2023

For solo performer with computer, MIDI breath controller, automated percussion instruments, speakers, color spotlight, color LED light bulbs; duration 6 hours daily, for the duration of the exhibition period

”In Refrains and variations, an open-ended composition that reoccurs in short segments in different musical and spatial variations, the artist wears a binaural microphone headset, a special set of over-the-ear mobile microphones that stream the sounds being played in the space that closely capture the way a human hears. The feed from these devices will be heard through headphones in a smaller, domestically decorated space where visitors will be able to listen and watch Young carry himself to different parts of the room through windows facing into the performance space. The familiar surroundings, yet disembodied experience of listening in the viewing space is a physical reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window. The viewer is both separated from the action and intimately connected to it.

A program generates the composition in real time, starting with chord number 0 at the beginning of each day. Each segment is 225 seconds long. At the start of each segment the program also signals the spatial arrangement of the sound sources, which the artist then execute.”

2023

4-channel videos with 6 channels of audio (composition for viola, crotales, woodblock, self-playing piano, e-bows on piano strings, electronic sounds, water fountain, painted screens, and custom software); duration variable, a full cycle averages at 2 hours 10 mins

(Note: the video preview shows one instance of a playback for 30 minutes. The playback is randomized by a program, and the average duration of one full cycle is 2 hours 10 mins.)

Computer programming, composition, video and sound editing
Samson Young

Viola
William Lane

Camera
Leung Ho Sing
Leung Tin Chun Jimmy
Lau Chun Yuen

Audio
Chiui Ho Chi Brother
Samson Young

Lighting
Ho Yan Lam Coey
Ng Ka Wai Dikky
Kwan Ka Heng Jennifer
Tam Ho Fung Edwin

Production Management
Jones Lee

”The viewing of Variations of 96 chords in space does not require knowledge of how it was put together, but for those who are curious, I have described my process in the passages below. The system that underpinned the work is important insofar that it helped to sustain a process in this particular instance for longer than if I were to rely on intuition alone; but ultimately the experience - a sequencing of music and images that is sometimes ordered, sometimes (more often, actually) haphazard - is probably more important.

A. I started with a chart of 96 ‘color chords.’ There are 12 hues of color within the set. Each hue is associated with a key area. Lighter tints yielded chords with fewer varieties of intervals, and as the color tone gets darker the intervallic relationships within a chord become more varied and complex.

B. The work of composing involved the arrangement of notes and sounds, but also the choreography other elements, including the microphones that ‘listened’ to the sources of these sounds. We used four kinds of microphones in this work: (1) a shotgun microphone, which is the most directional and has the shortest capture range, which I think of as the equivalent of a ‘tight’ camera frame; (2) an omni-directional microphone, a kind of ‘mid-shot’; (3) binaural microphones that I was wearing over my ears, which is a kind of ‘POV image’ of the room that moves with me; (4) a XY stereo pair, which is placed at the front of the room. 1, 2 and 3 moved around the room to explore a variety of listening positions and range, while mic 4 was stationary and stayed with the front-of room camera.

C. Each color chord gave rise to a short composition of either 60 or 90 seconds. Each short composition was filmed twice in the same theater, each time with a different subset of compositional elements.

D. The playback program stitches the individual clips back together in different ways and shuffles their order of appearance. In half of the time, the program will trace a randomly selected array of color hue, moving from lighter tints to darker shades. Once it reaches the end it will jump to the beginning of another array, until all 12 hues / 96 colors are heard. In these array-trace sequences, we see and hear the complete set of elements of a single color chord composition. There is a fifty percent chance that an array-trace sequence will be interrupted by a color mixing event: the simultaneous playback of either four randomly selected shades of the same color hue, or two randomly selected complementary colors. In these moments, subsets from several compositions are brought together instead.”

2023

Media installation-theatre, 180 mins (live version); video with 4 channels of audio, 41 mins, 3D printed PLA, custom electronics (installation version)

Concept, Music and Video
Samson Young

Lighting Designer
Kaki Lai

Sound Designer
Gut Lam

Set and Costume Designer
Ayami Oki-Siekierczak

Videographer
Leung Ho-sing

Musicians
William Lane, Linus Fung

Performer
Woo Yat-hei

Technical Director
Allen Fung

Deputy Technical Director
Chan Wing-kit

Production Manager
Katrina Chan

Production Assistant
Macy Tse

Creative Coordinator
Thomas Yau

Programme Coordinator
Becky Wong

Deputy Producer
Meredith Wong

Curator
Bobo Lee

Documentation courtesy of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, image credit Winnie Yeung @ Visual Voices. Additional documentation by Dennis Man Wing Leung.

Co-presented and co-produced by West Kowloon Cultural District and the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

”This part-theatre, part-video installation piece was loosely structured around Walter de la Mare’s short poem the Listener. The 3-hour experience consisted of two almost identitical cycles of events.

‘[Walter de la Mare’s The Listeners] asks that crucial question about poetry in general: who listens, and what does it mean to listen to the silence of the poem on the page, which is a silence always still asking to be voiced […] Hearing things in that house of poetry may lead to ghosts and phantoms, or to the memorable rhythm of urgent knocks, or perhaps just to those open, unanswered questions which were our own in the first place, but are returned to us, magnified, by the hospitable acoustic openness of the poem.’ - Angela Leighton, Hearing Things.”

2018

12-channel sound installation with 12 powder-coated speakers; video (with sound, 45 min)

Performed by the Flora Sinfonie Orchester, conducted by Thomas Jung; sound and video editing by Samson Young and Vvzela Kook; recording produced by Jens Schüneman; recording engineers Manuel Glowczewski, Arnd Coppers; camera operators Verena Maas, Tom May, Roman Szczesny, Jan Hohe; special thanks to Mami Kataoka, Aidan Li, Bettina Heimsoeth, Stephan Moore; commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with the support of the Hong Kong Visual Art Center (vA) and Art Promotion Office (APO).

Violin I: Maren Beckebanze, Charlotte Benner, Lilija Berg, Ulrike Bergreen, Katrin Engel, Melanie Harbecke, Julia Jakob, Margarita Mayer, Petrakis Ioannis, Kathrin Schaffert, Juloa Wernicke, Thomas Wolf.

Violin II: Alice Butisca, Ulla Friedrich, Verena Herrmann, Eva Klama, Gundula Lang, Christine Meul, Elisabeth Moog, Hildegard Schollmann, Karoline Tiemann, Lina Wolf.

Viola: Sabine Elias, Lisa Heinold, Christine Herbst, Constanze Hetke, Julia Heygster, Ricarda Kemper, Inken Wolkwein, Johannes Wirthle.

Cello: Soren Baumner, Lisa Euskirchen, Martin Harbecke, Bettina Heimsoeth, Evridiki Illiadou, Stephanie Pladeck, Hiltrud Rogmanns.

Double Bass: Edgar Dlugosz, Jurgen Michel, Hannah Peighambari, Malte Weitkamp.

Flute: Helga Zuccaro, Melanie Schmitz, Lorna Bowden

Oboe: Doris Vogel, Rolf Schumacher

Clarinet: Samira Pregardien, Teresa Jung

Bassoon: Christoph Siewers, Gundula Uflacker

Horn: Florian Heitger, Richard Moser, Steve Schaughency, Karl-Willi Weck

Trumpet: Saeko Maeda, Changhoon Oh

Trombone: Frank Gummer, Jan-Philipp Walter, Ingo Struck

Tuba: Chun Wang

Timpani: Felix Noll

2017

Video, 5 minutes 26 seconds, and 8-channel sound installation

Performed by the Kwan Sing Choir conducted by Rachel Chong; sound engineering and recording Anthony Yeung; videotography Jimmy Leung Tin Chun, Leung Ho Sing; production assistant Vvzela Kook; performance venue courtesy of the University of Hong Kong, Department of Art History

2017

Silk-screen print on vinyl cover, felt tip pen on vinyl records, 3D-printed nylon, vitrine of found objects, movable curtain system, neon, video, animation and 10-channel sound installation

Featuring Michael Schiefel, 3d-printing technical support by Cosmo Wenmen and Andrew Crowe @Meta Objects, 3d assets by sazbolcs-vanyi91 @cgtrader, Andrew Crowe, and Cosmo Wenmen; movable curtain system production by Showtex; research and production assistant Vvzela Kook

”A while ago I came across a story about a group of unemployed musicians from Cape Town who called themselves the Plaster Cast. They had released a charity single in response to Band Aid’s iconic ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ Titled ‘Yes We Do’, Plaster Cast’s single was produced by singer-songwriter Boomtown Gundane. Proceeds from its sale were ‘donated to British schools to fund instruction in discipline, literacy, and contraception’. I sought to get in touch with this Boomtown Gundane, only to find out later that he does not exist; the story was a piece of fake news, originally published by the now-defunct satirical news website Hayibo — which was similar to The Onion — and had subsequently been re-posted as fact on several websites and blogs. In Palazzo Gundane (homage to the myth-maker who fell to earth), I give shape and pay tribute to the fictional musician, and imagine the world he inhabits.”

2020, revised 2021

Video with stereo sound, 15 minutes 49 seconds, pastel on repurposed printed matter, pastel on acrylic, pastel on air-dry clay

Piano
Geneva Fung

Videotography
Leung Ho Sing
Leung Tin Chun Jimmy
Lam Sing Yau
Fung Yiu Man

Audio
Chiu Ho Chi
Fung Ka Wai

Production management
Vivian Leung
Chan Chak Kwan
Jones Lee
Sunny Liu
Stanley Mok
Tang Wai Fung
Lui Lee
Lee Yat Ho (HKAPA)

Photo documentation
Dennis Man Wing Leung

The work was made possible through a residency organized by Kayo Tokuda (TOMORROW), and Ryosoku-In in Kenninji Temple, Kyoto; further research was provided by Shunya Hashizume, Akane Takahashi (TOMORROW). Special thanks to Galerie Gisela Capitain.

Official Selection at the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR); and the 2021 Image Forum Festival, Japan.

Excerpted from Saint Louis Art Museum’s website:

”The 2021 video Sonata for Smoke is a meditation on the symbolic and impermanent nature of smoke. Throughout the video, Young captures the ephemerality of smoke — in particular, the various sounds that accompany its fleeting appearance. He also references the religious significance of smoke through incense burning. Sonata for Smoke was created as part of an exhibition organized and conceived while Young was an artist in residence at the Ryosoku-in Temple in Japan. The video consists of a sequence of actions and images that progress with forward motion across time and space, creating a sense of directionality. However, certain motifs and choreographies of events — including ritualistic sounds and actions — repeat throughout the piece. These consecutive, meditative acts were inspired by the temple setting and its arrangement as a sequence of rooms. Objects from the temple also appear throughout the film, including ceramics that bear impressions of its architectural features.”

2022

Sound installation (generative audio, pastel on 3d-printed PLA, LED matrix, repurposed mic stand, speaker, cables, computer with custom-software, dimensions and duration variable, set of 24); video (generative animation, duration variable; computer with custom-software); three-channels video (duration 6:41, 7:43 and 9:44); digital print on carpet (3.6 x 2.7 m); digital print on vinyl on windows (dimensions variable); 3d-printed PLA (1.45 x 0.48 x 0.89 m; 0.21 x 0.18 x 0.26 m, set of 2); repurposed printed material (Chad Hansen, Tao Te Ching: the Art of Harmony, 5.88 x 3.18 x 24.77 cm); repurposed silk flowers (dimensions variable).

“In Altar music (liturgy for an indecisive believer), the system begins by downloading a news headline of the day from the reputable indepedent media Hong Kong Free Press. An artificial intelligence algorithm (known as GPT-neo, which is an open-source version of Open AI project’s GPT-3 engine) then takes the headline as a ʻprompt,’ to generate a continuous stream of counter-factual news stories. The texts of these counter-factual news in turn become the basis for the sound output, which breaks the texts down by word-type, and with each word-type a different generative sound pattern is triggered. Elsewhere, a generative animation highlights discrete words from the news story as they come in, while dissolving the whole.

Other elements that complete the installation include ʻinterpassive’ rituals (the prayer wheel that ʻprays in our place’, the machine that ʻchants in our place’, and the photocopier that ʻreads in our place’), and the recurring visual motif of three interlocking eyeballs, all facing inward: the iris that looks at itself looking.”

Photo courtesy of Galleria Gisela Capitain, photo credit: Simon Vogel

2021

7-channel sound installation (3D printed PLA plastic on repurposed mic stands, speakers, LED matrix), 3D printed PLA plastic with embedded electronics, two-channel video (channel 1: 18’24”; channel 2: interactive, duration variable), vinyl and custom software

Commissioned by Art Jameel in collaboration with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and Burger Collection

This project is open source. A technical manual that contains links to codes and 3d models can be accessed here. All codes, 3d models and other resources may be re-used and re-mixed under the creative commons license CC by 4.0.

”Reasonable Music is an interactive environment consisting of (text as) sound and (text as) image. The components within this environment are derived from the processing of the Daoist text Daodejing. Insights from computational analysis on the text’s formal features are filtered through human intuition to generate a network of sonic and visual objects.

A ‘filtered’ version of the Daodejing - consisted only of nouns and verbs that also function as nouns - is deployed as training data for an AI algorithm (Tensorflow). The trained-AI, which functions as a quasi-reasonable automatic-writing machine, continuously generates new ‘teachings.’ These sometimes random, sometimes almost-insightful ‘teachings’ are further abstracted into live visuals, sounds, and 3d shapes.

As formal features progress further and further along a chain of events away from their origins, they are transformed, distorted, and take on new features.”

Photo courtesy of Jameel Arts Centre, photo credit: Daniella Baptista

2016

Drawing (charcoal, ink, pastel, pencil, stamp and watercolor on paper), sound performance (for one performer with audio interface, laptop. Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), microphone), installation (3D printed water basin, custom-designed bench, sound track, stamped text on wall, wired fencing)

”The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) is a sound cannon or ‘non-lethal’ sonic weapon that is capable of broadcasting sounds at an extreme loudness over a long distance. When used at maximum volume, LRAD is capable of inducing permanent hearing impairment. Canon is comprised of a sound installation and live performance, which is experienced at two different locations. At the ‘broadcasting’ location, with an LRAD unit the artist whistles the calls of birds, in response to a background track that is consisted of recordings of bird calls.”

2024

360° video with 26 channels of audio

Featuring Leo (koto) and Michael Schiefel (jazz vocal), in collaboration with Peter Nelson & Roberto Alonso Trillo

Supported by Tomorrow Field (Kyoto) and Visualization Research Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University (BUHK)

2020

Video with stereo sound (composition for brass ensemble, 35 mins), graphical scores (color pencil and soft pastel on plywood, color pencil on acrylic, digital print on fabric), repurposed found objects, soft pastel on 3d printed PLA

Commissioned by CLAB, Taipei

”In this composition, the artist experiments with the idea of a music that is time-/place-/and people-specific. The specific conditions for this composition are as follows: composed for an ensemble of military veterans from Taiwan, (_____ some other qualities to be determined through exchanges), at a former air force base, to be performed at the beginning of the nautical twilight. The composition may not be performed again outside of these specific conditions.

This composition is the first in a new series performance by the artist that explores notions of freedom and agency, and is accompanied by an essay titled Graphic scores, imagination, freedom, agency, and the limits of _____ (One exercise in meaning making with thinking-forms).”

Musical composition, installation, video
Samson Young

Brass ensemble
Liu Chih-Chieh, Lu Wei-Chen, Cho Huang Ta-Yu, Cha Hsiu-Chi, Yang Chen-An, Wang Yih-Cheng, Lin Tze-Hsiang, Meng Cheng-Wei, Chen Yen-Chieh, Hardy Wu, Shen Yu-Hsuan, Chen Shao-Yung, Chang Chia-Hao, Pan Chiang, Yu Tsung-Jung, Band Yu, Yen Ting

Conductor
LIU Chih-Chieh

3D Printing Technician
Andrew Crowe @ Metaobjects

Artist Assistants
Vvzela KOOK, Joyce WONG

Stage Manager
LAI Liang-Chia

Assistant Stage Manager
JANG Ko-Shin

Musician Management
SU Ching-Han

Lighting Technician
Sobright Lighting Ltd.

Audio Recording
Giant Audio Co., Ltd.

Video Recording
LAI Qian-Hui, LIU Zhe-Jun, LIN Shao-Xuan, ZHANG Wei-Sheng

Executive Producer
LIU Yu-Ling

Photo credit: Terry Lin Photography

2019

Multimedia music theater for voice, Cantonese opera vocalist, electric guitar quartet, live electronics, cherry-picker cranes, crane operators, costumes (silk-screen print on canvas), animation; 65 mins

Music, Musical Arrangement, Lyrics, Animation, Costume
Samson Young

Vocal Performance and Lyrics
Eliza Li

Vocal Performance, Improvization, and Musical Arrangement
Michael Schiefel

Guitars
DITHER Quartet - James Moore, Taylor Levine, Brendon Randall-Myers and Liz Faure

Costume Fabrication
Kwok Hang Lin
Cheung Chi Mau
Wong Kam Fai
Paola Sinisterra
Gabrielle Wong
Essa Lin
Kristy Chan
Kimmie Pang

3d modeling and printing
Sortica@CGTrader and CG-Studiox@CGTrader; Andrew Crowe@Metaobjects

Additional 3d assets
Tjarie, iljujjkin, HDPoly, NiceModels, San Roman Matias Gabriel, tkozodaev, cayo_bi, Bone07 @Turbsquid

Producers
Esa Nickle and Maaike Gouwenberg

Technical Producer
Sascha von Oertzen

Assistant Producer
Sheridan Telford

Sound and Lighting Consultation
ARUP

Technical Production
Crossfire

Boom Lift Operators
Graham Anderson
Nicholas Buckalew
Louis Mastrangelo
Aaron Peart
Ian Wessman

Cantonese Opera Costumer
Wu Lan Fong

Research Assistant
Christie Wong

Production Assistants
Vvzela Qu and Homer Shew

Curated by RoseLee Goldberg, Director and Chief Curator, Performa and Kathy Noble, Senior Curator and Manager of Curatorial Affairs, Performa. Special thanks to Meredith Johnson, Governors Island, Jonathan Belson, National Parks Service and the Park Rangers of Castle Williams. The Immortals is supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Spring Workshop, and the Performa Commissioning Fund. Co-produced by Trust for Governors Island, and the Center for Heritage Arts and Textile.

2019

2 channels-video with 8-channel sound, 22 min 23 sec; acrylic on CNC-milled sculptor’s foam, motor, steel, ink and watercolor on paper, 3d-printed artist frame

Animation, video editing and music arrangement
Samson Young

Vocal performance and music arrangement
Michael Schiefel

Videography
Ben Kolak, Stephen Garrett

Character 3d modelling
AndriiArtist @CGTrader

Moon sculpture 3d model
VARRRG @CGTrader

Moon sculpture production
Bridgewater Studio

3d assets
3d_molier, amaranthu, George Kuuzik, Newlc, Symmetria3D, rfairman, dekogon, tartino, and RAREBOUC @Turbosquid; mentalassets, nghiahoangkts1710, Dekogon, bernard-wong, zedman, ulenspy, bentanji3dmodels, rudnev, lukass12, F54, weary, pledg, and axiom @CGTrader

Photo
Rachel Topham

Research support
Orianna Cacchione, Simone Levine, University of Chicago Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, SMART Museum, Indiana Dunes National Park, University of Chicago Library, the Field Museum Chicago, University of Chicago Hong Kong Centre

2019 / revised 2020

2 channels-video with 2-channel sound, 3d printed PLA, repurposed found objects (opium pipe, tourist instrument, original print edition of John Barrow’s Travels in China); video duration 6:17 and 25:34

Music composition, text, set design, video editing
Samson Young

Performance
Geneva Fung, Samson Young, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Chorus conducted by Leon Chu, and Christie Wong

Voice over
Dr. Christian Weikop

Videography
Ip Yiu Tung Zachary, Lau Chun Sing, Fung Kai Cheuk, Leung Tin Chun Jimmy, Lee Chun Wai, Leung Ho Sing

Production management
@ Jones Lee Production: Christy Ko, Donna Loy, Vivian Leung, Chan Chak Kwan, Ray Wong, Jones Lee, “Jonathan,” Henry Fung, Edward Lau, “Rocky,” “Elephant,” “Him,” Sissy Tang

Sound recording
Samson Young, Teeda Lee

3d-printing technical support
Andrew Crowe @ Meta Objects

3d models
Modified from “Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Milos)” & “Discobolus (The Discus Thrower)”, SMK National Gallery of Denmark @Turbosquid; “The Three Graces at the Hermitage Museum, Russia” & “Michelangelo's David in the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence, Italy”, Peter Edwards (Cool3DModels) @Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2445605) & (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2445538), CC by 2.0; “Robin the thinker“, lampmaker @Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34343), CC by 2.0; ”The Thinker at the Musée Rodin, France“, Bruce Stevens @Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2201627), CC by 2.0; ”Marsyas“, The Metropolitan Museum of Art @Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24042), CC by-sa 3.0.

Special thanks to
Alex Rehding; Tessa Giblin; Talbot Rice Gallery, St. Cecilia‘s Hall, and the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh

Photos
Lily Yiyi Chan

”For this work, the artist conducted a research project that follows the genealogy of the Chinese folk song Molihua (Jasmine Flower), a tune of some national significance that is frequently performed in the context of cultural diplomacy - official state visits and the olympics, for instance. The tune can also be heard as a quotation in the famous opera Turandot. Molihua was ‘imported’ into Europe through the British Empire’s encounter with the imperial Qing court during the Macartney Embassy, and after a period of propagation and rearrangement in Europe, the tune was ‘re-imported’ back into China in its modified form. The artist compares and contrasts the song’s transmission history with that of the melody of Japanese Togaku - court music that was imported into Japan from China during the Tang dynasty, which has since become as one of few extant sources of Tang music. In one of the video channels, a horse lectures the audience on the complexity of musical genealogy. In another channel, we hear an original composition that is played by, among other instruments, a touristic souvenir-instrument. Through the work, the artist examines the interactions that occur when a piece of music crosses cultures, to consider what it means to hear with the ears of another, and questions the notions of cultural purity and authenticity at large.”

2019

Sculptor’s foam, bronze, 3d printed PLA, LED lighting system, 16-channel sound installation; sound, 60 min loop

NESS software and NESS laboratory residency courtesy of NESS, Stefan Bilbao, Talbot Rice Gallery, and Tessa Giblin at the University of Edinburgh; research supported by the Talbot Rice Gallery, St Cecilia’s Hall, and the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh; 3d-printing support by Andrew Crowe @ Meta Objects; bronze casting support by Clarke Colm; spatialization support by Stephen Moore; mouthpiece 3d model adapted from “Smooth 7C Bach Trombone” by Boesfx Cvsupo @ Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2723035), CC by 2.0; exhibition and fabrication support by Tessa Giblin, Melissa MacRobert and Clarke Colm @ Talbot Rice Gallery; photo documentation Sally Jubb

Version 2 of Possible Music was commissioned by the Talbot Rice Gallery at the University of Edinburgh.

2019

Sculptor’s foam, steel, 16-channel sound installation; sound, 60 min loop

Version 1.5 of Possible Music was commissioned by the 2019 Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition, and the Hong Kong Visual Art Centre.

Sound spatialization support
Stephan Moore

Photo documentation
Lily Yiyi Chan, Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition

2018

3D-printed acrylic sculpture with soft pastel, four 3D-printed nylon sculptures with soft pastel and colored pencil, 3D-printed rose gold, two framed watercolour and soft pastel on paper, costume with wool thread, artificial flowers, lamé, polyester, and silk flag, feathers with dye, felt-tip pen on drumhead, video with sound, 62 min 20 sec, silent video, 40 sec, 11-channel sound installation

NESS software and NESS laboratory residency courtesy of NESS, Stefan Bilbao, Talbot Rice Gallery, and Tessa Giblin at the University of Edinburgh; research supported by the Talbot Rice Gallery, St Cecilia’s Hall, and the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh; 3d-printing technical support by Cosmo Wenmen, and Andrew Crowe @ Meta Objects; sound spatialization support by Stephen Moore, mouthpiece 3d model adapted from “Smooth 7C Bach Trombone” by Boesfx Cvsupo @ Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2723035), CC by 2.0; “Vincent Bach 5G Large Shank Bass Trombone Mouthpiece Lookalike” by Brine James @ Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1744070), CC by 2.0; “7C Bach Trombone/Euphonium Mouthpiece” by dellagd @ Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:114129), CC by 2.0; video performance by Shane Aspegren, photo documentation by Ji Hoon Kim and Dennis Man Wing Leung

”The work, Possible Music #1 (feat. NESS & Shane Aspegren), fills a room, and incorporates drawings, ambiguous, trumpet-like forms jutting from the brightly hued walls, and multiple speakers on the floor, each one sprouting fake flowers. The music coming from those speakers—intermittent, changeable bursts of complex sound—was composed by Young using some of the most unusual instruments imaginable. Indeed, these instruments only “exist” in Young’s imagination and in the digital realm: he created them using software developed by NESS (Next Generation Sound Synthesis), a research project at the University of Edinburgh. By feeding his chosen parameters into the algorithm they created, Young was able to find out what sounds would be made by brass instruments that defy the laws of physics: a 20-foot trumpet, for instance, and a bugle that operates when blown into with breath at 300ºC.”

Exhibition audio guide

2017

Installation: Video on designated TV unit, 40 mins 16 seconds, 8-channel sound installation, photographic c-print on paper, digital collage c-print on paper, carpet, movable curtain system, 3 custom stools, 1 vintage leather armchair, acoustic baffle with window, music score stand, music scores, wind machine, leather saddle, custom foley table, cereal box, duct taped cereal box, audio cable, plastic flower bouquet, compressed air, mini xylophone, tam tam mallet, Victorian lamp, melodica tubes, printed radio scripts, 5 Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train whistles, rotary dial phone, 2 coconut shell halves, portable record player, thunder drum, ocean drum; radio composition: for 6 voice actors, 3 foley artists, ensemble (viola, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, trumpet doubling bugle, double bass, percussion doubling piano); in 5 movements, 2 hours 30 mins

Radio Composition
Vee Leong & Nicholas Wong, Text
Samson Young, Music & additional text
Liz Wong & Samson Young, Translation
Polly Thomas, Radio Producer & Director
Eloise Whitmore, Foley Artist
Karen Lauke, Foley Artist No.2
Jamie Birkett, Studio Engineer
Lee Aston, Front of House Engineer
Dan Parrott, Video

Cast
Alex Chang, David Crellin, Jenny Gregson, Carla Henry, David Tse, Gabby Wong

Ensemble
Alex Robinson, Conductor
Beth Fuller-Tee, Violin & Viola
Ria Nolan, Double Bass
Emily Wilson, Clarinet & Bass Clarinet
Stephen Murphy, Trumpet & Flugelhorn
Delia Stevens, Drums & Percussion
Simon Bray (Jerwood Creative Fellow), Drums

Broadcast
Jon Green & the team at Unity Radio 92.8 FM

Installation
Wilson Siu Hin Chau, Horn
Jimmy Leung, Videotography
Simon Bray (Jerwood Creative Fellow), Photography

For Manchester International Festival
John McGrath, Artistic Director & CEO
Tracey Low, Executive Producer
Tom Higham, Producer
Jack Thompson, Technical Director
Siân Roberts, Project Officer
Leila Cogdell, Artist Liaison

For the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art
Nicola Hood, Director (Maternity Cover)
Zoe Dunbar, Director
Ying Tan, Curator
Geoff Tabbron, IT Coordinator

Thanks
Dan, Brendan and the team at Low Four Studio; Nadia Molinari at BBC Radio Drama; David Klein at Klein Imaging; Rebecca Parnell at the Royal Northern College of Music; John Shaw and Quest the horse from John Shaw Equestrian; Richard Rock at the University of Salford Music Department; Richard Dudley-Smith at Ground to Air; John, Oli and Alan at J&C Joel; Jamie Byron at HOME; Lindsay Taylor at the University of Salford Art Collection; Jennifer Ellis and Edouard Malingue at Edouard Malingue Gallery; Kee Hong Low and Bobo Lee at West Kowloon Cultural District

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Edouard Malingue Gallery, University of Salford Art Collection and West Kowloon Cultural District. Supported by Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, London as part of its programme of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Dedicated booklet: Download

2016

Multimedia walk with site-specific films, radio broadcasts, and live performance

Featuring Michael Schiefe, on-site performance directed by Vee Leong, photo documentation by Dennis Man Wing Leung.

2015

”The auditory coverage of bells defines territories, separating one community from another along cultural, religious, or ideological fault lines. Bells also connect individuals. When great care is taken in the tuning of bells, the purity of tone and fullness of volume become sources of collective pride. The abduction of bells on the other hand – often involving violent conflicts – aroused fierce animosities, and individual’s sense of belonging is greatly disturbed by such events. - Alain Corbin, 1998.

In this project I travelled around the world to collect the sound of significant bells that are associated notions of conflict - political, religious, military, cultural. I also documented the conversation I had with the people who helped me locate and access these bells.”

Mandalay, Myanmar
London, Part I
London, Part II
Nuremberg, Germany & Bydgoszcz, Poland (on the trail of a Nazi-confiscated bell)
Rouen Cathedral, France
Cantal, France (into the world of Alain Corbin)
Licata, Sicily ("A Bell for Adano")
St. Petersburg (the Great Peacock Clock)
Fez, Morocco
Mombasa, Kenya
Darlington Point, NSW Australia
LA & Clemson University, USA
Vienna & Innsbruck, Austria

Photo credit: Rekorder

2016

Instruction score, single channel video with sound, 9 min 7 sec

Performed by Hong Kong Voices; Lotti: Crucifixus a 8, Bach: Christmas Oratorio Part 5 (Movement 1 , Movements 4/11 Chorales); videotography Leung Ho Sing; photo Dennis Man Wing Leung.

MUTED SITUATION #5: MUTED CHORUS - ‘Stage a performance of the entirety of a choral composition without projecting the musical notes. This must be done without a diminution of the energy that is normally exerted in the performance of the composition in question. Ensemble-ship, phrasing, engagement of the bodies and all other factors pertaining to the performative intent of the work must be preserved as far as possible, but the sung musical notes are not to be heard. Suppress the consciously sound-producing constituent of the performance. As a result other sounds will be revealed, including but not limited to inhale of the singers, the sound that their bodies produce, and the rattling of the music scores.’”

2015

Sound performance (for one performer with airsoft pistol, audio interface, bass drum, compressed air, contact microphone, cooking paper, corn flakes, electric shavers, electrical sound toys, FM transmitter, glass bottle, laptop, mixer, ocean drum, rice, handheld radio, shotgun microphone, soil, tea leaves, thunder sheet, thunder tube, tupperware, wind chime)

”Nocturne (2015) is a sound performance, conceived around and in reaction to a series of night bombing videos that the artist has collected on youtube, which are edited into a video that is stripped away of all sounds. These footages originate from a variety of sources including news reports, archival footages, and video captured and uploaded by amateurs. Throughout the performance, the performer watches this silent video on a monitor, and attempts to accurately restore its soundtrack of explosions, gunshots and debris, by playing a live foley set using a series of regular household objects. The audience can choose to engage with the performance directly in front of the set, or at a distance through channeled sound via the dedicated handheld radio.”

2015

Video (6 mins 07 secs) , c-prints on aluminium, neon sign, vitrine of objects, 3-D printed PLA, costume, framed legal document

Featuring Michael Schiefel; musical arrangement and performance Michael Schiefel; set design Priman Lee; 3d model “bach_final”, Jinsoo Kim (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:280884), CC by 2.0; photo documentation Dennis Man Wing Leung; videography Leung Ho Sing.

2014

Instructions for a performance, single channel video with sound, 7 min 21 sec

Performed by the Kowloon Technical School Lion Dancing troupe; videotography Jimmy Leung Tin Chun, Leung Ho Sing; photo Dennis Man Wing Leung.

MUTED SITUATION #2: MUTED LION DANCE - ‘Stage a Lion Dance involving four or more dancers, without the accompanying percussive music. This must be done without a diminution of the energy that is normally exerted in a Lion Dance. The choreography, the costume, the scattering of lettuce and all other factors pertaining to the performative intent of the work should remain intact for as far as possible. As a result other sounds will be revealed, including not limited to the intense breathing of the performers, the verbal communication and cues between the Lions Dancers, sounds of the lion’s head rattling, and the stomping of the feet.’”

2014

Instruction score, single channel video with sound, 17 min 10 sec

Performed by the Romer Quartet, Haydn: String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2; videotography Jimmy Leung Tin Chun, Leung Ho Sing; photo Dennis Man Wing Leung.

2014

Composition for amplified string quartet, laptop, sensor instruments (eye tracking glasses, brainwave sensor, motion sensor), wireless camera, and video; in five movements, 63 mins

Composed for and premiered by the MIVOS Quartet, programming support by YY Kira Yeung

”The Anatomy of a String Quartet is a study of the potentials of media as tools for augmenting, extending and reconfiguring the musician’s body. It also questions how the process of mediation, and the perception of such processes, could alter the definition of ‘liveness’ in electronic music. The Anatomy of a String Quartet, at its core, is an audio-visual performance with/through a ‘prosthetically amplified’ string quartet. Each member of the quartet is monitored by a multitude of sensing apparatus, from eye tracking glasses to brainwave sensors. The bio-sensory data generated by the quartet in-performance become materials for the laptop musician's audio-visual improvisation - these data are translated into parameters for a set of physically-modelled virtual instruments. The piece unfolds in five ‘situations.’ Each situation is a reconfiguration of the relationship between the quartet on the one hand, and the laptop musician on the other.”

2012 - 14

Graphical notation [Liquid Borders I (Tsim Bei Tsui & Sha Tau Kok), ink, pencil, watercolour, xerox print on paper 43cm x 32cm (each), set of 3; Liquid Borders II (Tak Yuet Lau & Lo Wo), ink, pencil, collage, watercolour on paper, 355.3 cm x 47.3 cm; Liquid Borders III (Yuen Long & Lok Ma Chau), ink, pencil, mixed media, watercolour on drum, 25.2 cm x 25.2 cm x 9 cm; Liquid Borders IV (Mai Po & Luk Keng), ink, pencil, watercolour on paper, 40cm x 28cm (each), set of 2], sound compositions (stereo, in four movements, 13:16, 10:59, 6:28 & 5:14), annotated cartography (dimensions variable)

Liquid Borders I (Tsim Bei Tsui & Sha Tau Kok)
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Liquid Borders II (Tak Yuet Lau & Lo Wo)
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Liquid Borders III (Yuen Long & Lok Ma Chau)
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Liquid Borders IV (Mai Po & Luk Keng)
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”Hong Kong and Mainland China are physically separated a great wall of wired fencing and bodies of water. South to the border are restricted zones known as the Frontier Closed Area. Entry into the Frontier Closed Area without an official permit is forbidden. In October 2005, the then chief executive Donald Tsang announced a proposal to drastically reduce the Frontier Closed Area. In February 2012, 740 hectares of land were initially opened up. I visited the restricted zones along the Hong Kong-China border to collect the sounds that form the audio divide separating Hong Kong and the Mainland, assembling a body of recordings that are comprised mainly of vibrating fence wires captured by contact microphones, and running water from the Shenzhen River gathered by hydrophones. I re-arranged these recordings into sound compositions, and then transcribed these compositions into notations.”

Photo documentation
Dennis Man Wing Leung

2013

Single channel video with sound, 46 min 32 sec

Project participants
Patrick Lo, Alex Yiu, Carmen Chan, Iris Lo, Lorraine Lau, Leo Lee, Helen Li, Wing Sze Ng, Cui Ying, Agnes Chan, Deneb Cheung, Dilys Lowe, Albert Poon, Maggie Wong, Irene Lau, Joe Tiu, Yang Yeung, Crystal Ho Yi Wong, Joyce Lo, Vincent Wang, Lan-chee Lam, Louis But, Steven Chan, Lily Fong, Tim Chan, Maria Mo, Joan Chung, Jeff Leung, Peggy Wong, Paco Chung, Walton Lau, Connie Lam, Tommy Tsang, Alice Wong, Edwin Yeung, Tommy Lo, Andy Li, Fu Hok Chung, Chris Lau, Kenneth Kam, Teresa Tsui, Jenny Lee, Ian Cheung, Nana Choy, Toby Lai, Corvus Kwok, Stanley Yeung, Winni Wong, Cynthia Cheung, Bryan Lee, Castle Cheung, Anthony Cheung, Sing Au, Joanne Wong, Ellen Siu, Pann Hon, Annie Tam, Sandy Lee, Iriz Yuen, William Chung, Sheryl Lee, Winston Yeung, Kelly Wu, Johnson Lo

Commissioned by the Goethe Institute, Hong Kong

”Memorizing the Tristan Chord (Institute of Fictional Ethnomusicology) was commissioned by the Goethe Institut in Hong Kong to commemorate the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner. Through an open call, I recruited Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong to invent Cantonese phrases that would map onto the pitch contour that leads up to and immediately follows the “Tristan chord” from the opening moments of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. Participants were asked to sing their invented Cantonese phrase several times in front of the camera.”

Project website
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