Author: wongguyshawn.com

  • ENLISTENING – Impromptu For A Piece of Paper

    ENLISTENING – Impromptu For A Piece of Paper

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    Collaborator (Dance)
    4-channel live
    20′
    2025
    Tomás Tse

    Machines reflect the desire for control, embodying our expectations of the ‘other,’ which often results in imbalanced power dynamics centered around ourselves. While we are confined to our own perspectives, could there still be ways to genuinely listen to others? Is there something worth exploring in the potential intersections?

    EnListening is a multidisciplinary research project encompassing sound art, computer software development and improvisational movement. In recent years, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in creative productions has become increasingly common, raising existential questions about humanity – particularly regarding the possibility of computers outperforming humans. The fear stems from the prioritisation of ‘human-like AI’ development, which tends to overlook the fundamental differences between humans and machines. In the context of generative AI, Its creative output is often evaluated solely through the lens of our aesthetics.

    EnListening emphasizes the dynamics of collaboration rather than control in human-machine relationships. In the development of his performance system, Shawn aims to exemplify the distinct digital perspective and expression by employing machine-learning and algorithmic composition techniques. Through collaboration with Butoh dancer Tomás Tse (Theatre Aether), EnListening seeks to present an improvisational dialogue between human and machine, exploring the intersection of sound, computation, and dance.

    EnListening hopes to reflect the concept of relationships and to explore the interactions between distinct realities.


    Project Awarded by Hong Kong Arts Centre CREATORS FOR TOMORROW 2024


  • Contingent Relations

    Contingent Relations

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    8-channel live
    17’16
    2024

    Contingent Relations(2024) investigates machine improvisation guided by the principles of cellular automata. Operating within a global rule set, the performance unfolds as software agents dynamically negotiate the music based on their unique perceptual states, scope of influence, and affordances.


    Factishes! #1 Friday, November 29, 2024 New Music Lab, 6th floor, Koninklijk Conservatorium, Amare multi-channel performance by: Sergei Demin | Seina | Evert Van Gestel | W. K. Werkowicz | Nth | Guyshawn

    The series of events aims to build a platform for exploration of the realities surrounding objects. Objects are full of hidden meanings and interactions that extend beyond their appearance, indicating that they are constituted not only socially but also through physical and technological processes. Technologically-mediated environments for audio generation allow one to reveal speculative realities of sound objects. The event series are supposed to emphasise the tension between perceived sound (fetish) and its underlying structure (fact)* inviting participants to engage with the duality of sound as both an object of perception and an independent entity. *’Factishes’ presuppose the existence of objects that intermediate the way they are perceived (fetish) and their reality (fact). The word ‘factish’ was originally introduced by Bruno Latour in “On The Modern Cult Of The Factish Gods”


  • Implicitly Connected

    Implicitly Connected

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    Collaborator (Visuals)
    8-channel live
    60’
    2025
    e_w__d.n_

    This collaboration between artists Guyshawn and e_w__d.n_ explores information abstraction in visuals and sound. Machines perceive uniquely through data abstractions, forming their own experiences and decisions. How do they connect, bridging the two distinct domains of expression?


  • Depth of Field

    Depth of Field

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    Duo Improvisation / Live coding
    49′
    2023

    A live improvisation by Guyshawn and Orpheus delving into the concept of ‘depth of field’ within music. It explores the intricate dynamics of musical conversation and relationships attempting to construct a sonic portrait in the continuum of time and space.


  • Quicksand

    Quicksand

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    live coding at 192-channel Wave Field Synthesis System
    11’38
    2023

    Quicksand is a live-coded performance presented in the Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) system by Game of life Foundation. The system consists of 192 loudspeakers to create an immersive virtual acoustic environment. Quicksand utilises an audio feedback algorithm in search of the border between noise and tone.


  • Engraving

    Engraving

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    Duo Improvisation (violn/electronics/motorcycle)
    43′
    2022

    Engraving is an improvisation between 2 performers (Wong Guy Shawn & Kung Chi Shing) consisting of violin, eurorack synthesisers and a motorcycle (Yamaha SR400). The piece was a response to a moment when the city was filled with oppression and frustration, a stagnant state following the 2019 social movement and during COVID. The motorcycle was frequently used during the period to navigate the dysfunctioned city, serving as a symbol to drive the whole performance.

    The engine served as a system clock for both synthesisers and was filling up the room with exhaust gas towards the end of the performance.


  • Cellunoise#2

    Cellunoise#2

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    8-channel fixed media
    16’41
    2024

    Cellunoise#2 is a composition of pure non-standard waveforms generated from the 1-d cellular automata algorithm(13-states/2-neighbours). It is divided into 3 sections exploring different ways of grouping neighbouring rulesets, looking for structures that can be manifested through sounds. . All simultaneous sounds are generated from the same ruleset at any given moment revealing the complex structures of the algorithm at different time scales.


  • Doom scrolling

    Doom scrolling

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    live-coding
    20’30
    2023

    Doom scrolling is an improvisation employing artificial intelligence algorithms to sample, classify, process and play sound materials from Instagram Reels in real time during the performance.

    The artist has no control over the appearing reels except for his daily scrolling behaviour being tracked and analysed by Instagram data collection algorithms. The work explores our online-identity through personalised video suggestion streams, emphasising how big data is shaping our individual reality by feeding us information that is said to be relevant for us, thereby defining/influencing who we are.


  • Distancing – a mirror of absence

    Distancing – a mirror of absence

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    Collaborators
    Single-channel Video / Field-recording composition
    18’47
    2020
    鄭鉅深、劉世榮

    鄭鉅深、劉世榮、王嘉淳,影片作品,《平地數碼》第三期錄像誌 :《就在此瞬間》,「Arts Go Digital藝術數碼平台計劃」,Floating Projects 來回香港與威尼斯的長途列車,以日常記錄作沿途風光,街道熟悉的聲音不再熟悉,緩緩駛向彼此各樣的迴避與抽離。
    The long-distance train goes back and forth between Hong Kong and Venice. Everyday records are the scenery along the way, slowly heading towards different kinds of avoidance and withdrawal.


    This video work was a collaboration with two video artists, Cheng and Lau. Cheng revisited the footage he documented in Hong Kong which reflected the devastating situation of social tension, while Lau’s footage was taken in Venice, revealing his physical distance at that period of time.

    Regarding the elements of time and space, field recording was carried out for my part.It was a collection of sound walks I made around the area of Wan Chai, a common battleground in Hong Kong during the protests of 2019. I was trying to capture the post-2019 atmosphere on the street when everything seemed back to normal, hoping to condense the emotions and reflections at the unstoppable passage of time.

    This work received the prize of Juror’s Special Mention, with juror’s comments:
    I especially appreciate the sound design of this video. The audio of the public announcement captured from the streets suggests a strong sense of the safety of escaping from a danger zone, though a very temporary one. We can no longer hear what was supposedly said or announced through a megaphone. And the distance away from the battlefield and safety zone is described beyond geographical means. 

    Sound also follows a similar approach -- subdued violence. Emotions only subtly creep out.There’s a widespread resonance of “escape” throughout the soundscape.(Wong Chun Hoi)

  • Cellunoise#1

    Cellunoise#1

    Details
    Format
    Duration
    Year
    12-channel fixed media
    2′
    2024

    Cellunoise#1 was originally composed for a 12-channel spatial sound system, exploring cellular automata algorithms for nonstandard sound synthesis.