Polyphonic Exhibition (Performer/Artist)

Kleinsche Flasche is an audio visual project about how information is displaying, and transforming among 7 senses including hearing, smell, taste, vestibular, sight, touch and proprioception from a human being, as well as the connection between an individual and the whole society. It consists of 7 sound installations, 7 televisions representing and demonstrating 7 dancers with a tailored sense. Plus, it is a 10-minute constant dolby atom sound design focused on acoustic improvisation, which would be suitable for either a gallery space or a fancy church.

Kleinsche Flasche could be seen as ‘open content’, which mainly means, when it comes to audience interaction, people don’t have to be limited to the words I have created or documented. I would be willing to listen if they would like to carry their own thoughts and definition and give my project a second life. In my estimation, we never know when the audience will come, how long they will stay and what “art work” means to them. Instead, they have to accept the existence of artwork. For example, if  we put ‘Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp, “composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow” by Mondrian and “Eisenwalzwerk, Iron Rolling Mill” by Adolph Menzel together in a sealed space. Do we really need or need to explain the meaning of their existence to the audience? I am not sure. The connection of  ‘them’ are being put together would definitely take into consideration. Other than that, it is quite pointless to judge or compare which one is more outstanding. The emotional experience, conceptual thinking and association of ideas that works of art bring to everyone is different. And I do believe the experience of visiting galleries is necessary if the artist desires to be part of them.

Kleinsche Flasche is both created for my self and a small ‘sound art community’. In general, the project does not have an obvious climax. Instead, there are lots of  scattered peaks. Multiple screens and speakers add a polyphonic and chaotic layer to the project, hinting at information overload in the information era. I think the Kleinsche Flasche is such a tiny thing which could metamorphose human’s emotion, behaviour and future plans. For instance, it is likely to happen if you feel hungry but you have already had enough calories. The brain is receiving wrong signals from the stomach, which could take into refined carbohydrates may cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, much less to easily start a quarrel with someone when receiving misunderstood signals. Kleinsche Flasche glues into our group exhibition’s theme “Polyphonic” , as sounds are multiple faced and in different dynamics…

Kleinsche Flasche is a one-sided surface which, if traveled upon, could be followed back to the point of origin while flipping the traveler upside down and it has no boundary. The conceptual idea of ‘Kleinsche Flasche’ was first created by the German mathematician Felix Klein in 1882. It matched the multi-channel format well because audio tracks can be designed to spin very fast in the orbit with inserting GRM plugins. Additionally, the transmission of information is infinitely fast and infinitely large and would be even more brainsick in society. The appearance of Kleinsche Flasche which seemed to stab itself demonstrated a sense of hopelessness which also reflected the major feeling I would like to bring to the piece. The starting point of looking for the immersive background base was inspired by the leaking water from her rooftop, and then on a rainy day, I went to the Waterloo train station to get some field recordings in the tunnel which shared the same vibration and echos by using ambisonic and parabolic microphones. I waited for the rain for a whole night because I am fancy with clean soundscapes. Slight rain is always better than raining cats and dogs because the textures are sharper and neater. The main composition of ‘Kleinsche Flasche’ began with a 10-minute improvisation on an electric piano and then I added rhythms and layers to it. My artist reference were pianists: Ryuichi Sakamoto and Morton Feldman. I was amazed by Feldman because his characteristic composition was free and floating, pitch shadings that seemed softly unfocused, recurring asymmetric patterns. Simultaneously, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s works were full of vitality. He paid attention to the strength and velocity of each note and he put a lot of effort into high pitches notes. Afterward, I invited musician: Jia Xuantang who played Chinese Zheng, and flutist: Caroline Hu to improvise when listening to her piano composition. It did not take long to record with contact microphones, AKG condenser microphones, and mix pre6. But it spent hundreds of thousands amount of time editing them with flex in logic pro. To layer up more decently, I recorded acoustic samples from the hobgoblin music shop, with diverse microphones such as DPA and binaural microphones. Instruments like sarinda, didge, concertina, harmonium, and ocean drums were very rare and fabulous, in different dynamics the piece had a lot of density.

While I am making Kleinsche Flasche, I am also making sound installations representing 7 senses at the same time, to give the abstract composition a virtual interactive feeling: 

1.Hearing: A plastic umbrella tied with metallic tablewares, branches and cassettes. You get the signal when someone is shaking or turning the umbrella. One of the cassettes is a bluetooth speaker.

2.Smell: An alcohol detector. It is divided into 10 levels from 0 to 100 degrees. Different alcohol concentrations stimulate different signal sounds. (Sometimes there are errors) The sounds are made by Maxmsp. I make some silicon containers to carry the liquid.

3.Taste: A traffic cone with pipes at different heights and frequencies. You get the signal when someone is blowing the pipe.

4.Vestibular: Recording EEGs datas by muse head pan and using that as a trigger button to make music in Ableton live. (Data are so random) I am still making a ‘heart filter’ with ceramic in progress…

5. Sight: An acoustic strum-stick guitar with a frame and broken mirror pieces.

6.Touch: An ambience box with kalimbas, glass sticks, three engine of music boxes, metallic rubbish, as well as a 2D plotter which can automatically draw when you play from keys

7. Proprioception: A costume with an analog synthesiser

 I imagine if these 7 installations can transform signals through a domino effect. For instance, if someone is playing the umbrella, someone who has a alcohol detector could receive the hearing signal and spread in its way. I paint the conceptual idea of these 7 installation by touch designer and run much further into getting footage of dance choreography in the church. 

Kleinsche Flasche is being designed to evoke the audience’s visual experience by displaying 7 distinct videos on 7 TVs in a circle. Each TV represents a different sense and all the dance choreographies are improvisations to the music within the Leban theory. Plus, they are dancing with the domino effect. The second person’s dance choreography would be related to the first dancer’s movement, such as the rhythm, the position, the focus, and so on. Nam June Paik, William Kentridge, Cornelia Parker and Jon Kessler would be my referenced artists. Video art imitates nature, not in its appearance or mass, but in its intimate “time-structure”. There was also one unforgettable artwork ‘Dumping Core’ because of its repetitivenesscreatedby Bender which I had seen it when I was in Moma. It lives on as a gallery installation in which she programmed four videos to play in varying combinations across 13 synchronized monitors. The screens pulse with an overload of repeating television graphics, corporate logos, and clips appropriated from advertisements, TV programs, and movies. This time I dont have to compromise the sound–WHICH IS BRILLIANT! From a sonic perspective, the audience can hear the movement of the sound and could walk in the circle area which is quite nice:)

I think I would like to write about compromise on this blog. I feel like there could be a big conflict between a curator and an artist. And as I went through all the artists’ perspective, I felt like I was not being mature and all right in gallery 46. But I did recognize that practical considerations such as space limitations, curatorial decisions, or thematic coherence may require adjustments to my work. I think I was a bit too extreme as an artist and a musician. I always felt like I could die, but my work could not… Until now I realised it is really hard to be a equal-balanced curator, and how decisions could be made should be very careful. Things like volume, matches and textures… As a curator, I have to be more generous and logical… As an artist, my mindset could be a bit more illumined…

This is another role of Juice! I was also being the performer on the opening night. We were doing another modern electronic*chamber music jaming session. People said it was really good and I am very proud of myself lol.