Conversation
Intertwining nature of modern connectivity and human interaction. As individuals engage in conversation within a circle, they share their diverse thoughts, opinions, and feelings on the profound impacts of modern connectivity. Meanwhile, unnoticed by the participants, a thread is quietly woven around the chair legs upon which they sit. With each passing moment and each layer of conversation, this thread steadily builds, mirroring the increasing complexity of their discussion. Simultaneously, the live interactive system collects the conversation's essence and makes them into ambient music and generative poetry, adding depth and resonance to their dialogue. This imagery evokes the intricate connections between people and technology, where every exchange contributes to the intricate tapestry of human experience.
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Artist: Maya Nicholson
Maya Nicholson, English/Irish Artist. Inspired by the intricate connections between modern connectivity and human interaction, the work delves into the essence of dialogue in the digital age. Participants engage in conversations, unaware of the thread quietly weaving around their chair legs, mirroring the complexity of their discussion. The artist serves as the initiator, guiding conversations and fostering creativity. Flexible elements such as thread colour and placement of chairs allow for diverse interpretations, emphasizing the embrace of the unexpected in each unique experience.
Xiaowei Cao (b. 1999) is a composer, performer, and music producer based in Gainesville, FL. After getting his Master of Music degree in Composition at the New England Conservatory, Xiaowei is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Composition and Technology at the University of Florida. Heavily influenced by postminimalism, postmodernism, and mass art aesthetics, Xiaowei’s music focuses on the metamorphosis of sounds and exploring human words, surreal visuals, and pop culture elements in sonic spaces. Xiaowei’s pieces have been performed at the University of Miami, New England Conservatory, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as the SPLICE festival. His sound art Radio Patterns (2022) was selected as one of the finalists for the IntAct Call for Artworks 2022. As a performer, Xiaowei has been involved in several live performances, including the multimedia production Black Queen at Live Arts Miami.
Gravity - 2000
Concept Overview: In dozens of hours of experiments, the building blocks will inevitably collapse, and the process of repeating the construction and collapse has no results or meaning. I feel dull, boring, and unpleasant. Maybe I can endure it at first, but after the accumulation, the building blocks become a torture item for me, making me painful. I tried to force myself to adapt, but then it calmed down, and it did not matter whether I got higher or fell. Maybe I am so numb that I have no emotions either. Each Sisyphus has different reasons for pushing rocks up the mountain, experiencing the absurdity of his creation while struggling up and down. Because of the irresistible nature of the objective world, constant challenges mean possible constant failures. It is nothing more than how people think about it. One must imagine the happiness of Sisyphus, just as one must imagine the happiness of life, although it is secular, repetitive, and can be seen through. Design Concept: I used two thousand, 5cm x 5cm wooden blocks and surrounded myself in a circular structure with building blocks. This building block structure is constantly being built, collapsed, and built again.In order to fully reproduce the past pleasure of concentration, I must always focus my attention entirely on the blocks. Moreover, I try to confirm if I could feel the joy of being a child again.
Music Program notes: Gravity – 2000 was inspired by my dear friend, Ziwei Tang’s art performance, Gravity – 2000. During the performance, she used two thousand, 5cm x 5cm wooden blocks to surround herself in a circular structure. During the building process, she had to pay attention to the blocks the entire time since the ring was extremely easily collapsed. According to Ziwei, she wants to use the process of building the ring of blocks to create and reinforce the feelings of her childhood. After I first watched the video performance of this performance art, I was shocked by the powerlessness of thousands of blocks collapsing at one moment with the sense of losing control, and I was immediately inspired to write a piece that expresses complex emotions and catches each emotional transitions along side of the video of this art performance. These emotions include hope, stress, tension, anxiety, and feelings of the sublime. I’m reminded of the excitement of throwing ping pong balls inside the piano in my last prepared piano, Lost on Penrose Stairs. I used extended flute techniques to capture the performers’ facial expressions as the blocks shockingly collapsed. With the flute’s extended technique, and the screaming while playing, the flute part reflects the frustration of the inevitable collapse and the uncertainty. The first movement set up the mood of building the ring blocks. During the second movement, the cello emerges from the backdrop of chaos playing the main theme from Johannes Brahms’s Lullaby, and it is reminiscent of childhood.
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Artist: Ziwei Tang
Ziwei uses painting, textiles, and performance as her main material, focusing on themes of nature and social injustice. She’s the main creator and producer for the Visual Symphony exhibition in London for 2024.
