4/ at night, i forget how to speak

2020
By Lausan Collective
Duration: 4:04 min.
Recommended by Christina Yuen Zi Chung

How does this work investigate “hope?”
”Countering neoliberal renditions of hope that markets it as a sentiment of utter positivity lodged in capitalist promises of the future, this video conveys a ‘messy’ rendition of hope that sits side by side with grief and helplessness. In an age where it feels like we are immobilised by the traumatic news media that we consume daily, reframing our consumption of media as an act of witnessing allows us to engage with the political potential of history that has the power to shape new futures.” —Lausan Collective

About the work:
“at night, i forget how to speak is a meditation on the psychic remnants of state violence in Hong Kong that has erupted since June 2019. Whilst many have taken to the streets in protest, a larger number of supporters in Hong Kong and all over the world have engaged with the city’s bid for self-determination through the mediascape, a term coined by Arjun Appadurai that describes a media-based ‘world’ unbounded by national lines or real time. Witnessing the protests in the mediascape can engender feelings of guilt, helplessness, and even second-hand trauma. And yet the act of witnessing can also be powerful, just as history itself is powerful. What if, alongside guilt, trauma, and helplessness, hope also emerges as the refusal to forget? What is the political potential of memory and (re)writing histories in the mediascape? By ‘rescoring’ scenes of protest violence to the rhythms of daily metropolitan activity—a chopstick hitting a cookie tin, an evening tram ride—we interpolate documents of political resistance into the ambience of civic life, both within and beyond the boundaries of Hong Kong.” —Lausan Collective