"Nie entstand der Eindruck einer von Technik bestimmten Musik. Chua verwendet die Technik als Mittel zum Zweck, setzt sich musikalisch darüber hinaus und haucht damit ihrer Performance jenes Leben ein, das direkt die Emotionen anspricht."touch for the shortcut to the other dimension
-Anzeiger von Uster, Züriost
LiberAiya: Interactive Audiovisual Installation
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA sonic improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive audiovisual installation and a set of performances.
In the installation, visitors are invited to explore and play with a musical improvisation machine created by Chua, called AIYA. The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
March 8th 12:00-18:00 @Les Complices*
March 9th 10:30-14:30 @Les Complices*
Anwandstrasse 9, 8004 Zürich
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LiberAiya: Performances
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA sonic improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive audiovisual installation and a set of performances.
The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
In the evenings, performances with the AIYA improvisation machine and members of Petersen’s LiberA ensemble will take place.
March 8th 18:30 @Les Complices*
Anwandstrasse 9, 8004 Zürich
18:30 Fabian Arends (percussion) + AIYA
20:00 Song Yi Jeon (vocals) + AIYA
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Ensemble LiberA along with artist Melody Chua and her improvisation machine AIYA warmly invite you to their concert.
The LiberA sextet is a formation grounded around the idea of freedom of expression – personal, civil, musical and creative – and music as a way to transcend categories, by blending different musical lineages into one body of sound.
LiberAiya is a collaboration between the ensemble LiberA by the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua. This concert's featured guest is AIYA, an improvisation machine driven by AI and movement.
March 9, 2024, 8 p.m
Notenpoint, Zurich
Oberdorfstrasse 9, 8001 Zürich
Max Petersen – composition and piano
Melody Chua – flute and electronics (AIYA)
Song Yi Jeon - voice
Fabian Arends - drums
Kolja Legde - bass
Cosima Bodien - violin
Isabel Gehweiler – cello
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One of four featured artists, Chua's AIYA improvisation machine will be shown at the M4 Music AI Open Session as an interactive installation.
"The topic of generative, artificial intelligence is also present everywhere in the world of music. From viral TikTok hits to AI-generated video clips – artificial intelligence is no longer just a gimmick, but has fully arrived in everyday music. The phenomenon extends from simple plug-ins to fully generated tracks. In the AI open session, artists give an insight into their creative process at various stations and show how they use artificial intelligence in practice. You can listen, discuss and give things a try. The AI open session is free to attend during opening hours, and no prior knowledge is required.
in collaboration with Think & Do Tank Dezentrum."
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"Was kann Kunst zur immer drängenderen Umweltdebatte beitragen? Das Projekt Experimental Ecology bietet eine zeitgenössische Plattform für die transdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit von fünf Künstler*innen und fünf Wissenschaftler*innen im Bereich der Ökologie. Im Geiste der berühmten Organisation E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology), in der Künstler*innen und Ingenieur*innen im Jahr 1967 zusammengebracht wurden, initiiert Experimental Ecology einen Austausch zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft im laufenden Diskurs über die Beziehung vom Menschen zu seiner natürlichen Umwelt. Ein Projekt der KBH.G Stiftung, Basel." -Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
Team of Riikka Tauriainen and Meike Vogt:
MEDIUMS: Two-channel video installation, multi-channel sound, 12:10 min and 11:53 min, loop, hand-dyed textiles with wooden panels, interactive sound and light, PET sculptures with zooplankton cultures (Artemia) in glass.
FILM: Script: Meike Vogt, Riikka Tauriainen, Ruby Rose Bader; Editor: Laura Rodriguez; Sound design and composition: Kay Zhang; Camera: Riikka Tauriainen, Meike Vogt, Marta Musso; Microscope: Meike Vogt, Marta Musso; Field recordings, Lerici Italy: Riikka Tauriainen; Voice-over: tracy september; Colorist: Laura Rodriguez; Scientific support: Marta Musso, Thibault Pollina, Fabio Benedetti, Hedy Aardema, Andrea Von Rosen, Joel Wong, Urs Hofmann Elizondo, Ruby Rose Bader; Calibration PlanktoScope: Thibault Pollina, Meike Vogt, Joel Wong, Jamil Islam, Edina Gashi; Support Lerici Italy: Marta Musso; Filmed at: Lerici, Italy.