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Composer: Wanying Cao (Monstar)
Personal Website: https://www.monstarcao.com/
Wanying Cao (Monstar) is a composer, concert pianist, and singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. In 2018, she embarked on her Bachelor of Music degree at Frost School of Music, University of Miami, majoring in Media Scoring and Production with minors in Composition and Piano Performance. She's currently pursuing a Master's in Composition at the New England Conservatory. She’ll be pursuing the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Composition at the University of California, Riverside in the coming fall 2024.
Monstar's compositions span diverse genres. As a composer, her original instrumental and multimedia pieces have been showcased in numerous global concerts, including the Tuesday Night New Music at New England Conservatory and the SCI concerts at Frost School of Music, guided by Composition Professors such as Prof. John Mallia, director of the Robert Ceely Electronic Music Studio, and Prof. Michael Gandolfi, chair of the composition department at the New England Conservatory. Last summer, her chamber compositions were performed in Valencia, Spain, and Pavia, Italy. Under Grammy-winning composer Dr. Carlos Rivera, she contributed to film scoring projects. Her recent collaboration, 'Behind the Water,' premiered at Zhejiang Experimental Art Theater on Nov.17th, 2023.
As a versatile performer, Monstar has graced various stages with piano solos, including renowned events like the Encore Chamber Music Festival and The World Choir Game. As a singer-songwriter, her debut track 'Simple Friend' launched in 2021, and she's showcased her original compositions at events like the Blue Love Concert and CAM Fest. Her new album will be released soon.
She’s the main creator and producer for the Visual Symphony exhibition in London for 2024.
Marks (2022), Moving Image (M2), 10mins12secs
Many marks are left in people's lives, such as inappropriate signatures on historical sites and buildings, or works of art left by land art artists in the vast nature. At the same time, marks can also be left in non-physical ways, such as water, light, people, and things we as human beings are doing at any time. They will pass with time, but they have indeed existed and they could become marks in time and space in some way.
In this work, Moving image artist Tianhui Tao collaborated with music composer Yunqi Li to complete this moving image work. After the completion of the moving image work, music composer Yunqi Li improvised a second creation of the soundtrack. This moving image work is from one of the works from Tianhui Tao Mark's themed series. This work comes from one of the three parts of the moving image series. In this moving image, the artist records different events happening in the same space as his roommate around the above theme. The works discuss the combination of the same spatial dimension and different temporal dimensions.
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Artist: Tianhui Tao
Personal Website: https://tianhuitao.cargo.site/
Instagram: @tianhui_tao_art
E-mail: caseytaotianhui@outlook.com
Tianhui Tao (b. 2004, Beijing, China), A new young artist born in the 2000s graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts International College in Beijing in 2023 and currently studying BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London.
The forms of work include mostly experimental moving image, photography, sound, and text. Enjoy observing and recording the creation process and daily life. Inspiration of the works mostly comes from the use of poetry and prose techniques, which are then transformed into other different forms, with moving image as the center of practice.
Works have been engaged with pursuing personal feelings from the inside out, placing a perspective on the details of life experiences, often expressed in abstract poetic forms.
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Composer: Yunqi Li
Yunqi Li is an engaging composer and lyricist in the Jilin Area. She composed Chunchenghuahuo, Chunchenglingshang, and Changchun for her hometown, Changchun, in 2020, each winning the Excellent Work Award from the Jilin Province Musicians Association. Yunqi’s Zhonghualizan was performed in a concert led by the Jilin Province Musicians Association. Her solo piano piece Jiangxin and solo voice piece Qianzhangyinshuang were published by a core journal, Contemporary Music, in 2016-2017. Yunqi won third prize in the European Composer Competition, third prize in the “World Championship in Composition” in 2021, third prize in the 30th Young Musician International Competition “Citta’ di Barletta”, and the diploma in the Art Talents 1st International Online Competition in 2020.
In 2019, Yunqi began studying at New England Conservatory with Kate Salfelder and Kati Agócs. During her time at NEC, she actively participated in the Tuesday Night New Music series led by the composition department where her The Moving Starry Night, The Loyalty of a Danish Prince, and A Firm Heart compositions were performed in Jordan Hall. Meanwhile, she also sang in the NEC choir as a soprano for two years. On vacations, Yunqi keeps her passionate attitude to study, attending the Curtis Summer Programs and studying with Bailey Holland Jonathan in 2021. As for style, Yunqi is willing to explore clashes of all musical genres. Yunqi recently added some rap in a string quartet. On the other hand, Yunqi cares about the earth. She performed as an alto in Linda J Chase’s For Our Common Home, calling on people to take action to protect the earth. Furthermore, she is also interested in sports. Her piece Pursuing the Dream was composed for table tennis. In addition, Yunqi is talented in mathematics and she won the prize in a mathematics competition led by The Center for Education in Mathematics and Computing when she was a high school student.
