Digitaltag

«A proximal visit» is a 9-part documentary VR series filmed in 360° about the informal life on the stairs of Hong Kong. it was produced as a part of the „Stair Culture Project“, a research project focused on documenting and archiving the social impact of informal public space. Featuring on location 3D audio, an overlay voice in english and cantonese explaining each location and giving context to the situation, and an individualised musical score, which provides a unique layer to each part of the documentary series.

This combined opens up an innovative and fully immersive approach to documentary storytelling.

In recent years, documentary research has evolved along with the development of usable 360 filming rigs. Using this technology, this work presents a snapshot of the daily life along selected staircases in Hong Kong, as well their use as arts and performance venues. These short films allow the visitor to become part of the action, able to view the scene multiple times from various angles. In addition to being presented at the Connecting Space in Hong Kong, the films are also available online so as to immerse an international audience in the both the socio-ethnographic research of the Hong Kong Stair Archive and in the spaces themselves, through what very closely approximates the experience of being in Hong Kong, on the stairs.

In our video series, we feature a wide variety of situations and topics. 2 films highlight the situations of the 400‘000 domestic helpers, gathering each sunday on the stairs, another film focuses on the party scene in LKF, and one part is dedicated to the worlds longest escalator and it‘s role in the city. As a special, 9th part, we developed together with composer Alain Chiu an dance and music performance on a stairset in Central Hong Kong.