Production Note

As a reflection on the communication-method/love/emotional status of modern people, "Buffering..." provides an opportunity for the audience to rethink their relationship with technology.

"Buffering..." is a love story between Alex and Ricky. Alex finds a stone that talks to him verbally. The stone is a metaphor for hi-tech communication, connected to another world-the cube where Ricky lives. Ricky's body and space are pixilated beyond his control. He can only sleep on public transportation with a big pillow, and the ring of Alexís mobile phone always awakens him.

Alex and Ricky come from two completely different worlds. They are connected through the stone, in the same way that people connect randomly on the Internet. "Buffering..." is about the inability of Alex and Ricky being able to touch each other, and the journey of each of them searching for each otherís presence.

Pillow: Love + Loneliness

This is no longer a world where the only existing forms of communication are the telephone, the postal service, or word of mouth. In this digital age full of various kinds of communication methods and technologies, people are able to get in touch with each other easily. However, inside this publicly isolated space of communication (computer monitor, telephone booth), people are subjectively forced to follow the unique negotiation of human-machine communication or exchange. The instant reaction that technology gives us stinks but the physical distance that these technologies cannot solve, leave people in an isolated space of loneliness.

This video seeks to represent the disassociation of one's combined identity that lies between both the Internet and physical worlds. Alex and Ricky can only meet in dreams. Alex always dreams of Ricky sleeping on the train and continually wakes up unable to figure out who the man is. This disassociation of voice and face that Alex encounters is very similar to when individuals meet the people whom they have been chatting with on the Internet in real life.

When Alex and Ricky fall in love with each other, the distance and physical absence becomes the biggest obstacle between them. The pattern on Rickyís pillow is the same as the pattern on the cover of Alexís book, which works against the disassociation of Ricky's identity with Alexís and helps to carry the meaning of longing and waiting for someone further.

Rock: Location + Dislocation

Like air surrounding us, technology today is so close to human beings. It is so indispensable that we do not even feel its existence.

In this video, the stone acts as a symbolic image of technology but at the same time it also stands for the permeable relationship between technology and nature: "land" and "distance". Alex picks up the stone randomly on the ground and later it acts as a microphone where he can hear the voice of Ricky from another world. Meanwhile, the rock is also a subjective angle of Alex. Ricky's vision of Alex's world is greatly influenced in how Alex holds the rock.

= Buffering...

When we see "buffering..." on the computer, it usually means that we have to wait. In this movie, the meaning of "buffering..." is extended to the more humane meaning, "waiting..." While we are waiting, we are isolated, silent, quiet, and are expecting something to happen, but when buffering or waiting lasts for very long periods of time and seems never ending, we become aware that we are alone and the meaning/feeling of buffering or waiting drifts more toward loneliness.

"Buffering..." also stands for the mental and physical distance between the characters. When people are in love, but are apart, can the proximity of mental distance over take that of physical distance? How important is it that lovers are physically with each other?

In the video, Ricky has the pillow and Alex has the stone. Ricky is waiting for something while Alex is looking for something. The relationship between the pillow and the stone creates the dynamic energy of the narrative. Finally the pillow and stone are immersed together so that the bodies of both Ricky and Alex project their visions and create the space where they finally meet.

Hong Kong: Post-Colonial Identities

This story can happen anytime, anywhere, and in any cultural context with any identity. But with Ricky's ambiguous background and identity (this character's name is not even spoken in the video), this film marks its uniqueness by describing how "dislocated" Hong Kong people are after five years of Chinese control.

Compared with the iconic images in cyberspace and the beautiful scenery of Switzerland, the images and sounds of Hong Kong are captured in a more dry and hidden manner. When Ricky tries to describe his environment to Alex, he can only tell what a city is like, it makes no difference to Alex whether its Zurich or someplace else. Aside from the news report being turned off in Rickyís cube, the video uses the metaphors of the "Lake", "Sea", and "Ocean" to compare the differences between the city and the country in the perception of the Hong Kong people. The symbols of the "seagulls" and "lake-gulls", also stress the unwillingness as well as the helplessness that people in Hong Kong feel in controlling their own destiny.

The video describes how the colonial-government programmed their citizens to make them have no sense of their national identity. After the colonial period in Hong Kong ended, the people have been left "buffering..." and are still in an endless search for a sense of belonging. Coming Soon