We have designed the interactivity for @quiettomymess’s Shhh (樹)  at My Light, My Hood, and focus on the action of “joining forces” to portray an idealistic hope for the future.

Shhh (樹) is a set of interactive hand-embroidery installation as a response to the broken trees damaged from the typhoon Mangkhut. It requires two or more viewers to hold their hands and touch the wooden pole on each end, to light up the LED neon strips weaved in the work.

It is a wake-up call from the trees and nature asking us to stay quiet and listen to what they have to tell us after the Typhoon Mangkhut. If we join forces together, we could revitalise the neighbourhood into better shape.

Shhh (樹) is a reflection of @quiettomymess’s memories of her 2 neighbourhoods, Causeway Bay (Leighton Road) and Fo Tan (Monte Path). One has the everyday routine she passes through everyday for 13 years for school, and another as the entrance to her home. Under her imagination, roads have turned into river and buildings into trees.

After the Typhoon Mangkhut, a lot of places and natural sceneries in Hong Kong have been destroyed, including these 2 roads that hold a dear significant in @quiettomymess’s heart. As a wake-up call from nature, she would like to create an interactive piece that gathers efforts from citizens, with the gesture of hands holding symbolising an effort of working together, to revive our city into a beautiful natural scenery.

The use of neon light in the Chinese character “Tree” written in Clerical script and LED neon light strips for the leaves on the work is @quiettomymess’s attempt to provoke a visual dialogue between tradition and modernity to us. The traditional artisanal craft as a skill (neon light making and embroidery) and medium (neon light and LED neon light) to illustrate the seemingly forgotten “nature” (ancient script and Chinese calligraphy) in our modern society.