Archive
Future Tao: Inner Scripture 2018 was a website of experimental self-cultivation methods collectively written by 30 creators. The project was exhibited at Bangkok Bienniale the same year.
Participating artists include eteam, Fong Han-yu, Xia Lin, Heavy Breathing, IDPW, Petra Johnson,
Son Ni, Zian Chen, TEIHAKU, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan & Craig Stubbs-Race, Internal Motivations, Itaru Ouwan, Jin Sangtae, Nigel Brown, Sheryl Cheung, Sound of Mountains, AUSH, Ebix, Chen Chen Yu, Jin Chien, Liou, Heng, Scotty Chang, Semi Su, Shark Lin, Teng Yung Han, OHAU!, Yang Yu Chiao, and Yi Xian Healthy Group.
🖐️Dantian
︎3C Xing Yi Quan 3C形意拳◎Xia Lin
︎Virtual Feng Shui Statues ◎Fong Han-Yu
︎Stream and Download HB/AV Audio Tracks ◎HEAVY BREATHING
︎Sun’s Shadow ◎Son Ni
︎Composing the Ordinary ◎Petra Johnson
︎Elastic Dialogues ◎Xin Cheng & Heidi Salaverria
︎Upon Unvolutionarily Disappearing
◎Grashina Gabelmann
︎#AstralSelfie ◎IDPW
︎Poetic Commentary ◎Zian Chen
🖐️丹田
︎3C形意拳 ◎林亭君
︎虛擬風水養生雕塑 ◎鳳漢玉
︎ 現在,我們已掌握了空手扔石頭的能力◎Eteam
︎重呼吸練習錄音帶◎重呼吸
︎太陽影子 ◎Son Ni
︎構成日常 ◎Petra Johnson
︎談彈性 ◎程昕
︎在不自主的消失之時 ◎Grashina Gabelmann
︎星際自拍 ◎IDPW
︎評論絕句 ◎陳璽安
👂Inner Ear
︎Cosmopolitics in Sound ◎Sheryl Cheung
︎Internal Motivations ◎A Workshop by Sheryl Cheung, participants Anja Borowicz and Harriet Pittard
︎Electric Phantom ◎Itaru Ouwan
︎Meridian of Fortune ◎TEIHAKU
︎Terms* ◎Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
& Craig Stubbs-Race
︎Gentle Steps Tainan ◎Nigel Brown
︎Amplified trumpet, Propellers, Metal and Air ◎Sound of the Mountain
︎Year ◎Jin Sangtae
👂內耳
︎聲音裡的宇宙政治 ◎張欣
︎內部運動 ◎由張欣帶領的工作坊, 參與者Anja
Borowicz和Harriet Pittard
︎電魂 ◎追灣及
︎財經二周天 ◎鐵一
︎條款* ◎陳雋然 與 Craig Stubbs-Race
︎躡步台南 ◎Nigel Brown
︎電聲小號、螺旋槳,金屬和空氣 ◎山的聲音
︎年 ◎秦相太
👀BaiHui Playlist
︎Journey on the Surface ◎Yang Yu Chiao
︎Network Neighborhood ◎Liou
︎Daily exercise ◎OHAU!
︎Thousand Character Classic ◎Ebix
︎Hyper Dimension of Illusion ◎Shark Lin
︎Motion in pixel, technology in motion ◎Chen Chen Yu
︎The Health Treasury - Four Paths to Virtual Cultivation
◎Fong Han-Yu
︎E・R・T・D ◎Semi Su
︎Playlist 2018 ◎Teng Yung Han
︎Good Morning & Healthy Everyday on LINE
◎Yi Xian Healthy Group
︎4D cross-sectioning ◎Son Ni
︎a (special edition, synthetic) monk ◎Aush a.k.a. Su Sen Hong
︎An assemblage of my flow of consciousness ◎Heng
︎Release Your Mind ◎Scotty Chang
︎We do not see light but see in it ◎Jin Chien
👀百會 Playlist
︎表面之旅 ◎楊雨樵
︎網路上的芳鄰 ◎Liou
︎日常鍛煉 ◎OHAU!
︎千字文篆刻計劃 ◎暇瑕
︎錯視超維度 ◎Shark Lin
︎像素中的運動,運動中的技術 ◎陳呈毓
︎養生寶庫 - 虛擬修行四法 ◎鳳漢玉
︎电・行・弎・衍 ◎蘇紳源
︎Playlist 2018 ◎鄧詠涵(涵洞)
︎早安健康分享 ◎逸仙養生隊
︎4D横截面 ◎Son Ni
︎異修(異色版修行)合尚(合成和尚)◎AUSH(阿
許)a.k.a. 蘇森弘
︎自我意識流拼圖 ◎Heng
︎舒壓的修行培訓 ◎Scotty Chang
︎我們觀看的不是,而是在光裡觀看 ◎Jin Chien
︎Commentary
Archive 2018_Inner Ear
Cosmopolitics in Sound
聲音裡的宇宙政治
Bamboo leaves used for Naxi ritual in Yunnan, China (2018)
Consider harnessing sound as a way of interpreting the universe, relationships, changes, and the here and now; a process wherein an exploration of cosmopolitics is implicit; a sublimation technique to navigate between the form and essence of all things. More specifically, in my practice I work with a kind of inner sound, a sonic feedback of the animated world, as a medium to theorize and practice a subjective view of the cosmos and morality.
