The Time Capsule

by Ella Poon

Background

Lei Yue Mun is the village where I grew up in Hong Kong and it’s full of memory. Although I now live in Wong Tai Sin since my family had to move due to rural-urban migration. With a bit of luck, many year later, I have a chance to go back to the village where I grew up and I have a chance to re-create my experience for audience – walks through the main gate of Lei Yue Mun and along the pedestrian path.

The video and walk

For some years back I had long passionately to create my first video which is a movie-video walk as what Janet Cardiff and George Bures did. Starting form Jockey Club Lei Yu Mun Plus, viewers are given a 15 minute clip and headphones to get the full effect of the original binaural recording. Audiences are asked to follow the pre-recorded video through the old Lei Yue Mun ,when doing the walk the real sounds mix with the recorded adding another level of confusion as to what is real and what is the past. Audience can respond to what they see, and fulfilling their desires .I hope the overlapping realities lead to a bizarre, abnormal, perceptual confusion in the participant’s brain.

The storyline of Time capsule is quite an easy one. A little girl is looking for her brother and went to bury the time capsule together. After ten years, she came back and the Time Capsule was therefore dug up .However, her quest leads to painful confrontations with the memory of the past .As audiences are asked to follow the girl, they just walk through the main gate and along the pedestrian path of Lei Yue Mun and get the Time Capsule .
Moreover, the important theme is the phenomenon of rural-urban migration in old village. Participants used to travel through the entire village to perform video plays with a message in rural areas. In recent years, an increasingly larger number of artists have been addressing social problems. The Video Walk lasts for only 15 minutes, but after it has ended some spectators are so emotional that they stay after and enjoy the view of Lei Yue Mun Quarry for up to an hour,” says an audience.
In my view, “The video may be an excellent way to stimulate people to sharpen their awareness.. “The core of work is addressing people’s memory. Every individual has its own story, but often those stories are not recorded, leaving much lovely memory hidden, so the main goal is let them create their memory. “

The website
Now I am changing to promote the Time capsule, telling audience the story and meaning behind. In order to let my participants create their Time Capsule, so audiences will find the Time Capsule and the link of website after the video walk. (timecapsule.wordpress.com)