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Special Projects
Wok Talk
"Wok Talk. We shall meet across the dining table."
Wok Talk (我可说) is a Chinese podcast series I initiated with two foodie friends. The podcast focuses on collecting the stories of restaurant & business owners abroad: a Yunnanese who opened a restaurant selling hometown food in London; a Chinese tea house owner in Chicago... Each episode explores topics including but not limited to food, home, memory, identity, and cultural exchange.
The pilot episode is expected to be released soon.
Wok Talk (我可说) is a Chinese podcast series I initiated with two foodie friends. The podcast focuses on collecting the stories of restaurant & business owners abroad: a Yunnanese who opened a restaurant selling hometown food in London; a Chinese tea house owner in Chicago... Each episode explores topics including but not limited to food, home, memory, identity, and cultural exchange.
The pilot episode is expected to be released soon.
Songs of The Rocks
"Songs of The Rocks" is a cassette tape sound Installation piece. 5 cassettes are placed underneath/on top of the rocks at lakefill island on Northwestern University campus. A 45-minute loop (ambient music, spoken word, sound collage, and field recording) was composed and recorded into each cassette.
Co-created/installed by Ivan Chen, Alicia Li, Gracia Zhao, Haotian Wang, Carlos Zarate
Recorded in Ambisonics-B Format
Co-created/installed by Ivan Chen, Alicia Li, Gracia Zhao, Haotian Wang, Carlos Zarate
Recorded in Ambisonics-B Format
An Attempt at Exhausting Chicago Chinatown
My approach of this field recording project is largely inspired by Georges Perec’s book An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, where the author sat at a café documenting everything in his field of vision three days in a row. Similar to Perec’s philosophy, I treated my soundwalk as a search for the “infraordinary” and everyday rhythm in Chinatown by observing anything from cars passing by to symbols and slogans (Perec). I experimented with recording multiple one-take reactions toward the signs, symbols, and slogans I encountered. The sound piece poses questions of sonic citizenship and issues of urban gentrification. For more field recording pieces, check out SoundCloud @haoshen in the field.
BARDO
BARDO is an interactive performance designed in ambisonics setting. It was inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist philosophy "Bardo," which represents an intermediate, transitional state between death and rebirth. The performance aims to create the feeling of being in-between spaces.
The demo was premiered and played in a 12.1 multichannel system. It was created with Max/MSP ICST plugins and can be encoded in different orders of ambisonics depending on the performance space. Voices can also be recorded into the patch and played back live. Setup includes laptop + an audio interface + SM58 microphone. A microphone is designed to pass around the room and each participant is encouraged to speak/sing into the microphone as a communal activity.
The demo was premiered and played in a 12.1 multichannel system. It was created with Max/MSP ICST plugins and can be encoded in different orders of ambisonics depending on the performance space. Voices can also be recorded into the patch and played back live. Setup includes laptop + an audio interface + SM58 microphone. A microphone is designed to pass around the room and each participant is encouraged to speak/sing into the microphone as a communal activity.
Strange Tales from A Chinese Studio
"Strange Tales from A Chinese Studio" is an ambient, electronic composition inspired by a Chinese classic “supernatural” fiction titled Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Songling Pu. The piece focuses on the story of Yingning, The Half-Fox Girl.
This was originally composed in Logic Pro, then rendered into ambisonic-B format in Reaper. The composition attempts to tell an immersive story sonically via ambisonics while exploring the possibility of creating music in ambisonics. The ambisonic composition was played in the 12.1 system.
This was originally composed in Logic Pro, then rendered into ambisonic-B format in Reaper. The composition attempts to tell an immersive story sonically via ambisonics while exploring the possibility of creating music in ambisonics. The ambisonic composition was played in the 12.1 system.
Travelogs
"Travelogs" is an audiovisual installation I created using Max/MSP. The visual element is an excerpt of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The audio includes 7 different samples I recorded in 7 cities across Europe, America, and Asia. Each circle represents one sound/city, and they are programmed to randomize in volume and interact with each other in this installation. The movement of circles represent the entangled memories and bodies in travel.
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