HONG KONG.- The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority announced its partnership with the Google Cultural Institute to bring an iconic element of Hong Kong’s cultural heritage online, allowing global audiences to experience the M+ online exhibition NEONSIGNS.HK.

Over 12 street views, 150 new and rare archive photos, videos, sketches, documentaries and the M+ neon sign collection will be shared across two digital exhibits to foster deeper understandings of neon signs and their connections with visual culture and history. To supplement the project, Google captured a unique series of panoramic night views of the city, using its Street View technology to allow users to explore some of Hong Kong’s most dazzling neon signs in detail.

The first digital exhibit, titled ‘Electric City - The Neons of Hong Kong’ highlights many of the public submissions to the NEONSIGNS.HK website, while exploring the visual culture of neon signs through portraits by photographer Wing Shya and a video interview with renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle which reveals how neon has influenced some of his classic film works. In ‘Hong Kong’s Neon Signs - Then and Now’, old photos of neon-lit streets are juxtaposed with their present-day views and a master craftsman explains the dying art of making neon, creating a powerful record of how quickly the neon is disappearing from Hong Kong’s streets.

In March last year, M+ launched its first online interactive exhibition and the seventh in the Mobile M+ exhibition series, NEONSIGNS.HK, which celebrated, mapped and documented Hong Kong’s neon signs. The exhibition invited the public to upload images and stories of their favourite neon signs to its Neon Map. With over 4,200 entries it was a great success and the progression to the Google Cultural Institute will extend its visibility even further.

The West Kowloon Cultural District project is making progress towards its long term vision of transforming Hong Kong into an international arts and cultural metropolis. While construction of its new flagship venues, M+ and Xiqu Centre, is underway, this partnership enables global audiences to see the work that is happening.

M+ will house 20th and 21st century art, design and architecture, and moving image. It endeavours to become a museum that looks at the world from a Hong Kong perspective, while embracing both Chinese/Asian and Western/Global cultural traditions.

To mark the occasion a panel discussion was held, titled ‘Beyond preservation: Activating a new digital future for art and culture in Hong Kong’.

Speaking at the event, Aric Chen, Curator of Design and Architecture at M+ said, “NEONSIGNS.HK was a success that exceeded our expectations, and this partnership with Google will help us take its ideas, narratives and images — about Hong Kong’s neon signs and their relationship to visual culture—to an even larger global audience. It preserves a valuable record for the future, while giving us even more digital experience — an especially crucial area in the build up to the opening of M+ and the West Kowloon Cultural District.”

For much of its history, Hong Kong has been inseparable from its neon signs, first introduced to the city in the 1920s. In recent years, neon signs have been retreating from Hong Kong’s cityscape due to rules and regulations for safety. The West Kowloon Cultural District’s work on this subject has created important documentation of the social and historical components of local life.

NEONSIGNS.HK is one of a number of digital projects undertaken by the West Kowloon Cultural District and digital plays a central role in the development of the project. Director of Communications and Marketing of WKCDA Kingsley Jayasekera said “Though we are building a physical Cultural District with its venues and public spaces, the digital realm is hugely important to us. We want to ensure that wherever you are in the world, via the web, you can experience a rich cultural offering, and at the same time optimise the use of digital technology to offer a district visitor experience that promotes accessibility, inclusion and engagement.”