Marks: My panoramic route before sunset, Photography Collection, (1-16pieces)
There are many marks left in people's lives, such as inappropriate signatures on historical sites and buildings, or works of art left by land art artists in the vast nature. At the same time, marks can also be left in non-physical ways, such as water, light, people, and things we as human beings are doing at any time. They will pass with time, but they have indeed existed and they could become marks in time and space in some way.
This video work was completed in collaboration between artist Tianhui Tao and music composer Ying Gao. After the completion of the photography collection, music composer Ying Gao carried out a second creation. This image work is from the photography collection of artist Tianhui Tao Mark's themed series. What can be seen in the work is the traces left by photography artist Tianhui Tao using light on the road. The panoramic route before sunset. The photography artist used panoramic mode in this work, where the subject and subject of the photo walked along the same route in the artist's undergraduate university in Beijing, China. At the same time, the photographer kept raising the flash on the phone as a non-physical linear marker. Through this method, photography artists can record the light held by a person in a way that changes over time, and every second of light can be recorded in the photo. This also represents that it may be a way to break the rules of "real" photography in the 3D world. (including 4D in the time dimension). This project is a photography collection shot in 16 panoramic modes without any post-processing. When the 16 works of a photography artist are arranged in order, we will also get a panoramic record of walking a whole circle in school. During the shooting process, the photographer recorded the process of sunrise in a short period of time, which also reflects the changes in time and space.
Artist: Tianhui Tao
Personal Website: https://tianhuitao.cargo.site/
Instagram: @tianhui_tao_art
E-mail: caseytaotianhui@outlook.com
Tianhui Tao (b. 2004, Beijing, China), A new young artist born in the 2000s graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts International College in Beijing in 2023 and currently studying BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London.
The forms of work include mostly experimental moving image, photography, sound, and text. Enjoy observing and recording the creation process and daily life. Inspiration of the works mostly comes from the use of poetry and prose techniques, which are then transformed into other different forms, with moving image as the center of practice.
Works have been engaged with pursuing personal feelings from the inside out, placing a perspective on the details of life experiences, often expressed in abstract poetic forms.
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Composer: Ying Gao
E-mail: yg7280@necmusic.edu
Ying Gao, A concert and Film Composer and pianist from China. She got composition and film-scoring double bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music and she is studying composition at the New England Conservatory for a master’s degree. Her music pieces include orchestra, chamber ensemble, film music, interactive media music, and installation art. Her pieces cooperate with the Unicamp Symphony Orchestra, Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, Mivos Quartet, SPLICE Ensemble, etc… Some of her film music entries First Film Festival.
One
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Artist: Clara (Yanjun Liu)
I am an artist examining and redefining my position within the Laws of Nature and exploring and actively working towards dismantling the Male Gaze suffered by contemporary Chinese women. I examine these concepts by interrogating personal narratives, as well as delving into Ancient Chinese Divination, Ancient Chinese Philosophy and Chinese Sociology as a source of investigation.
Composer: Yunqi Li
Yunqi Li is an engaging composer and lyricist in the Jilin Area. She composed Chunchenghuahuo, Chunchenglingshang, and Changchun for her hometown, Changchun, in 2020, each winning the Excellent Work Award from the Jilin Province Musicians Association. Yunqi’s Zhonghualizan was performed in a concert led by the Jilin Province Musicians Association. Her solo piano piece Jiangxin and solo voice piece Qianzhangyinshuang were published by a core journal, Contemporary Music, in 2016-2017. Yunqi won third prize in the European Composer Competition, third prize in the “World Championship in Composition” in 2021, third prize in the 30th Young Musician International Competition “Citta’ di Barletta”, and the diploma in the Art Talents 1st International Online Competition in 2020.
In 2019, Yunqi began studying at New England Conservatory with Kate Salfelder and Kati Agócs. During her time at NEC, she actively participated in the Tuesday Night New Music series led by the composition department where her The Moving Starry Night, The Loyalty of a Danish Prince, and A Firm Heart compositions were performed in Jordan Hall. Meanwhile, she also sang in the NEC choir as a soprano for two years. On vacations, Yunqi keeps her passionate attitude to study, attending the Curtis Summer Programs and studying with Bailey Holland Jonathan in 2021. As for style, Yunqi is willing to explore clashes of all musical genres. Yunqi recently added some rap in a string quartet. On the other hand, Yunqi cares about the earth. She performed as an alto in Linda J Chase’s For Our Common Home, calling on people to take action to protect the earth. Furthermore, she is also interested in sports. Her piece Pursuing the Dream was composed for table tennis. In addition, Yunqi is talented in mathematics and she won the prize in a mathematics competition led by The Center for Education in Mathematics and Computing when she was a high school student.