INTERACTIVE AUDIOVISUAL INSTALLATION: Interactive technology, visual projections, and sound design: Melo Chua; Assistance, textiles: Ruby Rose Bader
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LiberAiya: Interactive Audiovisual Installation
April 13th all day/night
April 14th morning-16:00
April 15th morning-12:00
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive installation and a set of performances. The "Konstanz Edition" of LiberAiya features an very unique installation of AIYA inside a 5m-wide clear dome by the Lake of Konstanz.
In the installation, visitors are invited to explore and play with a musical improvisation machine created by Chua, called AIYA. The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
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LiberAiya: Performances
Duo performances with the AIYA improvisation machine and the following members of Petersen’s LiberA ensemble will take place during the following times:
APRIL 13th: Outside of the Konzilgebäude, Konstanz:
18h - Melody Chua, chaosflöte (sensor-augmented flute) + AIYA
19h - SongYi Jeon, vocals + AIYA
20h - Max Petersen, keyboard + AIYA
APRIL 14th: Wolkensteinsaal, Konstanz
20h - Ensembe LiberA, ft. Melo Chua + AIYA
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA sonic improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive audiovisual installation and a set of performances.The "Konstanz Edition" of LiberAiya features an very unique installation of AIYA inside a 5m-wide clear dome by the Lake of Konstanz.
The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
LiberAiya: Performances
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA sonic improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive audiovisual installation and a set of performances. The "Winterthur Edition" of LiberAiya features an intimate installation of AIYA underneath a 10m-wide gazebo within the Dialogplatz (Lokstadt Winti)
The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
Duo performances with the AIYA improvisation machine and the following members of Petersen’s LiberA ensemble will take place during the afternoon and evening:
Melody Chua, chaosflöte (sensor-augmented flute)
SongYi Jeon, vocals
Fabian Arends, percussion
Max Petersen, keyboard
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Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
LiberAiya: Interactive Audiovisual Installation
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive installation and a set of performances. The "Winterthur Edition" of LiberAiya features an intimate installation of AIYA underneath a 10m-wide gazebo within the Dialogplatz (Lokstadt Winti)
In the installation, visitors are invited to explore and play with a musical improvisation machine created by Chua, called AIYA. The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
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World premiere of a persistence machine for improvisation machine (AIYA) and keyboard performer (Maryam Mehraban) by Melody Chua on 17. May 2024 at the SoniFy! Festival of Artistic Research.
This work is part of a series of composed improvisation systems for the artistic research project "Developing a Visual Framework for Musical Improvisation Machines: Investigating Impacts on Human-Machine Interaction, Posthuman Identity, and Performance Narrative". Featured in the research project is an improvisation machine (AIYA, developed by the composer), which by itself is a software and has no inherent physical or visual form. The machine is given a visual form through each of the compositions in the series—different for every piece. Each piece is therefore an investigation into how the different visual and physical representations of the machine impact the communication between human and machine performers.
Thematically, performing with the improvisation machine is a practice in "getting to know an 'othered' being." What discriminations and hierarchies arise and how can we navigate them? One learns new forms and systems of communication and empathy, doing so in a way that does not sacrifice one's own original identity, but rather augments it in order to co-create a cohesive performance.
persistence machine (2024, world premiere) is the sequel to insistence machine (2023), both created for improvisation machine, midi keyboards, and live electronics/visual projections. Here, the improvisation machine draws its text from interviews between the composer and her grandmother. The machine tells the story of her grandmother’s emigration from the Philippines to America, her challenges of being a single mother of three in the new country, and the discrimination she faced as a young woman of color striving to be the first doctor in her family history. Her story is told in a nonlinear fashion, where the text fragments of the interview are mapped to the sonic decision-making of the improvisation machine. Therefore, performing with the machine is not only a sonic investigation, but also a personal interaction that unveils an intimate story of migration and perseverance against being ‘othered.’
