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Hong Kong Arts Festival is all set to deliver a high-voltage 50th anniversary program where the marriage of art and tech will be much in evidence. Rebecca Lo plugs in to find out more.
Laila is rooted in Finnish National Opera and Ballet's (FNOB) Opera Beyond, an international open competition held two years ago that yielded the concept. "The idea was to create an immersive experience that would utilize the resources of an opera house," explains Esa-Pekka Salonen, Laila's Finnish composer and conductor, in a virtual press conference hosted by Ho in May 2021.
"FNOB has an excellent orchestra, but our experience and know-how in terms of immersive experience is limited, so we decided to arrange an international competition for immersive experience makers - virtual reality, augmented reality and other combinations," Salonen recalls.
FNOB selected the Ekho Collective - a group of young Finnish digital designers, movement designers and coders - to develop a user-rather-than-narrative-based experience. The opera incorporates artificial intelligence, VR, video-projection mapping, 360 spatial sound and real-time sensors. Together they provide a show unique to each person who enters the Laila dome in Hong Kong Maritime Museum.
With a libretto by Paula Vesala, the character of Laila invites audiences to help create her reality and a world where AI rules. Each participant will induce an evolution of music and visuals in accordance with unique movements.
