<< Own it ! Now or Never ! >> by De Tesla

De Tesla

De Tesla

There is a hilarious scenario that our team observed in many events in Hong Kong.
While the event is a charity show, where we would have performers showing on stage for fund raising.
eg. The event supposed is for the people who live in poverty or suffered in natural disaster, but the singer on stage was singing something totally irrelevant to the message we ought to hear.
The visual oxymoron evoked our team to further think about the function of music.
If we agree that music speaks louder than words, then what should a piece of lyrics be like ?
We believe that message between the song and the concept of a performance has a way to be coherent under an in-depth consideration and proper arrangement.

De Tesla - << Own it! Now or Never>> (hereinafter referred to as ONN) is a conceptual concert project about the history of different communities in Hong Kong, implementing the creative belief of "Hong Kong people's history, discover by oneself".

The content of the concert will be using no more than four video clips and six to eight pieces of original music to tell about historical events of a community and the story behinds the streets/buildings near the venue.

ONN series aim to explore the possibility of music performance, which goes beyond as an entertainment, and to further develop people’s connection. By hearing history in a different dimension, project tried to evoke people of their right of owning a city by sharing the historical moments, finding the similarity of people ways of living at different time span, including the happiness and sentimentals.

The first concert project was established in fall of 2020.
It was also under the period of severe spread of coronavirus disease in Hong Kong. We had face the challenge of insufficient supply of traditional music performance venues under government regulations.
Therefore, keeping the project size in niche and seeking for unconventional venue of performance is our possible ways to maintain the project nature to be mobile and flexible. Also, a smaller room provides a sense of cozy and intimacy, where people feel safer to share their feelings.

From 2020 to 2021, De Tesla held five ONN concerts in seven months on a self-financing basis, with a total audience of approximately 600 people:

The project contains two main features.
I. Connect the content to the performance venue
We concern the connection between people and the community, therefore, the content created is directly related to the concert’s venue.
Assuming that the concert is held in Tsuen Wan- (a district in Hong Kong ), the content of the concert will be using no more than four video clips and six to eight pieces of original music to tell about historical events in Tsuen Wan and the story behinds the streets/buildings near the venue.
When the concert is finished, the music and clips have just been heard and seen. Audience are able to understand more and they can just start their exploration right by stepping out of the performance space. It further connects the place with the people by associative memory.

II. Use of “Image Analogy”
“Image Analogy” is a way of expression in which sound and pictures are not synchronised.
The form allow a space where the audience can freely associate the relationship between the two in order to create a meaningful statement.
The images and paintings appearing in the concert are all based on historical events, and this event can be compared and dialogue with today’s Hong Kong.
For example, while the voice over in the video is talking about the plague in 1894, the image shown is a news clip of covid-19 in 2020.
This is where we might find the similarity of two event, as well as the similar emotions in between as a human being. - even in different time span.

We share and spread the history horizontally - for those we live in Hong Kong in 2021 , our stake holders gathered and hear the story of a community, and we form a community.
On the other side, we also share and spread the history vertically - that we echo with the similar emotions between human being in different time span and historical events.

There is a hilarious scenario that our team observed in many events in Hong Kong.
While the event is a charity show, where we would have performers showing on stage for fund raising.
eg. The event supposed is for the people who live in poverty or suffered in natural disaster, but the singer on stage was singing something totally irrelevant to the message we ought to hear.
The visual oxymoron evoked our team to further think about the function of music.
If we agree that music speaks louder than words, then what should a piece of lyrics be like ?
We believe that message between the song and the concept of a performance has a way to be coherent under an in-depth consideration and proper arrangement.

De Tesla - << Own it! Now or Never>> (hereinafter referred to as ONN) is a conceptual concert project about the history of different communities in Hong Kong, implementing the creative belief of "Hong Kong people's history, discover by oneself".

The content of the concert will be using no more than four video clips and six to eight pieces of original music to tell about historical events of a community and the story behinds the streets/buildings near the venue.

ONN series aim to explore the possibility of music performance, which goes beyond as an entertainment, and to further develop people’s connection. By hearing history in a different dimension, project tried to evoke people of their right of owning a city by sharing the historical moments, finding the similarity of people ways of living at different time span, including the happiness and sentimentals.

The first concert project was established in fall of 2020.
It was also under the period of severe spread of coronavirus disease in Hong Kong. We had face the challenge of insufficient supply of traditional music performance venues under government regulations.
Therefore, keeping the project size in niche and seeking for unconventional venue of performance is our possible ways to maintain the project nature to be mobile and flexible. Also, a smaller room provides a sense of cozy and intimacy, where people feel safer to share their feelings.

