The Art Teacher Communication Association of Macau (ATCA) is holding a month-long exhibition at the Centre of Educational Resources’ Exhibition Gallery of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) near S. Francisco Garden, which runs until November 21.
According to a press statement released to the Post recently, in an era of rapid technological iteration where artificial intelligence (AI) frequently defines modern life, the exhibition takes “ÀI” as its theme. This draws attention back to the most primal and profound of meanings - “love” (ài in Pinyin) - while also standing for “Art & Intuition”.
The statement noted that the exhibition aims to emphasise that creation is not a cold, impersonal algorithm, but rather perception and intuition drawn from the depths of the soul. It added that when artistic creation settles once more and returns to the inner self, every flowing line and every sweep of colour becomes a sincere emotion distilled by teachers through their life experience.
In an interview last week, exhibition curator and ATCA President Kuong Ka Kin told the Post that the exhibition takes “ÀI” as its theme in the hope of offering the public a calm point of reflection amid the overwhelming AI hype.
“This wordplay conveys the association’s artistic stance: art is inseparable from intuition, and the foundation of art has always been ‘love’,” Kuong said.
He added that while AI can rapidly generate perfect images through big data, it has no breath, no sense of pain, no feeling, and no thrill in the face of life’s impermanence.
“Intuition and emotion are precisely the last line of defence of the human soul in the AI era,” Kuong said, noting that every hesitant brushstroke and every breath-like flow of colour represent a creator’s unique life experience. “Technology will always be a tool, while the soul of art will always lie in human warmth.”
Kuong noted that all the exhibitors are teachers. He explained that by day, teachers convey aesthetics from the podium and guide children to see the world; late at night, when all is quiet, the association’s members transform into creators. He added that this duality is not a conflict, but rather a source of mutual nourishment.
In the works on display, the teachers have poured their recent reflections on life and their understanding of the world unreservedly into their pieces. Teaching keeps members sensitive to the world, and this experience of passing on knowledge has, in turn, given the teachers’ artistic creation greater depth and humanistic concern. Kuong said this shift in identity has inspired members with a realisation: only teachers who continue to create can truly deliver an aesthetic education that possesses soul and depth.
The association was established 18 years ago and has held more than 18 exhibitions at the gallery. Kuong described the venue as being like an old friend with whom there is a deep rapport - even like “home”.
Supported by the Cultural Development Fund (FDC) and the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ), the exhibition aims to bring new thinking to visual arts education, cultivating students’ aesthetic judgement, critical thinking, and emotional expression so that aesthetic education can return to its humanistic foundations and ignite true creativity within every child.
Photo taken by Armindo Neves on Saturday at the Centre of Educational Resources of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) opposite S. Francisco Garden.
