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Digital Programme: HOME X

A person wearing a VR headset stands in front of a projector screen with their arm reaching towards something. On the projector screen the person appears in a 3D virtual world, reaching out to another person.

We are really pleased you are joining us for this exciting new adventure with Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now). We have admired the way they have produced and platformed artistic excellence from Southeast and East Asian diaspora communities through storytelling since the company was founded almost 20 years ago. More recently, they have expanded their ambitions, launching an annual festival, touring work internationally and now HOME X headlines Kakilang Festival 2023 in spectacular fashion. 

We are delighted to be able to work with them for the first time this year with this exciting project. The Pit, our studio space, has always been a place for experimentation, and we are glimpsing into the future of live-digital experiences with HOME X a fusion of theatre, music, dance, live performance, gaming and ground-breaking 3D camera technology.

In this truly global collaboration, Kakilang Artistic Director An-Ting Chang 安婷 and her teams and co-producers in the UK and Hong Kong ask us to reflect on our deep connection to our environment and each other. Take the time to explore as we travel from our reality into the astonishing virtual world they have built together. We hope you enjoy the experience.

Toni Racklin,
Head of Theatre and Dance, the Barbican

 

We are very excited to bring HOME X to the Barbican and present the simultaneous live and digital performances for audiences at the Barbican and around the world. 

In HOME X, we are using technology as a form of artistic expression to create a new way of experiencing and telling stories. The concept was born out of a desire to create a space where audiences could connect with each other and with the performers, regardless of their physical distance. The remote audience actively participates in the game, while the live audience witnesses these different realities intersecting in various ways. We aim to create a powerful and engaging experience that brings people together in a meaningful way.

​In this ever-changing world, our differences can be a source of animosity and separation or a chance for us to grow and create something to be cherished, remembered, and respected. Through learning and understanding ourselves, each other, and the world around us, HOME X aims to inspire us to explore our roots, our sense of home and their relationship with our existence. 

An-Ting 安婷 (co-creator of HOME X and Artistic Director of Kakilang), Ian Gallagher and Donald Shek (co-creators of HOME X)

About Kakilang

Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) produces and presents world-class art, and pioneers multi-disciplinary artforms from a wide spectrum of Southeast and East Asian voices.

Kakilang was founded in 2005 and became a National Portfolio Organisation supported by Arts Council England in 2018. Since then Kakilang has partnered with the Barbican, Southbank Centre, Rich Mix, Soho Theatre, The Place, Horizon, Leicester Curve, York Theatre Royal, Cambridge Junction, Oxford Contemporary Music, LSO St Luke’s, BFI, Young Vic, Tamasha, Dance Umbrella, and more.

The company rebranded as Kakilang in September 2022. The name Kakilang (自己人), means ‘one of us’ in the Hokkien dialect, evoking kinship and affinity, and is widely used amongst East and Southeast Asian diasporic groups. For the company, Kakilang are people who come together through art, and who champion diverse voices and communities.

The rebranding marks a watershed moment for Kakilang as the company grows the ambition, scale, and reach of its in-house productions and the platforming of East and Southeast Asian artists. Kakilang also recently won Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Award (Storytelling), securing a position as a pioneer in innovative digital works.

kakilang.org.uk

About Don’t Believe in Style

Don’t Believe in Style (dbis), is an arts-tech company in Hong Kong. dbis designs and delivers the future of experience through the creative application of extended reality, immersive technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and 5G. A new generation of digital-native audiences has emerged. Needs and preferences have changed. Emerging technologies and the digitalization of experience have created new expectations and opportunities. As a result, brands are committed to working with a wider range of experience formats and technologies. Recent advances in Metaverse, Web 3.0, and immersive technology now enable brands to connect with customers in new ways. For more than 17 years, dbis has supported clients as a trusted advisor to help them navigate the broadening mix of extended reality solutions.

dontbelieveinstyle.com

An image of a temple in the 3D world oh HOME X

Creative team

The company

Created by An-Ting 安婷, Ian Gallagher, Donald Shek
Director and composer An-Ting 安婷
Creative technologist Ian Gallagher
3D designer Donald Shek
Experience designer Henry Lam
Costume designer Christine Ting-Huan 挺歡 Urquhart
Choreographers and dancers Si Rawlinson (UK), Suen Nam (HK)
Soprano Colette Wing Wing Lam
Actor-gamer and introductory video Mia Foo
Dramaturg Daniel York Loh
Sound consultant David Howard
BSL interpreter Lisa Li
Behind-the-scenes video-maker Joe Mannion

 