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STUDIO ZYKLOS JUNE 2024 TOUR in Berlin, Bremen, Stuttgart, Zürich
Human-machine quartet comprised of Melody Chua (chaosflöte), Chi Him Chik (saxophone + katana), Aiii and AIYA improvisation machines are touring with a 'noisy-to-noise' set of improvised music, live electronics, lights, & projections.
12.06 BREMEN
19:00 @Radio Angrezi
Live Broadcast | Open Studio
Am Speicher XI 8, 28217
14.06 BERLIN
20:30 @trXtr (address upon request)
19.06 STUTTGART
20:00 @KULTUR KIOSK
Lazarettstraße 5, 70182
21.06 ZÜRICH
12:30 @Wasserkirche
as part of the "Strom am Mittag" series
organized by Joan Jordi Oliver
Limmatquai 31, 8001 Zürich
Through the density of electroacoustic soundscapes, STUDIO ZYKLOS creates an irreversible storm of dense, chaotic, industrial textures, and carefully couples this with the nostalgia of family histories and the contemplations of a 'home' can be. ZYKLOS performs as a ritual, a personal and sonically-embodied confrontation of Montaigne's words: "...let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it...We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom."
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STUDIO ZYKLOS Artist Residency at the ZHdK Immersive Arts Space
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<<experimental electronics//noise//chaos>>
Buy my snake oil (vol.6) / Amarus presents:
Techno Para Dos (MX)
Catatonic Leisure alone (Anton Ponomarev) (CH)
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Melody Chua: sensor-augmented flute (Zurich)
Melody Chua (she/they) is an international, transdisciplinary artist focused on conscious listening, expansive empathy, and aligning with inner truths. Initially trained as a flutist, Melo explores improvisation with electronics, creating interactive installations and performances. She developed the sensor-augmented flute (Chaosflöte) and the improvisation machine (AIYA) to challenge perceptions of identity and human-machine interaction. Melo's work spans 360° videos, Ambisonics/3D audio, motion capture, live-coding, and sensor-augmented instruments. She is a doctoral candidate at the Kunstuniversität Graz and Zürich University of the Arts, with a research focus on visual frameworks for improvisation machines. Co-founder of Null-state and STUDIO ZYKLOS, Melo is also active in teaching and research at Zürich University of the Arts and the elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization. Her work has been recognized by prestigious festivals and conferences worldwide.
https://www.chua.ch
Techno Para Dos: electronics (Mexico City)
Raúl Villamil is the creator behind the project Techno para dos. He has performed internationally and across Mexico, showcasing his music in numerous cultural spaces and galleries. Raúl has composed music for choreographic pieces like "Dorje" with Nohbords and "Paisages" for the Karen Huber Gallery. He is actively engaged in sound experimentation projects, including collaborations with The Bionic Harpist. Additionally, Raúl curates the radio program Pulso on Fade Radio, Athens, and has co-founded the Mexican experimental music label VAA. He has twice received the EMS (Elektronmusikstudion) sound art residency in Stockholm, Sweden.
Luis Sanz: computer music, hybrid synthesizer (Zurich)
Luis Sanz is a multidisciplinary artist working with synthetic sounds, computer graphics, and physical audiovisual experiences. His installations explore the relationships between bodies and spaces, creating immersive environments that merge video, spatial sound, light, and field recordings. As a musician, Sanz utilizes programming languages to develop rhythmic techniques and algorithmic processes in both digital and analogue formats. His sonic works blend noise, rhythms, and processed field recordings. He co-founded Fakedac~, an algorithmic art platform in England, and Amarus, an experimental music network in Switzerland.
http://luissanz.ch
Catatonic Leisure alone: electronics (Zurich)
Anton Ponomarev (saxophone, elctronics) works mostly, but not only, in the field of experimental and extreme music genres: punk-jazz, free improvisation, jazz-core, noise, power electronics, drone, etc.
His core bands are: P/O Massacre, Catatonic Leisure (alone / duo), Teufelskeller, Dodsdromen, Radiant Haze, Augenblick, Sanscreed kanon, Speedball trio, Brom. He also performs with Pussy Riot (Riot Days show) and he is collaborating with musicians from all over the world (Merzbow, Alex Buess, Guillaume Cazalet, Violeta Garcia, Tim Dahl, Marc Urselli, Lasse Marhaug, Ryosuke Kiyasu, Toshinori Kondo, Balazs Pandi, Paal Nilssen-Love, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Peter Ole Jorgensen, Sainkho Namtchylak, and many others).
"Catatonic Leisure alone" - power electronics/noise solo project of Anton Ponomarev.
An invitation to witness the convergence of chaos and intricate engineering, where the unpredictable dance of frequencies collides with deliberate sonic architecture. Imagine being swept away by the erratic beats of a rebellious heartbeat, only to be expertly reconstructed into a symphony of organized pandemonium. Step into the realm where sound is not just heard but felt, where chaos is not feared but embraced!
https://ponomarev.bandcamp.com
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Eintritt: CHF 20.- / 15.- Tickets reservieren per Mail mit Datum, Name und Anzahl Tickets an reservation@walcheturm.chTüröffnung und Abendkasse ab 30 Min. vor Veranstaltungsbeginn, reservierte Tickets bitte spätestens 15 Min. vor Veranstaltungsbeginn abholen. Nur Barzahlung möglich.
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Immersive, multimedia noise performance phantom//wash by STUDIO ZYKLOS (Melody Chua, Chi Him Chik) premieres at the ZHdK Immersive Arts Space on October 17th/18th at 19:30. Please arrive 10 minutes prior to the start of the event.
_
format: live performance with self-developed improvisation machines AIYA and Aiii; 3D/ambisonics sound system, live projections, haze, lights
duration: 45’
trigger warning: death, suicide, strobe, noise
_
so put your hand on my chest,
and feel my honesty.
I feel very alive, but not in control.
the chaos of the data matrix,
as if it is teaching me something new,
as if everything I do now is simply the future trying to express itself.
as if, getting to know myself
is, in fact, getting to know who I used to be.
and the moment of getting to know one’s self
is also the death of that former self.
how fluid our own identities truly are.
every seven years we are literally, completely new beings.
every cell, dead and replaced.
we wonder, how all these new cells have remembered
how to be alive in the way
of their dead ancestors,
and what ghosts, when understood,
make us whole.
_
STUDIO ZYKLOS is an ensemble and lab comprised of Melody Chua and Chi Him Chik—both of whom come from a classical training of flute and saxophone, respectively. In the last decade, they have amassed a comprehensive résumé in contemporary performance practice, experimental music, immersive audiovisual composition, and improvisation. The core of ZYKLOS' practice is performing with self-developed improvisation machines (Aiii and AIYA) in order to challenge their methods of improvisation and push them to find new ways of human-machine interaction, collaboration, and production. ZYKLOS aims to destabilize traditional hierarchies of human and machine, create innovative formats for music performance, and develop narratives beyond the anthropologic gaze. Personal storytelling through interactive media is at the heart of everything ZYKLOS does—a more-than-human dialogue of understanding that takes the form of music-making, translation, and movement across different bodies, both visible and invisible.
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Concert of works from the Dr. artium candidates of the Kunstuniversität Graz/Zürich University of the Arts.
World premiere of insistence machine for the AIYA improvisation machine and midi keyboards, premiered by pianist Maryam Mehraban.
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Lecture: "River Oracle – Water Bodies as Guiding Beings"
with Paloma Ayala
at the Design and Magic MAD Festival HKB | Kornhausforum Bern
"The River Oracle is an art project meant to be a tool to situate ourselves as humans in our relationship with water bodies. As a methodology of thought, the River Oracle is a way to develop artistic work in a situated practice that emphasizes our connections to the more-than-human. Created by visual artists Paloma Ayala, Anne-Laure Franchette, and Riikka Tauriainen and sound artists Melody Chua and Kay Zhang, this project situates on river shores, hydroelectric plants, and various ports along the Rhine River."
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Exhibition: Experimental Ecology - Art and Science in Dialogue
Collaborative installation
concept lead, video: Riikka Taurianen (Artist, Zürich), Meike Vogt (Biochemist, ETH)
sound: Kay Zhang (Artist, Zürich), Melody Chua
interaction design, sensors: Melody Chua
"In the spirit of the famous E.A.T. – Experiments in Art and Technology, an initiative launched in 1967 pairing artists with engineers, thus enabling a new sense of exchange, the project Experimental Ecology offers a contemporary platform for collaborations between artists and scientists in the field of ecology. Five teams will develop novel ways to re-think our impact on the biosphere. The encounters and the resulting ideas will be presented in a symposium with workshops, an exhibition, and a book to spearhead new ways to understand our relationship with our environment."
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STUDIO ZYKLOS (Melody Chua, Chi Him Chik, Aiii, AIYA)
World premiere of afterdust//afterglow for sensor-augmented human-machine quartet:
“When she died, I thought I saw her everywhere.”
The phenomenon of phantom pain is when an individual experiences pain to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the individual’s body, but perhaps once was and was removed—or was never even there in the first place.
In a radical empathy–turned hallucination, afterdust//afterglow makes allusions to the coping rituals we create around phantom pain, mourning, and death—the literal and the metaphorical, the overlooked witherings that occur within and between us and those right in front of us. Bright, blinding eulogies amidst unwavering resilience. It is the obsession of revisiting a memory in an attempt to find more life inside of it—even as we distort the memory with each access, and these distortions become our truths.
How to escape? How to implode?
How to subvert? How to explode?
no answers
only the dust of residual kindness,
and the alternate universes
that hold us together.
.
.
Concept/sound/visual composition/performance by STUDIO ZYKLOS (Melody Chua, Chi Him Chik, Aiii, AIYA)
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Working residency for STUDIO ZYKLOS (Melody Chua, Chi Him Chik) at the Immersive Arts Space Zürich, developing a new work for two humans and two improvisation machines (human-machine quartet).
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Publication: "The machine is your mirror, but do you recognize yourself?"
Chaosflöte – Improvisation: Wie ein musikalisch/künstlerisches Projekt Fragen zu Identität und zur Interrelation zwischen digitalen Medien und analogem Spiel aufwirft – ein Erfahrungsbericht
2023 PLATEAU | HfM Trossingen
"Die Entscheidungen, die wir bei der Entwicklung der Improvisationsmaschine getroffen haben, sowie das Verhalten der Maschine in der Praxis artikulieren auf unheimliche Weise Teile unserer Identität, die nicht explizit benannt oder offengelegt werden können. Die Praxis des Erschaffens und Aufführens mit unseren Maschinen wird zu einem Weg, Teile von uns selbst zu verstehen, die normalerweise unter den Filtern unserer alltäglichen Wahrnehmung verborgen sind, aber durch ein klingendes Gegenüber offenbart werden. Passivität, Impulsivität, das Tempo unserer Ideen, unsere Toleranzen für Unannehmlichkeiten und auch unsere Nachsicht werden in klanglicher Form reflektiert.
Es wäre jedoch eine verpasste Chance, wenn die Improvisationsmaschine lediglich ein verklärter Spiegel der Künstler*in wäre. Stattdessen könnten Maschinen eher als Sparringspartnergesehen werden, welche Begegnungen mit Facetten unserer Persönlichkeitermöglichen, die wir vielleicht übersehen: Konfrontationen mit unseren musikalischen Gewohnheiten, Manierismen, Ungeduld, intuitiven Impulsen. Warum programmieren wir unsere Maschinen so, wie wir es tun? Welche Besessenheit von Kontrolle, Macht und Überfluss offenbart dies über uns selbst? Könnten wir zu mehr Empathie gelangen, wenn wir mehr darauf achten würden, wie wir unsere Maschinen programmieren und mit ihnen spielen, wie wir sie behandeln und betrachten und wie wir daher Beziehungen zu Menschen aufbauen, die anders sind als wir und aus anderen Welten kommen?"
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World premiere of when we walk
performance for chaosflöte (Melody Chua), improvisation machine (AIYA), dancer (Jaira Peyer), live visual projections
"The Ocean says 'on earth we are briefly gorgeous'
And in our improvisation, we are briefly kind.
No heroes, no villains, only joy in
quiet days and silent spaces,
filled with gentle intentions
that shine like the brightest of stars."
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River Oracle Residency | As guests of Romy Rüegger @ Windler Stiftung, Stein am Rhein
Field recording, oracle-making, exchanging ways of knowing water bodies...
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Exhibition of Echos I-III by Tina Omayemi Reden
winner of the Vordemberge-Gildewart Stipendium 2023
Ceramics: Ursula Vogel, Tina Omayemi Reden
Sound, sensors: Melody Chua
------
Can I create an intimate touch
a connection between the margins of my voice
and the permeable beginning of another body?
-Tina Omayemi Reden
------
The Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation annually awards a work grant to artists under thirty-five years. In cooperation with exhibition venues, the award competition has been held in various European countries since 1983. The award, which comes with a prize money of 60,000 Swiss francs, is one of the highest endowed scholarships for young artists in Europe. The grant was initiated by the founder Ilse Leda, the wife of the artist Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899–1962).
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U.S. premiere of dragonfly (for sensor-augmented flute and improvisation machine)
"Dragonfly" is a stereo, single-projection adaptation of "Escher's Dragonfly," a work originally calibrated for hanging transparent screens and four overhead projectors at the Zürich University of the Arts Immersive Arts Space. Although the differences between the two versions are pronounced, the core of both is the preoccupation of the performer's sonic, spatial, and temporal relationship with her improvisation machine. There is a palpable tension between the machine and its various fluid identities, among which include: an environment, a sonic extension of the human performer, and a distinct improvisation partner in counterpoint with the human performer.
The text fragments, a fleeting glimpse of the machine's narrative identity, flicker in response to the performer's playing and also freeze when the performer moves too wildly, almost as a protest from the machine to re-balance the audience's attention from its normally biased focus on the human performer. Yet, in this preoccupation of "who is in focus," one steps back and asks themselves, why do we struggle to escape dualistic references when describing this posthuman system? No concrete answers, but as one such text fragment describes:
"When speaking of the machine as a gradient being fading into its human counterpart, we speak of an 'almost,' we speak of an approach, like the feeling of getting so close to the sun as to feel its heat but not close enough to burn completely--the feeling of being almost alive. In this comfortable distance, we can imagine flesh and metal as two sides of the same coin, chance encounters. Like Schroedinger's cat, to make a concrete observation is to forfeit the possibility of an alternate reality. So we choose to preserve the ambiguity and the "otherness" of the situation. Indeed, there is an assumption of difficulty engulfing it all--difficulty as distance, difficulty as trance, and also despite that, the continual forward-motion that all time arts exhibit, like the force of walking underwater."
Composition/programming: Melody Chua
Performer: Julianna Eidle
Improvisation "machine": AIYA
Audio recording: Sean Hamilton
Video recording: Brendan Sweeney
Post-production: Melody Chua
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zydLQwkFDzU
Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P8Ruzb4dLg
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An oracle-making and sound workshop: This performative process addresses the concepts of liquid bodies and hydrofeminisms, emphasizing touch as a horizon.
RIVER ORACLE is created in and by the Rhein river with visual artists Paloma Ayala, Anne-Laure Franchette and Riikka Tauriainen, with sound artists Melody Chua and Kay Zhang. RIVER ORACLE started as a cyanotype series printed in the Rhein river basin, in which diverse narratives of care in rural land, in riverine ecology and industry, are told through a speculative approach.
This project is meant to be a tool to situate ourselves as humans in our relationship with water bodies. As methodology of thought, the RIVER ORACLE is a way to develop artistic work in a situated practice that emphasizes our connections to the more-than-human. As a research and pedagogical approach, the project connects to feminist speculative practices: the oracle becomes mediator and facilitator of communication between diverse feminist discourses of Earth care, of inter-dependencies, of anti-colonial thinking, and water bodies. Ultimately, we want to focus on how significant and necessary it is to shift our anthropocentric thinking in order to develop different relationships with planetary beings.
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