Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II)

The Final version of the work Simon Ball and I created:

Shown at STRARTA Art Fair 2013 (London) and Seeing Sound Symposium 2013 (Bath).

You can read more about this piece in previous posts.

Sounding Motion - Video Documentation

This documentation video is an overview of a community arts project called Sounding Motion devised by Angie Seah and I:

When I have more time at my disposal I intend to write about the experience and process! 

Supported by NAC.

Flux - City of Change Exhibition @ STRARTA Art Fair 2013

A few images of Flux - City of Change at STRARTA Art Fair 2013, featuring my solo work Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I) & collaborative work Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II). You can find out more details about the work in the previous post.

Two works @ STRARTA Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London - 10th - 13th October

 Show Time!
 

Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery) - dubplate (foreground), score (background) 

I will be showing my solo work Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I) and my collaboration with Simon Ball, Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II), at STRARTA Art Fair this week.

The two works make use of my sound recordings from the cemetery made earlier in the year,

subjecting the material to conflicting acts of 'respect' and 'exploitation' as a way of engaging with the ethical issues surrounding the exhumations and displacement of wildlife.*

These works will be part of Flux - City of Change - an exhibition curated by Joleen Loh & Griselda Bear. I will be showing the two pieces alongside Hilmi Johandi, Melissa Tan and Danielle Tay. Together our works 'examine Singapore's urban and imagined landscape as well as its socio-cultural history, revealing notions of memory as they relate to place.'*

All the best to everyone involved, I hope some good connections and opportunities grow out of the show. With you in spirit - all the best!

*Quotes from Joleen Loh's curatorial essay for Flux - City of Change

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I'm all hyperlinked out!

Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II) Draft

These are a few more stills from work in progress by Simon Ball and I:

We will be showing the final version of this alongside my solo work Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I) at STRARTA ART FAIR, London, and hopefully Seeing Sound, Bath!

Approach to Sound Design

[text to follow]

The Infintesimal Distance Between Two Bodies

It's been a hectic but productive few weeks! I've come to Singapore to take on the role of sound designer for The Infinitesimal Distance Between Two Bodies. Working alongside a great team!

The piece itself (in summary) explores the dynamics of human relationships through the connection between two dancers, two bodies, backstage.

When time allows I'll write a more detailed post about how the sound design relates to this concept, but for the time being I'll share some photos:

Exploit... In Progress

Stills of from a collaborative work with Simon Ball, Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II).

 

Respect.... in progress

A few stills of part of my work Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I).

Two New Works (Bukit Brown Cemetery Series)

Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I)
Zai Tang

&

Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II)
Zai Tang & Simon Ball

One of the largest Chinese graveyards outside China, Bukit Brown Cemetery is home to 100,000 graves, including many of Singapore’s early pioneers. The 200-hectare woodland habit also assumes the role of sanctuary to a colourful array of wildlife, including a handful of vulnerable and endangered bird species. Despite its historical and ecological significance, part of Bukit Brown will make way for a 8-lane highway to begin construction in the coming months, whilst the rest of it will eventually be displaced by new public housing in the decades to follow.

I'm currently making two works (one solo, one collab) which will be the first in series concerning the transformation of Bukit Brown's acoustic environment, stemming from an on-going soundscape study that I began in May 2013. These pieces will be shown at STRARTA art fair in London, from 9 -13th October.

Respect... (in progress)

Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I) takes the form of a hand-drawn visual score in response to an arrangement of sound recordings from the study pressed on to a 12” dubplate. A subtle compositional approach has been adopted, treating each documented sound as if it were the very living thing from which the sound emerged. The unique characteristics of each creature’s utterance and the quality of its acoustic environment can initially be heard relatively untouched, in its original state. However, with each successive play of the dubplate the fidelity of the sounds pressed upon its surface deteriorates, rapidly fading underneath the surface noise of the medium over the duration of the exhibition and beyond.

Exploit... (in progress)

Exploit (Bukit Brown Cemetery II), in collaboration with Simon Ball, takes the form of a digitally animated visual-music piece and also makes use of the soundscape study recordings. In opposition to Respect, the compositional approach for this work treats the material as a resource to capitalize on. The collaborators were curious to discover how far they could develop a work together when regarding the sound material purely as sound-objects (i.e. apprehended without any relation to its source). Any ethical concerns pertaining to the treatment of material as living things from Bukit Brown have been put aside, so that the primary aim of creating a rich and dynamic synaesthetic experience can be achieved - the material is simply a stepping-stone for the collaborators own progress.

The contrasting choice of mediums and conflicting philosophical stances towards the material exist as thesis and antithesis, stimulating a discourse around the themes of impermanence, heritage and modernity inherent in Bukit Brown’s fate. Situated within the narrative of Singapore’s perpetual morphosis, the tension between the works encourage us to question the extent to which a sacrifice is justifiable for the sake of development, as well as considered how the symptoms of an imbalanced soundscape – where an increasing number of distinct voices loose their platform to communicate – demand that we instigate a radical collective shift in direction, before a remedy spirals out of reach.

Score for Bukit Brown Cemetery

I'm developing work stemming from my experiences and recordings made at Bukit Brown Cemetery between March & June 2013. I'll be creating a series of visual scores as a means of both studying the sounds I have recorded and responding to my memories of the place. This series of drawings will become reference for a larger-scale work...

Score for 8 Hooves

Score for Barau Barau + Friends, 0.20 - 0.27

Score for Frogs (close up)

Variations for Insects (chatter)

 

Score for Bird (unknown / turbo-hammer), 0.54-1.16

Let's Make Noise! DIY Electronics Workshop with Dennis Tan

Thank you Dennis for your two day workshop, it was a great introduction to DIY electronics and I feel confident with the basics now. I'm pretty happy with my synth too - the 'Zynth' (mk 1)!

 

Getting acquainted with the breadboard and components.

 

Pictured: Dennis Tan & Nelly Vowel

 

Hearing how different capacitors effect the sound of each oscillator. 

 

Mild confusion at my overly complicated signal patching!

 

Final capacitor / ldr / potentiometer / touch point selection.

 

Soldering components to circuit board.

 

Scoring a gap between soldered wires (to make sure they're not touching).

Fitting the knobs and switches on my box.

 One little repair job: sorting out my diode / resistor switch.

 Zynth (mk 1) is born!

*Audio / Video to follow*

Ecuador | A Collaborative Expedition (Part Two) - A Visual Documentation

Pathways {Mapping  Personal Trajectory}

 

 

Navigation Tools {Researching Kinect + Synapse}

http://synapsekinect.tumblr.com/

  Experimentation {Testing Tools with Max MSP}


http://cycling74.com/

 

Finalising {Ready To Go!}

 

Presentation {Welcome to Ecuador}

 

 

 

Reflections {Where to next?}

*writing & video to follow*