Production team

Community producer Katrina Man
Marketing manager Sandy Wan 
UK administration manager Apollonia Bauer
UK production manager Hannah Blamire
UK stage manager Brent Tan
Hong Kong director Dino Fung
Hong Kong producers Henry Lam, Fo Liu
Game developers Ian Gallagher (lead), Sin Hang Kan Toshi Wong, Logan Lee

Interviewees

Bo Li
Boxi Wu
Carmen Yau
Cecilia L.
Gurdane Virk
Erin Li
Faustina Yang
Jameson Kite
Kerry Mackereth
Lloyd Villanueva
Natalia Wong
Pernilla Iggström
Puvan
Rana Ibrahim
Regina Co
Sinong
Tess Hodgson-Sakamoto
Xiaochen Zhang
Yuki

Plus interviewees who wish to remain anonymous

Explore HOME X online

Enjoyed the live event in our Pit Theatre? Explore the visually stunning 3D world of HOME X online until 25 Feb.

Poems

These three poems feature in the performance, and are reproduced here with kind permission.

I come to view the boundless ocean
From Stony Hill on eastern shore.
Its water rolls in rhythmic motion
And islands stand amid its roar.
Tree on tree grows from peak to peak;
Grass on grass looks lush far and nigh.
The autumn wind blows drear and bleak;
The monstrous billows surge up high.
The sun by day, the moon by night
Appear to rise up from the deep.
The Milky Way with stars so bright
Sinks down into the sea in sleep.
How happy I feel at this sight!
I croon this poem in delight.

Poem 
by Cao Cao

 

and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the zeros and ones, through the electricity of the world, through the words on a scroll on a screen at the end of a dream

and the universe said I love you

and the universe said you have played the game well

and the universe said everything you need is within you

and the universe said you are stronger than you know

and the universe said you are the daylight

and the universe said you are the night

and the universe said the darkness you fight is within you

and the universe said the light you seek is within you

and the universe said you are not alone

and the universe said you are not separate from every other thing

and the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code

and the universe said I love you because you are love.

And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love.

You are the player.

Wake up.

Minecraft End Poem by Julian Gaugh

 

It is difficult to understand popular customs. There is no return from chasing material possessions.

See the world from afar and return to a pure, natural state.

Everything is one. The four seas are a shared home.

Share with others. Why be attached to things?

Life is like a floating guest, temporary and fleeting.

The world is chaotic. Abandon its troubles.

Even if the marsh bird is hungry, it does not want to live in the garden.

How can you be content? Exhausting the body and straining the mind.

The body is valuable, the name is worthless. Where is honour and disgrace?

It is important to indulge the heart. Prioritise the mind without regret.

by Ji Kang

 


東臨碣石,
以觀滄海。
水何澹澹,
山島竦峙。
樹木叢生,
百草豐茂。
秋風蕭瑟,
洪波湧起。
日月之行,
若出其中;
星漢燦爛,
若出其裏。
幸甚至哉,
歌以詠志

曹操 〔觀滄海〕
Translation of poem by Cao Cao

 

有時玩家相信已經通過0和1、電力和夢中螢幕卷軸上的文字和宇宙對話了。

宇宙說:我愛你。

宇宙說:你玩得很好。

宇宙說:你需要的一切都在你的心裡。

宇宙說:你比你知道的更強大。

宇宙說:你是白天。

宇宙說:你是黑夜。

宇宙說:你所戰鬥的黑暗就在你心裡。

宇宙說:你追求的光明就在你心裡。

宇宙說:你不是孤單的。

宇宙說:你和其他事物不是分開的。

宇宙說:你是宇宙理解自己、對自己說話、閱讀自己的代碼。

宇宙說:我愛你,因為你就是愛。

遊戲結束了,玩家從夢中醒來。玩家開始了新的夢。玩家再次夢想,夢得更多更好。玩家就是宇宙。玩家就是愛。

你就是玩家。

醒來吧。

Translation of Minecraft End Poem by Julian Gaugh

 

 

 

 


流俗難悟。逐物不還。

至人遠鑒。歸之自然。

萬物為一。四海同宅。

與彼共之。予何所惜。

生若浮寄。暫見忽終。

世故紛紜。棄之八戎。

澤雉雖饑。不願園林。

安能服禦。勞形苦心。

身貴名賤。榮辱何在。

貴得肆誌。縱心無悔。

嵇康 〔四言贈兄秀才入軍詩其十八〕

Translation of poem by Ji Kang

A performer stands with their arms outstretched in the 3D world of HOME X.

