What happens when we bring human touch back intoa city shaped by speed? Curated by Verena Kan, The Human Algorithm bringstogether five creative practices at Commons Lab, exploring craft as knowledgepassed through families, factories and communities, and carried forward throughcontemporary making.
Inspired by Edward T. Hall’s four proxemiczones—intimate, personal, social and public—the exhibition moves from memoriesof learning at home to objects worn close to the body, shared traditions andcollective participation. The sewing machine in the living room becomes ameeting point between generations, where making is a language of attention,patience and care.
Queenie Chan’s ceramics draw on her family’sgarment-factory history and connections to Lau Fau Shan. Kimberly Chongtransforms found and discarded materials into jewellery and wearable bodysculptures. Verena Kan explores the intergenerational bonds of knitting andcrochet. Kinyan Lam collaborates with Dong artisans in Guizhou through plantdyeing and embroidery. Sofia Lisi reinterprets three generations of Italianwood-weaving heritage through her life in Hong Kong.
Tools, personal references, process images andfinished works connect each creator’s influences with their material choices.Curated retail brings selected handmade pieces into everyday life, alongsidetheir stories. Visitors can also thread and weave into a shared knittedstructure, following simple prompts. Each contribution adds an individualtrace, creating a tactile record of collective presence and keeping craftknowledge alive through shared acts of making.