Our Lines
Our Lines is a hand-drawn animation portraying the friendship and emotions of an international student studying in the U.S., after the COVID-19 epidemic. Our lines are, strokes leaking through the brush, impressions left by the dance; it is language, dialogues, and why people met each other. While focusing on traditional Chinese art techniques and the artistic expression of a single pen stroke, this animation also explores themes including language barriers, friendship, and how different forms of art help humanity express the abstract concept of love. All the music was originally composed and produced by Flora Sun.
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Artist: Charlotte (Lingtong) Sun
Charlotte (Lingtong) Sun is a Chinese animator, and visual artist currently studying Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Growing up in Beijing, China, and pursuing arts for 5 years, her work explores the concept and philosophy from traditional Chinese art to a modern interpretation and is highly connected to her personal experience as an individual who has ineffable emotion and a complex love of people around her. A lot of her work is inspired by the purely sensory experience of life and an existential theme concerning self-awareness and self-exploration.
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Composer: Flora (Longfei) Sun
Flora (Longfei) Sun, born on August 31, 2000, is a composer, vocalist, and musician with a rich background in music education and performance. At the age of 11, Sun composed the graduation school song for Shijia Hutong Primary School, marking the beginning of her journey in music composition. She later pursued formal music education at prestigious institutions, including the Middle School attached to China Conservatory, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and New England Conservatory in the United States, where she studied under renowned mentors such as Whitman Brown and Michael Gandolfi. Throughout her academic career, Sun has excelled in competitions such as the MTNA Composition Competition, where she achieved top rankings both regionally and nationally. Sun's dedication to musical excellence extends beyond the concert hall, as evidenced by her volunteer work at the Dunhuang Research Institute, where she contributed to the preservation of cultural heritage and education through music. In addition to her classical training, Sun has diversified his musical expertise by studying traditional Chinese instruments: Guqin, under the tutelage of master musician Li Zejun, as well as contemporary pop singing with acclaimed artist Cheng Lin. Her versatility as a composer and performer is further demonstrated by his compositions for various occasions, including the creation of the charity song "We Are Together" for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and the school anthem for Shijia Experimental Primary School. Currently, she is poised to embark on the next chapter of her musical journey as she prepares to pursue a degree in film scoring at the University of Southern California, further exploring her position in the world of music.
Portbou
Video installation; stereo audio composed with shakuhachi and djembe; 3’52; 2023
Video was first filmed in Portbou, a Spanish town located near the French border, after major wildfires caused by humans. A hand is touching the precarious bark while its powder is flying with the fierce wind. The background sound of shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute, it emphasizes the presence of wind’s screaming while following the hand’s movement. The background music is made by an overlap of several improvised clips, which are intentionally mixed to recreate the touching feeling on bark. Technically, Portbou aims to discover the sound composition in a visual way. This dialogue between audio and visual calls back our sense in a certain way, at the same time, it intrigues us to question: what is human’s position in front of nature after all those human-made disasters? Finally, a very special thanks to all the participants in the project. The video was filmed in Portbou, Spain; the audio was recorded in École nationale supérieure arts de Paris-Cergy, France and the post-production was realized in Central Saint Martins, UK. Special thanks to Quentin Bonheur for his shakuhachi and djembe improvisation and Laurence Vidil for her performance in the video.Thanks also to Alejandra Riera for her organization of the trip in Portbou. Thanks should also go to Daniel Copley, Edward Lucas, Kimmo Moykky, and Leila Ghouri from CSM Film & Video team for their technical support in post-production.
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Artist: Li Shumeng
Li Shumeng, born in China, actually a MA student in École nationale supérieure d'arts de Paris-Cergy, during which I realized an exchange in Central Saint Martins in the UK. She is a sound artist working with mixed media. Her projects are exhibited in Goldsmiths University of London, Lethaby Gallery of Central Saint Martin, Scène de Recherche of ENS Paris-Saclay and SciencesPo Lille, etc.
Due to her cross-cultural experience, she questions the concept of « standard », and the way people perceive it in her work. She uses sound as a material at the center of her artistic research, as is a personal way to approach the world, by exploring the materiality of sound. Through this process, new realities are revealed. She is also interested in the notion of « composition ». In this case, she constructs her sound work in a deconstructive way, by experimenting with field recording, vocal and instrumental improvisation and creative writing to question listening ways.
