Selected Portfolio Philip Liu
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A Stochastic City
Theater 1, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, KR. 2024
Audiovisual Performance. 8.2ch 3D audio, 2ch video
Dance, Live Electronics, Live Visual, and AI Agents
(Learned Heuristic A*, Symbolic Music Generator-Accompanist)
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pic. Liu plays live electronics at the performance
*both the sound and video were made by himself
In his seminal work The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil postulates that biological intelligence will inevitably be outstripped by artificial intelligence, and that the two will ultimately merge. Building upon this premise, certain astrobiologists have advanced the radical proposition that any advanced extraterrestrial civilizations we may encounter would necessarily be machine civilizations.
Indeed, our intelligence is gradually being supplanted by mechanical intelligence. This is not merely the realm of science fiction that depicts blatant artificial muscle implantation or mechanical brain modifications. Contemporary devices such as smartphones, automobiles, and navigation systems, despite existing physically outside the human body, function as if they were neurological, and in this process, we are relinquishing corresponding biological capacities, or paying tribute, to machines. Among contemporary individuals who are not geographical specialists, how many can instantaneously identify cardinal directions nowadays?
Speculating on the potential role of art in this context, our performance piece endeavors to illustrate the "human affected by machine" through the integration of electronic music, procedural visuals, and dance. Diverging from the conventional approach wherein well-made AI agents ceaselessly emulate humans, we have instead let the dancers be influenced by machines in their style of movements and forced them to follow trajectories calculated from learned heuristic A* algorithms, which robots rely on when pathfinding. Alongside the dancers, a procedurally generated, audio-reactive, futuristic urban landscape and soundscape are rendered. Notably, the audio pattern generation is highly automated, using a symbolic music generation AI, or in other words, a machine accompanist that reacts to the rhythm, dynamics, and pitch that the live electronics player (Liu himself) emits. Essentially, every audiovisual element including the choreography of this work is substantially dependent, either practically or conceptually, on the intrinsic nature of machines.
Liu intended to imagine a stochastic city of the future, where binaries determine human behaviors. Through this, he questions the ontology of free will: would there be consequences if it migrates from the continuous voltage in a brain to discrete voltages in a circuit? Just as the dawn of the 21st century was imagined by 19th century artists, he believes that imagining futures holds value per se, just as we enjoy literature of "retro-futurism" and "-punk." In this context, he hopes this work to be called art futures and AI-punk, imagining a future with the deficiencies that current machines (and humans) have.
pic. A Map of Speculative Design, Futures Study, Art Future, and others. Credit: Eliott Montgomery
vid. Full performance video (ca. 36 min)
Electro-ethnomusic
ver. 3. Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Daejeon, KR. 2024
ver. 2. Kimmel Center - Grand Hall, New York, US. 2019
ver. 1. Ulster University - Grand Hall, Derry, Ireland. 2018
Sound Performance. 8ch 2D audio
Algorithmic Pattern Generator, Pyeongyeong Physical Modeling
vid. ver. 1 concert (Click to play)
pic. A Picture of a pyeongyeong
This electronic and generative music is composed entirely of sounds from a physically modelled pyeongyeong (a Korean traditional stone chime instrument mainly used for royal ancestral ritual). A physical pyeongyeong consists of sixteen stones, and it is activated by percussion with an implement made of cow horn. Each stone is generally tuned to a different pitch, with thicker ones producing frequencies of greater magnitude. It can be modelled discretely with finite difference method, which is widely used to mathematically model the sound of percussion and other musical instruments.
Liu postulates that in the world of audio synthesis, synthesizers seem to generate culturally 'neutral' sounds as they do not possess ethnological roots, yet they originate from Western European and North American cultural paradigms as well. Even a sine wave, which is often regarded as the most neutral sound in the world of electronics, should be considered as the sound of Europeans. It was invented by them, and has been presented to the rest of the world.
While Western sonic aesthetics possess inherent validity and cultural significance, a question remains: what is purely synthesized sound of Asia?
In this regard, this work is a decolonized approach to synthesis, exhibiting characteristics of distinct ethnicity in sound by modeling the sound of the most valuable Korean traditional instrument, pyeongyeong. Pyeongyeong has been regarded as a sacred instrument that connects the heavenly bodies and earth, and was also used as a reference to tune other instruments in Korean traditional orchestra. It also has a history where all of the instrument makers perished during Japanese colonization, and it was revived based on remaining documentations.
While composing, he decided to involve spectromorphological gestures by morphing the shape and density of the pyeongyeong, which makes glissando-like or spectral techniques possible—something not possible with a physical pyeongyeong. Liu decided to use a 2D version instead of the generally used '3D mesh to physical model' approach, as the 2D version gives sound with more clarity and dynamics. The digitally coded and crafted instrument was played algorithmically and generates patterns in real-time. After Liu clicked the play button, the SuperCollider-based musical collaborator unfolded the entire performance.
pic. Part of the C++ code. This part is for creating a spectromorphological gesture that gradually morphs from a fragmented Pyeong to a complete one.
pic. UI window of the Pyeongyeong physical modeling synthesizer, used for ver. 1. and ver. 2.
Asynchronous Concurrency
Artist House, Daejeon, KR. 2024
Audiovisual Installation and Performance. 2ch audio, 1ch video
Custom Synthesizer Circuit, Interactive DMX Light System
Asynchronous Concurrency is one of three artworks of an ART+SCIENCE collaboration project between the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and Philip Liu.
In the exhibition space, a visitor becomes an entity floating in space, encountering various natural and artificial objects. The artist seeks extant dynamics of the Moon through moving loudspeakers, video, lights, and conceptual elements, suggesting three alternative perspectives for grasping the Moon in other ways. In one of the three corresponding works, Asynchronous Concurrency, the artist undermines (regards an object as a sum of properties) the Moon. It is an aesthetic subject that has accompanied humanity since its beginnings, and represents the oldest of clichés. Visitors are invited to explore whether this seemingly immutable Moon still holds the potential for transformation and whether there remain hidden elements yet to be uncovered.
Asynchronous Concurrency is an audiovisual installation investigating the average time difference of 1.3 seconds between the Moon and Earth, as well as imperceptible and non-anthropogenic vibrational phenomena occurring between them. The work utilizes lunar magnetic field data to modulate an analog audio synthesis system, inspired by a shift-register based, NASA's 1960s space mission circuitry, and also a delay effect based on the calculated real-time distance between the Moon and the exhibition space to generate sonic materials. This work metaphorically examines the lunar latent dynamic potential and its implications, specifically through its magnetic field. The accompanying computational visualizations synchronize with the audio components to represent cosmic vibrational propagation and transmission of faint nonanthropogenic information carried by them.
vid. Sonic Lunar Topographer is another work displayed in front of the Asynchronous Concurrency, featuring the sonification and kinetic-light visualization of the permanently shadowed Hermite-A lunar crater. The two works are inseparable, acting like a single artwork.