BY SAM GILLIES
Kynan Tan is a Perth-based audio visual artist whose work asks compelling questions about the data-filled world we live in today. Working with a glitch based idiom, his music focuses on the sonification of the unseen structures that underpin our existence. He is currently working on a new exhibition that will round out his perspectives series later this year, and discusses his work with us in greater detail.
How would you characterize your music?
My music and art uses digital systems to investigate networks, data transference and relational structures between multiple senses. Each project attempts to explore an idea in depth, whether that is a concept, texture, interplay between performers, errors and glitches, audio-visual relationship, and so on. My music has always involved computers and digital technologies as programmed objects that function as generators, controllers or mediators.
The laptop has been a dominant part of your creative practice for some time. What appeals to you about laptop composition, and what drew you to the world of electronic composition and art?
The potentials in computer derived art are seemingly endless as computers become faster and faster. I was drawn to the ability to program specific functions into a computer to be able to customize these functions for specific ideas and concepts. I also ascribe to the idea that using digital systems for synthesis and manipulation of data, sound, and video gives you a complete, intrinsic tool that allows strong connections to be built between ideas and execution. The computer is also, quite simply, an incredibly powerful device and one that can be organised and programmed to achieve an enormous range of outcomes.
What sorts of sounds inspire your creative practice? From what do you derive your sound materials?
I’m drawn to the physicality of sound and to sounds that are uniquely ‘digital’. I’m particularly drawn to extremes of low and high frequency, digital clicks, pops, hand-drawn waveforms, textures and density of multiple layers. I’m also drawn to sampling culture and pop music for the cultural connotations of our listening practices.
What sorts of relationships are you interested in exploring through your audio-visual works?
I am trying to create synesthetic structures – combinations of sound and video that are intrinsically linked and function as a singular entity. I am interested in the direct conversion between media, aesthetic linkages, and textural implications of sound and video. I attempt to create this by using data, or computer algorithms, to generate both the sound and video, or to feed sound data into video synthesis (or vice versa). The overall concept of my series of audio-visual works is to illuminate and explore the ideas of network connectivity between different entities of our existence.
You’ve recently begun to integrate a fine art component into your practice. In 2013, you utilised 3D printed sculptures derived from brainwave activity for your exhibition perspectives [macro]. What appealed to you about introducing a sculptural element to your work?
Using a 3D printer allows me to extend the processes I had been working with into physical dimensions. It allowed me to quickly extend the idea of translation between media into a sculptural field, gaining physical dimensions but at the same time being removed from the temporality of sound. It is appealing to be able to move between different media and practices while still maintaining the core generator of my work as a singular, intrinsic digital synthesis system. I don’t really see any great distinction between sound practices and fine art practices – of course, each work is created for different presentation modes, but in each there is a number of connections being drawn to concepts, ideas, technologies and spaces.
You have been collaborating with Andrew Brooks for several years now as Té. How do the philosophies of Té feed into your solo practice, or do you see your collaborative work as something distinctively separate to your solo work?
Working with Andrew Brooks as Té is a fast developing project – we are constantly very critical of our work, and the place for sound-based practices in broader contexts, and so move quickly between different ideas and projects. The works we create are distinct in that we push each other towards ideas that are quite different from our own practices, and we will reserve ideas specifically for Té. This has involved works exploring a diverse range of subjects, from pop music to kinetic sculptures. This practice is separate from my solo work but feeds back into it, allowing ideas to be more refined and attempting to push each work further in its individual direction.
What are you currently working on? What is your next big project?
I’m creating a new audio-visual work for live performance that will complete the perspectives series. The work is titled perspectives [temporal] and will be presented at PICA in July/August using three large projection screens and 4.1 sound. I’m also preparing for a residency at the Art/Science facility SymbioticA, looking at the way emergent networking patterns exist in simple biological organisms, and further delving into using sleeping brain activity to generate artworks.
Image supplied.