For the Barbican

For the Barbican

Barbican Centre Board  
Chair  
Tom Sleigh  
Deputy Chair  
Sir William Anthony Bowater Russell  
Deputy Chair  
Tobi Ruth Adebekun  

Board Members  
Munsur Ali, Randall Anderson, Michael 'Mikey J' Asante, Farmida Bi, Tijs Broeke, Zulum Elumogo, Gerard Grech, Ann Holmes, Wendy Hyde, Charles Edward Lord, Wendy Mead, Graham Packham, Mark Page, Alpa Raja, Jens Riegelsberger, Jane Roscoe, Despina Tsatsas and Irem Yerdelen   

Clerk to the Board  
Ben Dunleavy  

Barbican Centre Trust  
Chair  
Farmida Bi CBE   
Vice Chair   
Robert Glick OBE  

Trustees  
Tom Bloxham MBE, Stephanie Camu , Tony Chambers , Cas Donald, Tracey Harrison , Jeff Holland , David Kapur, Ann Kenrick, Kendall Langford, Alasdair Nisbet, Tom Sleigh and Sian Westerman  

Directors   
Chief Executive Officer    
Claire Spencer   
Artistic Director   
Will Gompertz   
Director of Operations and Buildings   
Jonathon Poyner   
Director of Development   
Natasha Harris   
Director of People, Inclusion and Culture   
Ali Mirza  
Head of Finance & Business Administration  
Sarah Wall  
Senior Executive Assistant to Claire Spencer and Will Gompertz   
Jo Daly  

Theatre Department  
Head of Theatre and Dance   
Toni Racklin   
Senior Production Manager  
Simon Bourne  
Producers   
Leanne Cosby, Jill Shelley, Fiona Stewart  
Assistant Producers  
Anna Dominian, Saxon Mudge, Mali Siloko  
Production Managers  
Jamie Maisey, Lee Tasker  
Technical Managers  
Steve Daly, Jane Dickerson, Nik Kennedy, Martin Morgan, Stevie Porter  
Stage Managers  
Lucinda Hamlin, Charlotte Oliver  
Technical Supervisors  
James Breedon, John Gilroy, Jamie Massey, Adam Parrott, Tom Salmon, Lawrence Sills, Chris Wilby  
PA to Head of Theatre  
David Green 

Production Administrator  
Caroline Hall  
Production Assistant  
Andrew Pellett  
Technicians   
Eleanor Foster, Kendell Foster, Burcham Johnson, Christian Lyons, Charlie Mann, Josh Massey, Matt Nelson  
Stage Door  
Julian Fox, aLbi Gravener  

Creative Collaboration and Learning 
Head of Creative Collaboration  
Karena Johnson 
Senior Producer 
Lauren Monaghan-Pisano 
Producer 
Lauren Brown 
Assistant Producer 
Rikky Onefeli 

Marketing Department  
Acting Head of Marketing  
Ben Jefferies  
Marketing Manager   
Kyle Bradshaw  
Marketing Assistant   
Rebecca Moore   

Communications Department  
Head of Communications  
James Tringham  
Communications Manager   
HBL  
Communications Assistant  
Sumayyah Sheikh  

Audience Experience   
Deputy Head of Audience Experience & Operations   
Sheree Miller   
Ticket Sales Managers   
Lucy Allen, Oliver Robinson, Ben Skinner, Jane Thomas   
Operations Managers   
Seán Carter, Richard Long, Rob Norris, Elizabeth Davies-Sadd, Samantha Teatheredge  
Operations Manager (Health & Safety)   
Mo Reideman   
Audience Event & Planning Manager   
Freda Pouflis   
Venue Managers   
Scott Davies, Tilly Devine, Gary Hunt, Nicola Lake, Tabitha Goble   
Assistant Venue Managers   
Suman Cheema, Giovana Lorensatto, Maria Pateli, Joanna Quilty, Cherry Xi, Daniel Young  
Crew Management   
Dave Magwood, Rob Magwood, James Towell   
Access and Licensing Manager   
Rebecca Oliver   
Security Operations Manager  
James Cocklin  

Biographies

AN-TING 安婷
Creator, director and composer

An-Ting 安婷 is a concert pianist, composer, theatre director and currently the Artistic Director of Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) which is a National Portfolio Organisation producing contemporary Southeast and East Asian performing arts in the UK. As a director/composer work includes include Every Dollar is a Soldier/With Money You’re a Dragon for the Horizon Showcase (Digital Culture Award-storytelling); Augmented Chinatown 2.0, an app for AR, music and drama, and Lao Can Impression at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room; Coalesce at King’s Place; and Bats and Beats for Soundstate Festival and Shanghai tour. As a director /producer: Citizens of Nowhere? for Duddell’s and China Changing Festival; and LSO Eclectica for LSO St Luke’s. Her background is a unique mix of science and art, including a degree in Chemistry from National Taiwan University and a MMus and PhD in piano performance from the Royal Academy of Music. In 2012, she founded Concert Theatre which pioneered a new hybrid genre mixing music and theatre. Productions include Kiss of the Earth on UK tour in 2015 and The Tenant at the National Portrait Gallery in 2017. 'An-Ting 安婷's music can be listened to via all digital platforms.

