consciousness
single channel video, 2.1 channel sound, 30 min
2012
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Kynan Tan’s commissioned work consciousness is a feast of devastating digital audio and stunning computer-controlled visuals, exactly synchronised into jarring, sudden pulses and fluidly drifting cascades. The work portrays the links found between different human beings that are exhibited during unconsciousness. By analysing sleeping brain waves and using this data to control variables of the computer-generated audio and vision, the artist attempts to connect the real and surreal while allowing the computer to partake in the chaos, playfulness and wonder of unconscious thoughts.
The work ties Carl Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious to the autonomous re-arrangement of materials found within the vast expanse of the internet – using archived sounds and images that are decimated, processed and manipulated beyond recognition into new shapes and forms, all held within a framework of new, computer-generated imagery. Performed live on dual screens and making full use of the extremes of the sound spectrum, the performance transcends normal performance relationships to move into simultaneously physical and surreal spaces.
This work was commissioned by Tura New Music through the 2010 Tura New Music Commission Prize, awarded to the most outstanding final year composition student at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
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performances
20120508 – Club Zho 99 @ The Bakery, Perth presented by Tura New Music
20120709 – Long Play Bar and Cinema, Melbourne
20120719 – Terrace Bar, Newcastle
20120722 – multiplicity @ Tape Projects, Melbourne
20120727 – Sound Series @ AV Union, Sydney
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