Aiii_v3.8686∅ 

A long journey towards the neutralisation of Aiii and its extension Hallo (86)

... discovers the philosophical meanings of death and the possible positivity of suicidal imaginations as a way to escape from the world. The performative ritual intends to serve as a coping technique, both to the performer and the audience, by conceptually killing part of oneself - the performer's digital doppelgänger Aiii. It is not an encouragement of any suicidal act, but rather a relief of thoughts. 

In a space equipped with full of immersive audio and visual equipment, Aiii - an entity exists only in the digital world - sources its human partner's information to form an extension of itself towards the physical world and holds full control over all media that drive the audience's perceptions. By neutralising this ever-running machine over sets of events and happenings, the ritual results into an experience between gain and lost - the accumulated information, experience, and memory are all defaulted in one moment, and the final mournings of the machine calls for a resolution in our reality.

How can repetition be a destructive factor that wears out one's sense of being alive, that transforms into hopelessness and powerlessness over time? If Wataru Tsurumi suggests his reader to reflect suicide through its methodology as a reliever to the sorrow and nothingness towards the world, can a performative ritual, perhaps spiritually, also influence people's mind and give some fresh air to this suffocating world? 

More than Composition 

One of the goals of developing Aiii is to create an "artificial persona" I can collaborate with on different contexts and platforms - improvisation music, audiovisual performance, theatre performance, installation, composition, etc. Encapsulated with various ideas through compositional techniques, Aiii_v3.8686∅ is a performance concept beyond composition that allows Aiii to create images and moments with my body using the infrastructure provided in the space. While the structure of the composition is defined through the use of specific instrumentations and visual aesthetics/designs, contents related to the interactivity between the human and machine is intentionally left undecided for the moment to be realized through free improvisation - as the machine is built so that it will behave differently in every performance. 

Signal Flow

In order to efficiently control all the media and parameters during the performance of Aiii_v3.8686∅, three computers and five software programs are used to handle the data and commands for audio and visual interactions and contents. 

Instrumentation

During this 30+ minutes performative ritual, there are multiple "images" I have tried to create - a monologue from the mechanical voice inspired by Wataru Tsurumi's Complete Manual of Suicide, a instrumental dialogue with the almost-sacred machine god on this "one thin line", an execution ceremony on the machine-embodied saxophone, and an homage to this fading entity. By using different instruments, I want to create contrasting, sometimes even exaggerated, moments - from calm and meditative to aggressive and violent. 

TraveSax Wind Controller and Sieve Max for Live Plug-in

Travel Sax is a commercial product that functions like a normal MIDI controller. It sends note and air pressure intensity values to computer program (in this case Ableton) to synthesise sounds. At the beginning of the performance, I wanted to set up a calm but dense atmosphere to accompany the computer's monologue. I programmed multiple synthesisers that use either the voice from the monologue or data from Aiii to create sounds that fit this purpose. 

Since the space and infrastructure is initially built for creating a new version of Iannis Xenakis' Polytope, I decided to also pay homage to the grand master by employing his Sieve theory using David P. Landon's developing Max for Live plugin, which allows Aiii to alternate my note input according to the sieve it is using.

ChaoSax - Sensor-augmented Soprano Saxophone 

Inspired by Zurich-based flutist and improvisation machine designer Melody Chua's chaosflöte, I have decided to experiment with my saxophone playing with microcontrollers. On one hand, I used some controlling units like buttons and joystick to give commands to the software (Ableton) to alternate the audio effects and gain applied to my audio input, which allows me to have more control on my own sounds; while on the other hand, I employed sensors like movement sensor that allow Aiii to "see" my movement, and thus has more information for its decision making. The combination of microcontrollers and acoustic instrument has been a fine solution to free myself from over controlling the machine and allow Aiii to make more creative and independent decisions.

Alto Saxophone with Implant Electronics

Implanted electronics is a technique I have been working since 2018, the core idea is to modify electronically processed sounds with an acoustic instrument by putting a speaker into the instrument and projecting sounds into it. The sounds are manipulated through the resonance and combinations of key openings of the instrument, as well as the embouchure of the performer. 

During the process of creating this piece, I have always wanted to create a moment in which the invisible machine can be presence at some point - not by materialising it as a mechanical/robotic object, but through a sonifying entity. The sound from the implanted electronics is an interpretation of Aiii using a pre-trained audio model from my own saxophone playing, thus an attempt to create its own identity from its physical doppelgänger.

Sword (DIY instrument)

My languages of performative movement has drawn inspirations from aesthetics and ideas of Butoh, Chinese and Japanese traditional martial arts, as well as my personal interest in Japanese animation including Bleach and Neon Genesis Evangelion. And because of their occasionally distorted and violent natures and images, performing with a weapon-like object has somehow become a dream of mine for a long time.

This DIY instrument you see in the later part of the performance is created by attaching two tension springs onto a metal wand that is then amplified with three piezo microphones. The signal is then processed by multiple physical modulation effects on Ableton using data from Aiii and finally result into a pitched metallic sound.