Site/Sight-Seeing with Adam Hsieh

Every year, over 5 million tourists visit Kamberri/Canberra, generating an even larger volume of photos and videos. Connected through geotags and hashtags, these images often feature similar popular spots but differ in composition, timing, and perspective, assembling a dynamic, multi-dimensional digital landscape that reframes how these places are seen, experienced, and interpreted. This interplay between sites and sights illustrates tourist photography as a collective practice of both image-making and place-making.

Adam Hsieh, a VIEW 2025 exhibiting artist, invites you to join his workshop/performance, exploring our nuanced relationship with the environment through compound vision from his video installation, ‘i didn’t come here for love’. Participants will form a tour group to navigate the neighbourhoods near the photo access Gallery. Guided by a set route and schedule, they will capture their surroundings from various viewpoints on instant film and reflect on their situated experiences through writing and tagging. By collaborating on the photography project and sharing the journey, the group may engage more deeply with the multi-layered nature of the place while creating new meanings together.

Date & Time

Saturday, January 25th, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm at photo access

This is a free event but registration is required.

Program

Introduction

• Welcome and introductions of the group.
• Hsieh’s floor talk on his work at VIEW 2025 along with the concept of site/sight and compound vision.
• Briefing on the group tour itinerary and distribution of printed timetables, maps, and tour group caps.

Tour

• Follow the map to explore the area through walking, observing, resting.
• Document the landscape along the route by taking pictures with mobile phones or digital cameras.
• Select images and print them with the instant film printer.
• Annotate the work with text and hashtags to add further context.

Collaboration

• Present your ‘tourist photos’ and participate in creating the journey’s visual map.
• Reflect on the shared experience and the meanings the tour group may attribute to the place.

What to bring

• Mobile phone with camera or any digital camera (and charger if needed)
• Comfortable outfit with walking shoes
• Water bottle, hat, sunscreen

What will be provided

• Portable photo printer and instant films
• Sharpie pen
• Timetable and map
• Tour group cap