Minotaur Pictures Limited (MPL) is established to serve as the promotional and further R&D vehicle for The Once and Future project, a groundbreaking, 'stunning' (Business Times, 9 June 2022), art-tech project created through a partnership between HKBU, the Hong Kong government (LCSD), Arts House Limited Singapore, and the Singapore National Arts Council. The work integrates cinema, music, machine learning, and laser design through a groundbreaking production that also recouped its initial investment cost by its first performance, proving that cultural projects with blue-chip international partners can be not only ambitious, but also profitable. MPL will re-market the performance in mainland China, Western Europe, and Australia, utilising the experience of its three founders who possess extensive knowledge of the arts and film industry, and as part of marketing and creating new partnerships, MPL will further develop and refine the technology, creating digital spin-offs and new extensions of the technology into video games and interactive media. | Description | Minotaur Pictures Limited (MPL) is established to serve as the promotional and further R&D vehicle for The Once and Future project, a groundbreaking, 'stunning' (Business Times, 9 June 2022), art-tech project created through a partnership between HKBU, the Hong Kong government (LCSD), Arts House Limited Singapore, and the Singapore National Arts Council. The work integrates cinema, music, machine learning, and laser design through a groundbreaking production that also recouped its initial investment cost by its first performance, proving that cultural projects with blue-chip international partners can be not only ambitious, but also profitable. MPL will re-market the performance in mainland China, Western Europe, and Australia, utilising the experience of its three founders who possess extensive knowledge of the arts and film industry, and as part of marketing and creating new partnerships, MPL will further develop and refine the technology, creating digital spin-offs and new extensions of the technology into video games and interactive media. || Product | “The Once and Future” combines film, music, laser choreography, and AI in a unique way, creating a captivating journey that explores and questions geographical, physical, and spiritual boundaries, pushing them to new limits. Along the way, the focus turns to Earth, facing the threat of complete destruction, raising questions about the potential future of humanity and the possible locations for it to unfold. | Award-winning director Yeo Siew Hua from Singapore explores these questions in his film, shot in Argentina during the pandemic, using subtle yet compelling visuals that capture and extend Eugene Birman’s congenial and highly virtuosic music. Birman’s composition is interpreted by the ZeMu! Ensemble Berlin, a group of members from the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Stanley Dodds, and the Indian librettist and vocal soloist Anandi Bhattacharya, who performs as embodied Artificial Intelligence. | This multimedia work premiered at the Singapore International Arts Festival in 2022 and was repeated a year later at the New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong.