A Date with Dogs

Founded in 2009, MaD (Make a Difference) is a collaborative platform for Asian changemakers. They strive to promote the growth of a vibrant creative ecology through cross-sector collaboration, empathetic co-creation and sustainable practices. At MaD, aspiring changemakers are supported to come up with creative responses to our time’s challenges. The long-term vision of the organization is to build a creative civil society for positive change. Make A Difference Institute is a registered non-profit under Section 88 of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Ordinance.

Stephanie Cheung is a curator, writer and social practitioner. Most of her works bridge disciplines and take place outside conventional art venues. From curating immersive experiences in greenhouses and piers, to writing about a hen perching on an islandic pig and making party flags for resilient block parties, she explores art as a medium to inspire thoughtful coexistence of people, other species and our environment. She says hello to animals when she meets them and lives with a furry cat.

Kingsley Ng is a media artist specialising on interdisciplinary, context-specific and experiential work, often using intangible media such as light and sound. Expanding imagination for urban media, he has reconfigured moving vehicles into mobile cameras obscura, turned a gigantic underground stormwater tank into a contemplative sanctuary, and routed through collective memories with illuminating trains. His works mediate perspectives and invite listening by casting light on the usually overlooked or forgotten. He understands his cat when she stands on the cupboard, lies on the couch and runs in leopard speed.

Angus Lee (b. 1992) is one of Hong Kong's most versatile young composers, with his works having been performed by leading international groups such as Ensemble InterContemporain (France), Ensemble Modern (Germany), Ensemble Multilatérale (France), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and Trio Accanto (Germany). He is also frequently invited to work in cross-disciplinary collaborative settings with other artists. Time, memory and structure are the key subjects he investigates through his music. He is an avid animal lover, and has for over a decade lived with a loving German Shepherd.

Jason Wong is a set, video and technical designer. He has worked with groups such as All Theatre Art Association, the Hong Kong Dance Company, the Children’s and Youth Troupes of the Hong Kong Dance Company, among others. He has overseen technical design in multi-arts productions such as Hi! Houses (Jaffa Lam X Sam Tung Uk Museum), Kingsley Ng’s Twenty-Five Minutes Older, etc, in which he blended audio, visual and kinetic elements with inventiveness and technical savvy. He is a friend of neighbouring cats in his community. Cats from the village bring him gifts such as snakes, rats, lizards, and fresh fish.

Installation artist Zachary Ting Lap-tak is a graduate from the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. He explores his own senses and daily experiences in mixed-media installations. Besides personal works, he has also overseen production in numerous multi-arts performances and exhibitions. Lately he has been examining interspecies coexistence and reflecting particularly on human-centred environments. A recent work, Species No. 783,569, presents a tale of animals in the form of simulated documentation.

Tim Chan Ting-cheung is a composer, instrument maker and percussionist. He creates music and sound to express his feelings about interpersonal interactions and his hopes for Hong Kong. He has made music to open the audience’s ears to  the unique soundscape sang by birds in Hong Kong, played taiko to raise awareness of marine ecology, and created live music for the mythical creature Lu Ting. Lately, reflecting on human-animal coexistence, he performed in Lifelike, a work by composer Charles Kwong at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens.