nerve Loop attempts to conjoin the seemingly disparate worlds of the city and jazz music into an animated short sound piece, asking what does the city intent to communicate?

This work investigates the correlation between urban transportation systems and an organic nerve system. There is a fascinating resemblance that differs mainly in scale, time and format, but can be understood while observing these overlapping domains. Departing from an individual nerve system to a more mechanical nerve system of the city, new insights are found. The transportation of individuals and goods forms a narrative not dissimilar with the transportation of chemical and electrical signals. In that sense, we can observe or experience a complex city like Hong Kong as a living organism, where the existing transportation systems can be interpreted as the arteries and more precisely as the synaptic movements within a nerve system. In this way, the city forms an analogy with the somatic existence of a living entity, where time and scale generate a different entity. If the city can be understood as a living organism, does it communicate something? and if so, what are its messages to us?

MASLIC_1.3.2
MASLIC_1.3.4
MASLIC_1.2.1
MASLIC_1.3.6
MASLIC_1.1.2
MASLIC_1.3.1
MASLIC_1.3.5
MASLIC_1.3.3
MASLIC_1.1.1
MASLIC_1.2.2

Exhibited at:

5-18 July 2021, And the Ship Sails On… Produced by Eugenia S. Kim, Curated by Rodrigo Guzman-Serrano and Maro Pebo, curatorial assistant Charlie YIP – Location: L0 gallery, JCCAC, Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong.


27 May – 27 June 2022, 20th Biennial of Art in Pančevo, titled refinerymonastery, Curated by Maja Ćirić assisted by Sanda Kalebić, Pančevo, Serbia


10 February – 28 February 2024, Izložba ULUS =(-)/ Novo Članstovo 2024, Art Pavilion “Cvijeta Zuzoreć”, 1 Mali Kalemegdan St. Belgrade, Serbia. Presenting new members of ULUS


Experiments for a second iteration. An additional layer will be included where traffic of synaptic pulses will be visualized. Stay tuned for the second edition.

More information will follow.


For more information about NerveLoop or previewing it for exhibition purposes, please send an email with a request with additional information about your institute or organization.