Much like the Dow Jones or NASDAQ in the US, Hong Kongers are fixated on the Hang Seng Index as a reflection of prosperity. While I was there summer 2003, Hong Kong’s economy was poor, contributing to the 500,000-person protest of the local government. Construction scaffoldings made of bamboo are a distinctive architectural feature of the city. Part of Hong Kong is situated between the harbor and a very high Peak. A long series of escalators run up much of this Peak. The closer to the top, the more economically elite the establishments and residents.

The Elusive Climb is an installation where the ups and downs of the market play out on a monitor embedded in a tall bamboo ladder. Live input from the Hang Seng Index controls the speed and direction of video playback on the monitor. Video imagery depicts the Lan Kwai Fong escalator in a Sisyphean attempt to get to the top.  When the market is up for the day, the video is red, the color of good fortune. When it is down, the video is yellow. As the market makes fluxuations every ten minutes, the piece averages the change and plays the video forward or backward according to the change and faster or slower according to the amount of change.

The video playback is a Director program which accesses files written by a java program. Every 30 seconds, the java program scrapes a web page with the Hang Seng Index on it.

Supported by the Hong Kong Arts Centre.