IAN GALLAGHER
Creator and creative technologist 
Ian Gallagher studied Theoretical Physics at Edinburgh before completing a PhD in Complex Systems at Manchester University. He was heavily involved in the music scene in Manchester, as a sound engineer and gig promoter as well as playing on stage with artists including Daniel Johnson and Neva Dinova. He helped found a digital agency OH Digital before moving to London and becoming an independent app developer and entrepreneur. He has helped to create high-profile apps for Christie’s, Formula One and the Olympics among many others, and co-founded a startup, Myriada, focused on the harnessing of collective intelligence. He has a keen interest in the exploration of consciousness and the emergence of collective thought and behaviour. Most recently he helped to create Every Dollar is a Soldier/With Money You’re a Dragon for Kakilang at Two Temple Place that won Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Award (storytelling).

DONALD SHEK
Creator and 3D designer
Donald Shek is an artist based in London. He incorporates architectural elements of London into his artwork and mixes a variety of mediums including screen printing, drawing and etching. More recently the architectural landscapes have developed into augmented reality spaces that straddle digital and physical spaces. He was commissioned by Kakilang on Augmented Chinatown, an augmented reality tour in London’s Chinatown that explored ideas of identity, cultural symbolism and mythology. Following a residency at ESEA Contemporary (formerly CFCCA) in Manchester and a large production with Kakilang, Donald Shek worked on Augmented Chinatown 2.0 which built upon the previous commission, combining immersive AR worlds with music and drama to explore the layered history of London’s Chinatown.

HENRY LAM
Experience designer
Henry Lam is a creator across multiple disciplines, including motion graphics, show/theatre design, experience and interactive design. With years of experience in art and design and his work usually involving cross-field collaboration, he is fluent in transforming ideas into meaningful visual storytelling and breathing artistic insight into all kinds of experiences.

CHRISTINE TING-HUAN 挺歡 URQUHART
Costume Designer
Christine Ting-Huan 挺歡 Urquhart is a former fine art painter and sculptor working in live performance as a set and costume designer and as an art director / production designer for film. She has a continued interest in artist digital commissions centred around discovering new forms of performance, somewhere between film, gaming and exhibition. Her heritage is Taiwanese British which deeply roots her collaborations in the underrepresented and displaced. She spent seven years designing internationally (around Europe, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Australia, Canada) and is currently based in Glasgow. She studied Fine Art at Farnham Art College and Cardiff Metropolitan University, and  Theatre Design at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Her work questions viewpoints, histories and narrative structure through form as a design-driven interrogation, the body as a political statement and getting audiences out of black boxes to be witnesses to a different kind of event.

SI RAWLINSON
Choreographer and dancer
Si Rawlinson is a hip-hop choreographer and theatre-maker of British and Hong Kong Chinese heritage. He is a Resident Artist at Curve Theatre, and Artistic Director of Wayward Thread.  His work has been performed at leading venues such as Sadler’s Wells, Royal Festival Hall and The Place, among many others, and he has worked with acclaimed artists including Gary Clarke, Alesandra Seutin and Requardt & Rosenberg. His company Wayward Thread is rooted in hip hop dance, using physical theatre and text to explore compassion, identity and our relationship with a rapidly changing world. Most recently he performed as a puppeteer in the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning stage adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican, and his next show Saving Face will premiere at The Place at the end of June.

SUEN NAM
Choreographer and dancer 
Suen Nam graduated from the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity and the Hong Kong Design Institute, majoring in music and creative media. He is a member of the hip-hop group Flowrulerz. Suen Nam has worked in the arts industry for several years, participating in dance, theatre and music performance and composing. He has worked with Hong Kong artists including Fong Ho-Man, EKids and Andy So; has been a choreographer for various universities and dance associations and a dancer and actor on 'pole' as well as the movement director of 100Most’s and Thoughtful Theatre’s The Fading Spark and Unspoken, and a dancer at the Hong Kong Art Festival in 2019 and 2021. Suen Nam has also composed for the musicals Between You & Me and Bent, and has published his other musical work online.

