X.28


December 2020

formAxioms' META-SPACE concept development.

  Curators    View Update

September 2020

References shared during the second conversation.

  Andreas Schlegel    View Update

October 2020

wav files - mainchamber, chamber_one to seven and main radio spoken

  Bani Haykal    View Update

September 2020

Selected excerpts from curator's fourth conversation with Debbie.

  Debbie Ding    View Update

October 2020

Shared assets and notes

Blender file: note that the shapes are just dummy shapes for positioning, scaling. Same for material and lighting.

Size : 40m x 40m x 80m

Starting position and view: Ideally if we could start in the middle, facing downward at the calm waters,
And the calm water being broken by the water droplets + ripples.

  Ong Kian Peng    View Update

Z.07


September 2020

Dubplate rerecording audio files.

  Zai Tang    View Update
Zai Tang
Untitled terrain

Artwork

In 2013, I created a 12” dubplate record with a selection of field recordings from Bukit Brown Cemetery. This dub was made as a test cut / prototype for a work I made in response to the Bukit Brown’s fate, entitled Respect (Bukit Brown Cemetery I).

In the years that followed I utilised this test cut for most of my improvisational sound (and sometimes drawing) performances, the first being Untitled (Bukit Brown Cemetery III) for SOUND: Latitudes & Attitudes at ICAS (2014). When using this dubplate, I’d often experiment with contact mics attached to various implements (like a Stanley knife, for instance) to augment and distort the original soundscape recordings. Accumulating traces of my performative actions over time has left the dubplate in a heavily degraded state – the original animal calls and songs gradually disappear amidst the surface noise of the worn out plate, and occasionally get caught in an endless loop of a damaged groove.

For "Untitled terrain" I created a new recording of each side of the dubplate to document its current state. This recording has been separated out into individual sections and mapped out across a 3D landscape in Unreal, taking as reference the date, time and location of original field recording, as well as my personal recollections of the topographies, ambiences and affects when I listened back to the recordings in the present.

In reinterpreting my recordings and their associated memories as 3D terrain, I hope to give the audience a chance to experience the turbulent soundscape of the dub as a kind of world in itself.

Biography


Zai Tang is a multidisciplinary artist based in Singapore. His solo work responds to the question: What does it mean to listen to nature in a time of ecological crisis and mass extinction? Influenced by acoustic ecology, phenomenology and electronic & experimental music, he explores a variety of approaches towards the abstraction and visualisation of sounds recorded in wildlife-rich habitats under threat in Singapore. Transformed from their original state these sonorities are combined with other elements – drawing, animation, projection, performance – to create immersive and reflexive experiences that explore notions of awareness and connectivity between the human and the nonhuman.

His recent works have been presented at the Busan Biennale, South Korea (2020), NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo (2020), London International Animation Festival (2020), Singapore Biennale (2019), Singapore International Film Festival (2019), 2nd Yinchuan Biennale, China (2018), Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival, Malaysia (2018), and the Singapore International Festival of the Arts – The O.P.E.N (2017).


︎ zaitang.com  ︎  @zai.tangent  ︎  @zaitang  ︎  @zai.tang

Project Updates
Updated 03.12.20

Z.08


Hidden fragments upload. Find them by exploring the virtual environments accessible at the exhibition space. Visit bits.negentropicfields.info and input the alphanumeric code to access your archive.


  Zai Tang    Audio-visual    December 2020

Z.07

 
Dubplate rerecording audio files.


  Zai Tang    Audio-visual    September 2020

Z.06


Zai's reflection on his practice:
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{SONOROUS SPECULATIONS}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
{{{{{{{{{{Towards a Metaphysics of Sound via OOO}}}}}}}}}}
{{{{{{{{A First Draft by Zai Tang}}}}}}}}

  Zai Tang    Text    September 2020

Z.05


Dubplate Rerecording Data + Memory Log.

View PDF


  Zai Tang    Text    September 2020