From 2020 to 2021, De Tesla held five ONN concerts in seven months on a self-financing basis, with a total audience of approximately 600 people:

The project contains two main features.
I. Connect the content to the performance venue
We concern the connection between people and the community, therefore, the content created is directly related to the concert’s venue.
Assuming that the concert is held in Tsuen Wan- (a district in Hong Kong ), the content of the concert will be using no more than four video clips and six to eight pieces of original music to tell about historical events in Tsuen Wan and the story behinds the streets/buildings near the venue.
When the concert is finished, the music and clips have just been heard and seen. Audience are able to understand more and they can just start their exploration right by stepping out of the performance space. It further connects the place with the people by associative memory.

II. Use of “Image Analogy”
“Image Analogy” is a way of expression in which sound and pictures are not synchronised.
The form allow a space where the audience can freely associate the relationship between the two in order to create a meaningful statement.
The images and paintings appearing in the concert are all based on historical events, and this event can be compared and dialogue with today’s Hong Kong.
For example, while the voice over in the video is talking about the plague in 1894, the image shown is a news clip of covid-19 in 2020.
This is where we might find the similarity of two event, as well as the similar emotions in between as a human being. - even in different time span.

We share and spread the history horizontally - for those we live in Hong Kong in 2021 , our stake holders gathered and hear the story of a community, and we form a community.
On the other side, we also share and spread the history vertically - that we echo with the similar emotions between human being in different time span and historical events.

The content of historical materials were obtained through three parts:

First, the oral historical data obtained through the interview.　
Second, the historical images described by its author in literatures, such as the Hong Kong University dormitory described by Zhang Ailing in "Ember Remnants" and the San Po Kong portrayed by Mr. Liang Bingjun in his poem "Rainy Day in San Po Kong".
Third, historical facts and historical materials from history books and archived news.

The core message from the historical materials would be consolidated after adequate researches, thus, would go to the final stage of creation- music piece.

The original music of the concert is linked to the theme, and all works would be original by De Tesla .

The content of historical materials were obtained through three parts:

First, the oral historical data obtained through the interview.　
Second, the historical images described by its author in literatures, such as the Hong Kong University dormitory described by Zhang Ailing in "Ember Remnants" and the San Po Kong portrayed by Mr. Liang Bingjun in his poem "Rainy Day in San Po Kong".
Third, historical facts and historical materials from history books and archived news.

The core message from the historical materials would be consolidated after adequate researches, thus, would go to the final stage of creation- music piece.

The original music of the concert is linked to the theme, and all works would be original by De Tesla .

https://fresh-world-news.com/cn/【own-it！now-or-never-社區故事音樂廳】我們從來都活在歷史的/

https://youtu.be/vBRWOLjSXSM

www.facebook.com/deteslamusic

Press Freedom Index of Hong Kong has been drastically dropped from the 18th in 2002 to the 73th in 2021. The figures implied that our freedom has been tighten in a shocking pace.
Starting from primary school student’s textbook content, news reported or any wordings one can speak in public has been straightly “advised”. Students are not learning by their first language - Cantonese. All of these turned us into a conflicts between remembrance and oblivion. We would like to remember something, but we find it hard to do.

History is about people.
History belongs to people.
Ironically, we found that history book are not always written by the people who own the identity.
When citizens are empowered to create their own history of their city, by whatever means they want to, democracy exists.

Due to the rapid change of political situation in Hong Kong, we cannot deny that the freedom of press has inevitable been tighten. It is rare to see history in another angle. In contrast, a "right version of history" was modulated.
Is there is right or wrong about history? Or there is another question we could ask, "can we find if it is right or wrong through one and the only one voice/evidence/ opinion? "

The content of historical materials is obtained through three parts:
First, the oral historical data obtained through a qualitative interview with the recent stake holder, who are living in the community. 　
Second, the historical images described by its author in literatures.
Third, historical facts and historical materials from history books and archived news.

The core message from the historical materials would be consolidated after adequate researches, thus, would go to the final stage of creation- music piece.
The original music of the concert is linked to the theme, and all works are original by De Tesla .

The team has been committed to an art form of combining Hong Kong history into music performance in recent years. We are trying to create another authentic version of history, with people's emotions, intentions, and questions, which all likely to provide an alternative to the society.

In this dimension of thinking, even we are a group of musician, we are also a group of social scientists, who are trying to construct democratic experiments. We tried to captured the thousands of little moments of people’s live and thought, connect and share the co-existing emotions.