Invisible poem about the emotional landscape of Hong Kong losing its autonomy, emerging from painted-over graffiti.
Erased Murmurs is an interactive installation that draws attention to the disappearing and often overlooked graffiti. It focuses on emotionally significant words written in public spaces in Hong Kong and explores themes of public expression and the lasting impact of the 2019-2020 protests.
The installation features a book containing photographs capturing the graffiti in its original state. To mimic the attempts to conceal graffiti with patches of paint, which paradoxically makes the act of covering up stand out, the artist has covered the words in the photos with special ink, rendering them invisible to the naked eye. To reveal them, visitors must expose them to infrared light using a handheld lamp.
The words hidden behind the special ink are not random. Their carefully selected sequence creates a coherent narrative through personal confessions, expressions of inner struggles, or social discontent to messages of consolation and support, serving as a window into the emotional landscape of Hong Kong residents.
Photographs by anonymous individuals who contributed to the following Instagram accounts:
@cuhk_emo
@here.isay
@hkk_graffilmm
@hkurbanrecord
@hkvoiceonwall
@hongkongchillsnaps
@joyleefilm
@pain_in_brain_
@wee22weee32
Collaboration: Cody Chow
Video: Deryn Li, Karen Chan
Photo: Miu Ling Lam, Dino Zhang
Professor Miu Ling Lam is a media artist and researcher of computational imaging, robotics, and interactive media. Her current research focuses on computational photography and display, deep learning-based light field synthesis, and near-infrared imaging.
She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Los Angeles, specializing in single-molecule DNA identification and Art-Science integration.
She has won various academic and art awards, including the CityU Teaching Excellence Award, the World Cultural Council’s Special Recognition Award, three best paper awards in IEEE international conferences, the Croucher Fellowship, the CUHK MAE Outstanding Alumni Award, the Honorary Mention Award of IFVA-Interactive Media, and the Shanghai International Science and Art Exposition Achievement Award.
Lam is a CityU Centre for Robotics and Automation member and a CityU Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media fellow. She is the Bachelor of Arts and Science in New Media program leader at CityU School of Creative Media and spearheads education and community programs. Lam is also the Art Advisor (Media Arts) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the chair of SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Emerging Technologies.