eArts Performance Guide Update!

by Ben

OK, big apology to everyone; while the Final Cut portion of eArts as described below seems sound (kicking off tonight with a vengeance as Aaajiao and B6 present their “Patience for the Man”), the “Streaming Objects” schedule I posted was pretty far off, but has now been updated. Also, I didn’t realize you need an invitation to get in to “Streaming Objects,” and I’m not quite sure how you’re supposed to aquire one.

Last night’s show seemed fraught with more than its fair share of technical problems. Sound cut out a few times during Sulumi’s set (which expanded beyond 8-bit to encompass his whole career, including some early chestnuts; perhaps he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as “that 8-bit guy,” and it’s good to see him stretching out). The collaborative piece Ferry (attributed to Zeng Duo, Yi Lian, Feng Chen, Cao Shu, Zhang Ruyu, Lu Yang, Guo Huilan, and Li Wen) culminated with the Microsoft Blue Screen of Death splayed across a huge digital cube floating in the Zhangjiabang River, mirrored on five massive screens in the background. Laetitia Sonami’s set was a bit of a snore (not sure if that was a technical or aesthetic issue), a bit of a let down after years of hearing about her pioneering work; ideas were brought in and dropped, some particularly ugly sounds went on for way too long, and other chunks seemed canned, leaving me skeptical about how much was actually being controlled in real-time, though for a few delicate minutes in the middle I was quite transfixed. And in general, transitions between sets were awkward, with bumper music (which veered disappointingly towards the pop) ending early, leaving long, dark silences, while title slides with dense descriptions whizzed by too fast to parse.

But three pieces more than compensated for these mishaps; Wang Changcun’s algorithmic piano improvisations (moved to Saturday from Sunday) were captivating, rendered acoustically on a Yamaha Disclavier. A piece involving speech synthesis from internet chat (I’m guessing that was 2510, but maybe it was 4×4x4) was similarly fresh in its careful exploration of a limited range of sounds. And Ryoichi Kurokawa’s Parallel Head was a sublime and masterful final flourish for the evening, an extremely satisfying symbiosis of sound and image.

Anyway, pushing the boundaries of technology inevitably leads to technical snafus from time to time, and if some experiments come off less successfully than others, I am willing to accept this as the price of progress! Looking forward to more experiences like this throughout the festival.




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