Hello and thanks again for being a reference for my application to the Bemis Center Sound Art + Experimental Music residency!
I've listed below the videos & descriptions I provided in my application portfolio, to give you a better sense of my work if they reach out. Feel free to browse around my website as well :)
1. UNVEXED CONFORMAL BODIES
2023 (long-term, ongoing)
video, composition, instrument, performance
UNVEXED CONFORMAL BODIES is a devised musical system of instruments, notation, and interactive performance, taking formal and structural inspiration from the 92 Johnson Solids (mathematical polyhedra) and aesthetic inspiration from gay and queer leather culture. At its core, it is an exploration, acceptance, and celebration of the inevitable imperfections and mistakes that occur when abstract theory is brought into physical reality, which is equally true for mathematical shapes, gender, and sexuality. Moreover, it insists on the process of physical manifestation as a necessary, grounding, and clarifying transition: every composition within this system requires a significant number of physical components, and every physical component is carefully (and imperfectly) handmade.
This is an ongoing, long-term project which I plan to focus on during the Bemis residency.
More information on the logics and parts of the system can be found at https://ryurongliu.com/unvexed-conformal-bodies.
2. The Butterfly Effect
December 2021
sound, video, sculpture, composition, notation
(This is an excerpt of the full video, showing three stages of the composition process and the first 3.5 minutes of the performance.)
Composition excerpt: [0:00 - 1:23]
Performance excerpt: [1:23 - end]
The Butterfly Effect is a collaborative, performative sculpture that functions as both a composition device and a musical instrument. It takes aesthetic inspiration from the first sixteen discovered asteroids and their astronomical symbols. I invited sixteen participants to build the sculpture up in layers, translated each layer into a graphic score, and played each layer's composition according to sound-generating interactions defined by the participants. The resulting sculpture and composition are built up from every participants' individual actions, demonstrating a palimpsestic "butterfly effect".
The full video, description, graphics, and separate audio tracks can be found at https://ryurongliu.com/the-butterfly-effect .
3. SPACEROCK: Music from a Metal World
October 2021
sound, video, composition, hybrid instruments
SPACEROCK is an ensemble of experimental musical instruments, each inspired by one of the Psyche spacecraft's science instruments. It plays a fixed composition generated from an image of the Psyche asteroid, coupled with human-determined percussive sounds from hand-released ball bearings.
PERCUSSION: Inspired by Psyche's Gamma Ray/Neutron Spectrometer, which detects particle impacts.
BASS: Inspired by Psyche's magnetometer.
LEAD: Inspired by Psyche's X-Band High Gain Antenna, which sends information to Earth through photon streams.
CHORDS: Inspired by Psyche's Multispectral Imager, which takes pictures in multiple light frequencies.
More information and photos can be found at https://ryurongliu.com/spacerock-music-from-a-metal-world .
4. RANDOM WALK
2023 (ongoing)
video, installation, composition
(This excerpt shows the compositional process for two movements.)
RANDOM WALK is an ongoing composition that uses the mathematical process of a "random walk" to generate new piano works from existing Western-classical piano pieces. It takes apart the canon and strings it back together in a "random" process, whose possibilities are determined entirely by my memories of finding joy in the physicality of playing piano. It thus reflects my complicated relationship with learning piano as a child, which helped me find delight in my body through the power of my hands while simultaneously imposing gendered and racialized expectations through its traditional conservatory environment. RANDOM WALK is a love letter to Western classical piano; it is a denunciation and destruction of Western classical piano; it is an exploration and reclamation of the euphoric-dysphoric physicality I find in Western classical piano.
The full video and details can be found at https://ryurongliu.com/random-walk .
5. Showcase Highlights from the Proceedings of the 36th Annual Intraplanetary EML-IC Conference
May 2023 (ongoing)
video, text, performance, language, notation
Important information for EML-IC conference participants and speakers (including links to supporting documents) can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m2UDsAe3_9Rmo6qsiyEaskGBxa1Ztato/view?usp=sharing
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EMLang is an ongoing body of work centered around a constructed alien language. This language is communicated across three senses: sight, sound, and touch, and its phonemes are derived from electron transition emissions in the hydrogen atom. Through multiple mediums and formats, this work playfully explores the rigidity of academia, the influence of language on identity and culture, the role of physicality in intimate communication, and symbolic translations of information.
I am currently rehearsing a performance of [ BODY LANGUAGE, 2: Truths. EM-129-008 ] for six performers, to be performed in May 2023.
6. LONGFORM, I: WEEKLIST
February 2023
sound, video, composition, notation
LONGFORM is an ongoing series of compositions, each generated from a devised procedure performed on ephemeral data from my life. LONGFORM works are scored by hand on unbroken scrolls of red rosin paper, which will break down over time. Once the scores have physically deteriorated to the point of unreadability, the composition procedures may be performed again in an endless cycle. LONGFORM thus explores the passage of time and the changes in myself and my life through time.
WEEKLIST is generated by collapsing four of my weekly to-do lists, one from each season, into a multilayered percussive composition. Each beat represents one hour of the week, creating a sonic representation of an aggregate week in my life.
For more information and images of the score, visit https://ryurongliu.com/longform-i-weeklist .
7. LONGFORM, II: BOOKSHELFSPEAKER
April 2023
sound, video, composition, notation
LONGFORM is an ongoing series of compositions, each generated from a devised procedure performed on ephemeral data from my life. LONGFORM works are scored by hand on unbroken scrolls of red rosin paper, which will break down over time. Once the scores have physically deteriorated to the point of unreadability, the composition procedures may be performed again in an endless cycle. LONGFORM thus explores the passage of time and the changes in myself and my life through time.
BOOKSHELFSPEAKER is a composition for piano and voice, generated from the books on one of my bookshelves. It explores the temporal experience of books, the unique timings and inflections of my speaking voice, and western music theory concepts of harmony and melody.
For more information and images of the score, visit https://ryurongliu.com/longform-ii-bookshelfspeaker .
8. (im)mutation
October 2022
sound, rubber-block print, composition
(im)mutation is animated from block-printed and hand-annotated frames, depicting a piano score composed through pitch-class set theory transformations shown in the circular diagram above the score.
Individual frames are created by re-imaging the musical score through multiple stages, reflecting the process of pitch-class set theory transformations where the same melody line undergoes multiple mathematical operation. Both the music and the frames are created through compounded translations of an initial state.
(im)mutation also plays with aspects of im/mutability that are traditionally inherent to the mediums of block printing and Western music composition.
More information and photos can be found at https://ryurongliu.com/immutation .
9. CUBIC SYNTHESIS
April 2021
sound, digital instrument, performance
CUBIC SYNTHESIS is a Rubik’s Cube-controlled synthesizer and performance interface that translates the physical, mechanical, and theoretical process of solving a Rubik’s cube into music.
PHYSICAL: accelerometers track finger movements and produce a continuous “lead” sound.
MECHANICAL: the sounds generated by scrambling the cube are recorded and then played back through granular synthesis at each turn while solving.
THEORETICAL: each facelet of the cube is assigned a note and a voice, and each turn of the cube plays the notes of that face as a chord. Scrambled chords are discordant, and solved chords are harmonious major chords.