Growing up emotionally affiliated with many cultures, locations and communities, active listening became a way to deepen my awareness of the multi-worlds , to negotiate between the noise of nature (death, chaos, destruction) and noise of cultures (dogma, hierarchy and specialization)--not as binaries but as parts of a malleable whole--that which we call the noise of modernity.
Our sense of belonging is becoming increasingly unstable in a rapidly changing world: the earth is in crisis, digital consciousness is coming, and globalization (hegemonic knowledge systems) has lost its benevolent flair. This is a time to extend contemporary narratives beyond the human centric world that endlessly cycles through ideologies, “as if the evolution of ideas about the cosmos [has become] even more important than the truth about it,” writes historian Remi Brague. Relieve the pressures of usefulness and gravitational pull.
In this episode I trespass through transhumanist desires with Taoist (non-humanist) intuition, to delve into the politics of human and non-human forms, to maintain a holistic view that deters one from the enchantment of nature. To harness a way of embodiment that engages with an internal network of life and thereby affectively philosophize; to follow a desire to imagine, to interpret and influence the noise of the future (utility, progress, speed).
"Future Tao," performance at Taipei Fine Art Museum (2017)
17th Century Dutch philosopher Spinoza speaks of the power of life as a musical instrument that produces melodic variations with a vast range of dynamics determined by affects, or passions of the mind. Because affects are not determined by the self alone, but induced by various conditions that influence one’s experiential state, the melody of one’s life force is not an expression of free will, but a series of responses to a greater network of influences. The Taoist sage Lao Tzu shares a similar view of agency by positing that all natural forces, including man, follow the laws of nature (天道). And so, when a strong gust of wind howls like a beast, does its force intend aggression, or an impartial demonstration of a greater cosmic order? Here the concepts of affect, power, and world order seems to lean on interpretations of plasticity.
Communion with the Wind (2017)
One’s power in the cosmic order can be cultivated by mind and body technology. In Taoist practices, the animating power of life, which they call qi, is fostered according to the characteristics of nature: how plants grow, animals move, the order of the seasons. Based on these qualities, practitioners follow certain daily methods to gather, mobilize, replenish energy of a human body and connect with the qi of its surroundings. A visualization of this process can be found in The Inner Scripture, an imaginative Taoist diagram about manipulating energy; the diagram depicts the human interior as a natural landscape of fields and agrarian labor; qi flows with the collective efforts of this complex system. Here the human body is a space for energy cultivation, and the good condition of energy is portrayed through towering mountains and streaming rivers. This inner world suggests a soundscape of collective living, an animated field that mobilizes a polyphonic materiality.
The pursuit of material sound resonates with Pierre Schaeffer’s music concrete proposed in the mid 1900s, which sought to develop a kind of music emancipated from the cultural structures of his time. In search for liberated sound, Schaeffer took on the physical world as a general instrument unbounded by traditional tools and fixed understandings of music theory. Music making involves more than technicalities of craft, or the understanding of science, said Schaeffer, it also requires a critical determination of “the nature of the music which the choice of certain musical objects implies.” He emphasizes on the implicit, a searching of meaning within the entwined.
In my piece “Earth Crust Quake,” I abstracted the form of sound until form is no longer and only matter remains (無), then experimented with matter in a nonlinear process (有). Like qi that runs through the Inner Scripture--music concrete is a sounding of a general substance, a processing of physical representation to excavate the internal rhythms in the essence of sound.
Earth Crust Quake (2018), from my ongoing research project "Anthem Boy" (tentative title, 2013-)
The idea of transbody is explored in Moon Tides I, a ritualistic performance in which a plant and a human are united in a shared narrative of vulnerability and weakness. Internal sounds from the human and plant, such as breathing, digestion, breaking bones and branches and electromagnetic bio-feedback are used in a musical experience to create one sonic field of bio-rhythms.
Moon Tides, performance excerpt (2017)
While this power scale can be useful as a general guideline for self-orientation, it is also beneficial to consider the world beyond the positive--as a boundless space that stretches limitlessly towards all directions. Where there is no aesthetic judgment of either direction, but an ability to maneuver with the tides and to cultivate one’s instrument in the ever-changing states. From this perspective, weakness is negatively affirming and thereby empowering: In the research of Indian scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose, the right amount of stimulation (shock) on a plant can increase internal flow of sap and fuel growth in certain developing areas. This enhanced inner mobility suggests a connection between weakness and growth, driven by biological instincts to heal, to bloom and prosper in life. In Bose’s studies, we see a perseverance that goes beyond resilience by responding affirmatively to a call for inner power.
To be able to maneuver in the positive and negative requires a particular state of mind and body that allows one to flexibly respond to changing states of disposition. Despite our limited agency, constrained by social, environmental, emotional and other factors, this project is an attempt to propose an attitude and practice, through the medium of sound, to navigate the constant flux of the universe.
(update: 2018)
☯ Sheryl Cheung
Sheryl Cheung works between experimental sound compositions, abstract scoring and performances to explore a material concept of life. Perceiving life as a force, a mobility that drives our innate persistence to live, she explores how active listening (working with sound) can be a mind and body practice to negotiate different noises of the world.
https://soundcosmology.cargo.site/
Sheryl Cheung works between experimental sound compositions, abstract scoring and performances to explore a material concept of life. Perceiving life as a force, a mobility that drives our innate persistence to live, she explores how active listening (working with sound) can be a mind and body practice to negotiate different noises of the world.
https://soundcosmology.cargo.site/