COLETTE WING WING LAM
Soprano
Hong Kong-born soprano Colette Lam has interpreted a wide range of roles throughout Asia and Europe. These include Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Gilda in Rigoletto, Juliet in Roméo et Juliette, Micäela in Carmen, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Violetta in La traviata. She has performed in productions by Opera Hong Kong and Musica Viva in Hong Kong; Brent Opera in London; and Opera Lyrica in Oxford. She has also appeared as soloist in venues including: Colston Hall in Bristol; Esplanade in Singapore; Millennium Centre in Cardiff; Sadler’s Wells, Westminster Abbey and Banqueting House in London; the Elena Obraztsova Cultural Centre in St Petersburg; and Abay Opera House in Almaty. Colette Lam obtained a BMus (Hons) degree at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and completed her Master of Music in Voice at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

MIA FOO
Actor-gamer and introductory video
Mia Foo works primarily as an actor, but also as a live music tour promoter bringing artists of East and Southeast Asian heritage on their European tours. She has a BSc in Design. Since her postgraduate studies at the Drama Studio she has workshopped a new play with the National Theatre Studio; performed with Old Vic New Voices in the play Ages; and her most recent stage work is the English language premiere of Lesia Ukrainka's Cassandra, which will tour in March 2023. Recent screen work includes the feature film The Persian Version, winner of 2023 Sundance People's Choice Award; The Crown season 5; and Emmerdale. More recently, as a writer, her work includes the action-rom-com short film Speed Dating. She will feature as the voice and mocap for the lead and other characters in the upcoming release of Baldur's Gate III. Mia Foo really likes playing video games. 

DANIEL YORK LOH
Dramaturg
Daniel York Loh is a writer, filmmaker, performer and musician. His first stage-play, The Fu Manchu Complex was produced at Ovalhouse. His second, Forgotten 遗忘, played at Arcola and Plymouth Theatre Royal in 2018. He is one of 21 writers of colour featured in the best-selling award-winning essay collection The Good Immigrant. His short films include: Mercutio’s Dreaming: The Killing of a Chinese Actor, Dream of Emerald Hill, Hall of Mirrors and most recently Laid, which won Best Science-Fiction Film at Cannes Shorts. His recent work for performance includes Invisible Harmony 无形的和谐 for Papergang Theatre/Kakilang at the Southbank Centre; Living Newspaper Edition 1 at the Royal Court; Silent Disco in the Sky for Northern Stage; Every Dollar is a Soldier/With Money You’re a Dragon for Kakilang at Two Temple Place (in which he also performed) and Asian Exclusion Act which he wrote and directed for MFA International students at East 15 Acting School. As an actor Daniel York Loh has appeared at the Royal Court, RSC, National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, in Singapore, China, Europe and the USA, as well as in the films Rogue Trader, The Beach and Scarborough. With Jennifer Lim he is co-founder of Moongate Productions and is currently co-curating the Moongate Mix Salon Sessions which include We R Not Virus 2, the commissioning of five writers funded by Arts Council England.

LISA LI
BSL Interpreter
Lisa Li is the eldest daughter of immigrant parents from Hong Kong. She grew up in Fife (Scotland) and graduated from Heriot-Watt University's MA(Hons) Interpreting, Translation and Applied Language Studies course in 2016. She has been interpreting between British Sign Language (BSL) and English ever since. She works in a variety of sectors, including education, health, medical, social work, humanist celebrations, theatre, performance and arts, among others. She is a member of ASLI, IOCN, SCOSLI and dual-registered with NRCPD and SRLPDC. She can be found on Twitter: @LisaLiBSL 

With special thanks

Anna Clart
Aidan Wan
ChatGPT (for guidance) 
Ema Boswood
Harmeet Chagger-Khan 
Iris Wan
Julian Gough (Minecraft End Poem in the temple scene Easter egg)
Jo Ross
Keijiro Takahashi (Unity god)
Ling Tan
Matt Burman
Midjourney (AI images for the introductory video)
Miquelon Rodriguez
Mulbert (AI music for the introductory video)
Timothy Wong
Wei Wei

HOME X is co-produced by Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) and their Hong Kong partner, Don't Believe in Style and co-commissioned by Cambridge Junction, Oxford Contemporary Music and York Theatre Royal. The work is supported by StoryFutures, The Space, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and John Ellerman Foundation, originally commissioned by British Council Hong Kong.