2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism - Architecture Finale Concert

by Eric de Fontenay, MusicDish*China (http://china.musicdish.com)

On February 27th, the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism - Architecture: 'Bring Your Own Biennale' (BYOB) will be closing their project with music performances curated by Kung Chi Shing, in collaboration with William Lane (New Music Ensemble) and the BYOBiennale Curatorial Team. The concert will feature the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, which will also be performing as part of Closing Ceremony, SaxMax Saxophone Quartet, Wilson Tsang and Kung Chi Shing, Poubelle International and Unixx

What first drew my attention to this event were some of the bands in the line-up. I first discovered UNiXX through their Hong Kong label Lona Records, which we introduced in the MusicDish*China Sounds inaugural podcast. The few tracks I've heard from their sophmore album "7 Deadly Sins" has made this one of my Hong Kong band's to watch in 2010 - see for yourself with their track "Wasted" below, which was issued nearly five years ago, but finds new life in this album.

Wasted - UNiXX by MusicDish China Sounds

Coincidently, I only recently found out about Poubelle International which is launching their debut EP "Avec La Boom!" at Backstge on Wellington Street Central on February 26th. They'll be teaming up with great 'David Bowie Knives' who will support them on stage with their patented brand of 'Sex Rock.' Billed as "an insatiable night of indie mayhem", it will showcase live and multimedia art installations produced throughout the evening by Emily Eldridge and Jonas Lundin, as well as indie tunes spun by The Likely Lads from supersonic. Definitely check out their rockin' pre-release track 'The Sell Out,' which I'm sure we'll be featuring in an upcoming podcast.

But what really attracted my attention was the actual 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism \ Architecture: BYOB seeks to envision a new model metropolis that uses social capital as the main driving force. While focused on urban planning and architecture, its core questions are perhaps even more relevant to today's music industry: "How is public culture defined? Who has the right to experience, conceptualize and control culture?" Whether it is the question of extending copyright terms or the role of DRM and file sharing, these two questions have been at the core of the debates that have and continue to shape the industry's transition to a digitized world.

So perhaps we could take another cue from the project's curational statement: "We seek to examine the issue of sustainability not only from a material vantage point but also from a social one." It's not just about the old rights and royalties arguments, not just about paying and who is getting paid. It is primarily about creating a sustainable model where all stakeholders - consumers, creators, industry - strive to achieve the spirit of copyright as defined by the U.S. constitution: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts."