September 25, 2020 at 7pm CT
Kioto Aoki: Systems of Vision
Systems of Vision is a two-part series featuring artists approaching sound as image-makers. These artists work within a performative framework that considers sound as a responsive system of the photographic & cinematic image. Malleable cycles of image as sound and sound as image create redefine what it means to see sound and hear an image. The first program invites artists Jonathan Chen (NYC), Hua Xi Zi (Chicago) & arc (California), presenting work playing with the nature of the live feed. Curated by Kioto Aoki.
Hua Xi Zi works and thinks about light and the experience of seeing – in exploring the flowing life and one’s relation with outside systems. From celluloid film, analogue video signal to digital video processing, screen-based and optical projections, installed and performed, Xi Zi questions the existing methods of shadow-image production by experimenting alternative ways to “un-expose.” Her practice and research turned into the materiality while asking questions about spectatorship and participation – seeking for the tenderness that withholds freedom and forgiveness. Xi Zi’s recent installations exhibited at the 2019 Setouchi Triennale in Japan, 2019 New Blood Performance Festival in Chicago; other film works showcased at festivals such as 2018 Slamdance Film Festival, 2018 Seattle Asian American Film Festival and others.
Jonathan Chen is a composer, improviser, and sound artist who creates work through either conceptual foci or through experimentation with materials. His work for electronics often consist of thick layers of fluctuating sounds produced through multiple feedback systems, and at other times a more simple approach such as his installation Amplified (2010), which only involves the light amplification of a person’s voice. As both an electronicist and violinist/violist his improvisational work emphasizes timbre rather than pitch, either drawing from a wide palette or honing in on a single sound.
Chen’s work has been performed or installed at The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Soap Factory (Minneapolis), Sonic Circuits International Festival of Electronic Music and Art (Boston & NYC), 2 Kolegas & D22 (Beijing), Goldsmiths College (London), Chicago Cultural Center, Labor Sonar (Berlin), Eyedrum (Atlanta), The Flea (NYC), and many others. As an improviser he has appeared on Sky Landing: The Music of Yoko Ono by The Miyumi Project, an album produced by Yoko Ono, Robert W. Karr Jr. & Project 120 Chicago and released as a limited edition on the Asian Improv record label, and Light, a film by Lenora Lee and Tatsu Aoki which won “Best Experimental Film” at the Canada International Film Festival. Past performance credits also include Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Renaissance Society (Chicago), Resonance FM (London), Malta Festival (Poznan, Poland), The Stone (NYC), Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (Chicago), The Smithsonian Institute, Sounds Like Now (NYC), Chicago Jazz Festival, The Metro (Chicago), Roulette (NYC), and many others.
Chen has a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; a Master of Arts in Music Composition from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; and a Master of Music in Violin Performance from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. His work has been published by Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press), the Deep Listening Institute, Asian Improv Records, Interval, Striking Mechanism, and Sound Studies (Routledge/Taylor & Francis), among others. He lives in New York City where he is Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Communication Technology at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.
arc
arc refers to a process rather than an author. a curve within a void which makes something momentarily visible. material elements used to investigate immaterial states. framing the space of encounter as a site of unfixed ritual and sensory research. arc work has been presented at The Lab, San Francisco Cinematheque, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Massart Film Society (Boston), NDSM Treehouse (Amsterdam), and L’ Abominable (Paris/La Courneuve), among others.