Her work takes multiform, and is often site-specific, in which the soundscape emerges in combination with immersive technology and visual elements : video, painting and sculpture. She also does live performance within her sound installation, where she gives the freedom to the public to compose their own listening experience.
Purify
The artist Ziwei brushes herself with toothpaste, responding to an expectation she gains from the social atmosphere in her culture that women need to be pure. She intends to talk about the subjectivity of women’s sexual desire and question the pressures.
Artist: Ziwei Tang
Ziwei uses painting, textiles, and performance as her main material, focusing on themes of nature and social injustice. She’s the main creator and producer for the Visual Symphony exhibition in London for 2024.
Composer: Wanying Cao (Monstar)
Personal Website: https://www.monstarcao.com/
Wanying Cao (Monstar) is a composer, concert pianist, and singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. In 2018, she embarked on her Bachelor of Music degree at Frost School of Music, University of Miami, majoring in Media Scoring and Production with minors in Composition and Piano Performance. She's currently pursuing a Master's in Composition at the New England Conservatory. She’ll be pursuing the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Composition at the University of California, Riverside in the coming fall 2024.
Monstar's compositions span diverse genres. As a composer, her original instrumental and multimedia pieces have been showcased in numerous global concerts, including the Tuesday Night New Music at New England Conservatory and the SCI concerts at Frost School of Music, guided by Composition Professors such as Prof. John Mallia, director of the Robert Ceely Electronic Music Studio, and Prof. Michael Gandolfi, chair of the composition department at the New England Conservatory. Last summer, her chamber compositions were performed in Valencia, Spain, and Pavia, Italy. Under Grammy-winning composer Dr. Carlos Rivera, she contributed to film scoring projects. Her recent collaboration, 'Behind the Water,' premiered at Zhejiang Experimental Art Theater on Nov.17th, 2023.
As a versatile performer, Monstar has graced various stages with piano solos, including renowned events like the Encore Chamber Music Festival and The World Choir Game. As a singer-songwriter, her debut track 'Simple Friend' launched in 2021, and she's showcased her original compositions at events like the Blue Love Concert and CAM Fest. Her new album will be released soon.
She’s the main creator and producer for the Visual Symphony exhibition in London for 2024.
Radio Patterns
Patterned information has dominated our daily life – TikTok music, superhero films, internet advertisements, etc. Radio Patterns explores the possibility of generative creativity using heavily modulated and distorted patterned information. The sound art is composed of texts from randomized cosmetic ads as well as texts from the prologue of the opera Pagliacci. The texts from cosmetic ads symbolize patterned information in our life. By using multiple modulation techniques, the spoken texts gradually transform into a cluster of electronic sounds and human speech similar to radio noise. The texts from Pagliacci serve as a sarcastic reflection of the previous text, pointing out that “art is derived from real life” in an overly dramatic and contrasting way.This piece also utilizes the concept of “spoken words are articulated sounds.” By modulating the rhythm and the pitch contour of the spoken words, a new kind of spoken language is formed.
Xiaowei Cao (b. 1999) is a composer, performer, and music producer based in Gainesville, FL. After getting his Master of Music degree in Composition at the New England Conservatory, Xiaowei is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Composition and Technology at the University of Florida. Heavily influenced by postminimalism, postmodernism, and mass art aesthetics, Xiaowei’s music focuses on the metamorphosis of sounds and exploring human words, surreal visuals, and pop culture elements in sonic spaces. Xiaowei’s pieces have been performed at the University of Miami, New England Conservatory, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as the SPLICE festival. His sound art Radio Patterns (2022) was selected as one of the finalists for the IntAct Call for Artworks 2022. As a performer, Xiaowei has been involved in several live performances, including the multimedia production Black Queen at Live Arts Miami.
Story of #
A short video depicting a girl’s story of trying to survive in a controlling and suffocating family. She conducted a series of escaping and self-exploration actions but they all somehow ended with self-destruction. The story reflects her inner world with visual metaphors and performances and criticizes this phenomenon of domestic mistreatment.
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Artist: Caien Huang
E-mail: huangbellen@gmail.com
Caien Huang focuses on painting and storytelling. Interested in colors, expression, narrative, feminism, experiment.
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Composer: Heron Zhao
E-mail: xiaohezhao90@gmail.com
Heron Zhao is a passionate composer, sound designer, and dulcimer player. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Dulcimer Performance from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she excelled in traditional Chinese music, earning numerous accolades in major competitions in China. While keep learning at Berklee College of Music, she has contributed her skills as a composer and music editor to the student game project "Among the Madness" and is currently collaborating on game projects with students of the University of Southern California as a composer and sound designer.