Soundscape
of
Body


大音希聲


(2018)
Performance Excerpt
表演節錄


Artist Statement

“The largest square has no corners. The greatest vessel takes the longest to finish. Great music has the faintest notes. The great form is without shape.”
Tao Te Ching, chapter 41

The hair and skin of our body come from nature, forming our intriguing body.

Every body is unique, has different height and weight, and its shape can be likened to mountain ranges and coastlines. Our body is a landscape, which can also be read as a musical score.

In the performance titled “Soundscape of Body”, the landscape of our body is scanned using low energy laser and reconstituted into music and lights. The body is transformed into a soundscape, so we can look at our body in a different way and reflect on its nature and relationship with our life.

This performance was created for the 2018 Body Donation Day, organised by the Body Donation Programme of The University of Hong Kong. It provides an entry point into life and death education, by stimulating the audience to think about the value and meaning of life and our body.

藝術家論述

「大方無隅,大器晚成,
大音希聲,大象無形」
《道德經》第四十一章

最方正的東西,表面上沒有邊角;
愈貴重的器具,則需要更長的製作時間;
最宏亮的聲音,外在是聽不到的;
而最寬大的形體,卻是看不到的。

身體的形態結構,髮膚受之自然,精密細膩。每個獨特的個體,高矮肥瘦,就如山脈的連綿,海岸線的優雅,每一幅都是來自身體的風景、一章身體的樂譜。

《大音希聲》把我們獨特無異的身體風景,透過掃描身體的形狀,轉換成高低起伏的音階及影像,合成一章身體樂譜演奏出一首來自身體的聲音風景,讓我們聽見來自身體的風景、看見身體的聲音,從而在我們活著的時候思考身體和生命。

本作是為香港大學醫學院遺體捐贈計劃「大體老師」2018年創作,目的是作為生死教育的文本,讓觀眾通過作品思考身體和生命,引發對生命價值的反思和死後身體的意義。

Performance
Section
表演部份
Full Length
Performance Documentation
完整演出紀錄


Audience Experience
Section
觀眾經驗部份


Performance and Choreography

Performance starts with the dancer wandering between stage and auditorium, wearing bodyline and wandering around, to let audience face a body.
Musician then step on the stage, dancers walk towards to and lie down on the bed, and then the audio and visual starts after the lights off.
Starts with the still body, musicians scan twice on the dancers one by one and to generate the music and visual one by one, and then the dancers starts with some micro-movements with the idea of exploration.
The movements is getting a little bit more big, dancers then form a shape of chrysalis and represents a new life starts.
Various speed and volume of movement generate different layers and rhythm of audio and visual,
the interaction between musician with scanner and dancer leads the movement of the dancer including leads them sit up and create more movements.
A series of strong and fast change movements leads the audio and visual to a more layers, louder and stronger before the ending, and it ends with a clam and peaceful movements, visual and audio.
Dancers sit and step on the floor from the bed after the fading out music,
and a turn to watch on the visual which is a generated landscape by their body,
musicians turn and watch the landscape together , and switch off the scanner then leave the stage.
By then, a voice over leads the audience to feedback and rethink about our own body with expressive arts self exploration process and to think about life.

Scanner, Audio and Visual

The scanner composed with a set of 5 laser meter module. The module reads the distance in a precise way between the scanner and the body, and sends the data to computer via serial port.
The custom-made program UNIT DATA analysis the received data from serial port , transcode into MIDI and OSC format, pass to music software and another custom-made program UNIT VISUAL in order to generate audio and visual in real time.
Audio and visual is generated by the data in real-time.
The movement and the rhythm of performer changes the layers and pattern of audio and visual during the performance,
while during the experience section, the body would be scanned from head to foot then to head once, and then generate the visual and music according to the scanned data,
both audio and visual would then be uploaded to the internet,
audience would share the link to social network and download his/her own soundscape and landscape of body.


Technical setup

Hardware

2 set of Scanner: Arduino Mega, VL53L0X Laser Meter Module, Foot Pedal, LED Strip
2 set of track and sliding device
2 set of Stretcher bed
2 set of Korg nanoKONTROL (music)
1 set Korg nanoKEY (visual)
3 set Macbook Pro (music x 2 ,visual)
1 set of Mackie 6channel mixer
1 set of wireless router

Software

UNIT DATA: Made with Processing(receive data from serial port, data anlysis, transcode and send MIDI and OSC)
UNIT VISUAL: Made with Processing (receive data of OSC of UNIT DATA program from two computer of musicians, visual generation)
Ableton LIVE

表演及編舞

表演由舞者在觀眾進場時游走於觀眾席及舞台之間開始。舞者穿上打底服,於觀眾及舞台間穿梭,讓觀眾看見身體。
直到樂手進場,燈光淡出及熄滅,舞者走到床前並躺下,聲音及視覺隨即開始。
先以靜止的動作開始,樂手以掃描器先後把兩位舞者的身體掃描並衍生出視覺和音樂後,
舞者開始作出以探索形態的微動作,
及後隨著逐漸變得明快的節奏,
舞者以蛹形寓意新生命開始,
以各種快慢的動作引發聲音和視覺的變快,
並隨著樂手和舞者的互動,
掃描器引領樂手時而坐起來。
表演以一輪明快的動作及多層次的音樂及視覺變化作結尾前夕,
以平靜的肢體、聲音及視覺作結。
舞者在隨著聲音淡出,
坐立並踏在地板,
轉身回望自己由身體所衍生出來的風景,
樂手同隨轉身,隨後把掃描器關上離開舞台。
話外音以聲音帶領觀眾思考表演所帶來對自身身體的反思,從而反思生命。

掃描器、聲音及視覺

掃描器由五個激光尺模組所組合而成。激光尺讀取掃描器和身體之間的距離,並通過通訊埠把身體數據傳送到電腦。
程式 UNIT DATA 把數據分析並進行轉換,以 MIDI 和 OSC 格式傳送到音樂軟件及視覺程式 UNIT VISUAL,並實時衍生出聲音及視覺。
聲音及視覺均是實時由讀取回來的數據衍生而成,
表演時舞者的身體,動作及節奏改變聲音及視覺的變化及層次。
觀眾體驗部份時,會以掃描器把觀眾的身體由頭至腳再至頭掃描一次,
並生成視覺及音樂,上載到網站,
觀眾可將連結分享至社交網絡,或下載自己的身體聲音和風景。



技術設置

硬件

2組掃描器:Arduino Mega,VL53L0X 激光尺模組,腳踏,LED燈帶
2組路軌及滑動裝置
2組擔架床
2組Korg nanoKONTROL (聲音)
1組Korg nanoKEY (視覺)
3台 Macbook Pro (聲音 x 2 ,視覺)
1台Mackie 6頻道混音器
1台無線路由器

軟件

UNIT DATA: Made with Processing(接收來自通訊埠的數據,分析數據,傳送 MIDI 及 OSC)
UNIT VISUAL: Made with Processing (接收來自兩台樂手電腦的 OSC 的數據,衍生成視覺)
Ableton LIVE
Audience Experience Section

In the experience section, we invite audience to the installation and interact with it, transcode their own body into a soundscape and landscape. The music and landscape picture would then be uploaded to the website, audience would download or share it to social media.



觀眾經驗環節

在體驗環節,我們邀請觀眾前來裝置互動,把自己的身體轉化成一道身體樂章及風景。身體樂章及風景會上載到網站,觀眾可下載,或分享到社交網絡。
The online gallery landscape and soundscape of the scanned data during the experience section:
經驗環節所衍生而成的身體樂章及風景:


Crew

Artist :
Keith Lam

Creative Coding:
Seth Hon ,Keith Lam

Music Performance:
Keith Lam,Tim Chan

Performance:
Rick Cheung,Angelica Hung(2rd Mar),Candy Lo (4th Mar)
Chloe Wong (Trailer)

Voice Over & Art Therapy:
Pearl Tse

Programme Coordination:
Edith Chung

Production:
Dimension Plus

Organizer
Great Teacher,Body Donation Programme HKU

Support
HKU Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine,School of Biomedical Sciences HKU

Venue
Chong Yuet Ming Amenities Centre HKU
作品團隊

藝術家 :
林欣傑

創意編程 :
韓家俊,林欣傑

音樂表演:
林欣傑, 陳庭章

演出:
張學良,洪欣宜(三月二日), 盧幸賢 (三月四日)
黃詠詩(預告片)

聲外音及藝術治療:
謝敏如

節目統籌:
鍾慧沁

製作:
Dimension Plus

主辦
大體老師,香港大學遺體捐贈計劃

支持
香港大學李嘉誠醫學院,香港大學生物醫學學院

場地 
香港大學莊月明文娛中心

© Keith Lam 2023