Sammy Chien: between immanence and the sublime...: SFU woodward's

Showing posts with label SFU woodward's. Show all posts

2013-07-30

Powell Street Festival's Spatial Poetics XII: Release Me @ SFU Woodwards review

Reviewed by Shalon WH on Vandocument

Visual artist and musician Howie Tsui, performer Andrew Lee, and media artistSammy Chien’s experimentations with layered photographic histories, new media projections and live sounds exposes local colonial history in their piece The Unfortunates of D’arcy Island. Tsui, Lee, and Chien sit at a lengthwise table centre stage. Strewn over the table is a plethora of musical instruments, digital pedals, laptops and samplers. Unexpectedly, Howie plays a guitar at the far end of the table, and projected onto the screen are photographs of citizens of D’arcy Island (used as a leper colony for Chinese immigrants from 1894 to 1924).

Initially, I am made uncomfortable by Chien’s manipulations, as he plays with the footage live, super-imposing haunting auras onto the photographic evidence of the exiled Chinese Canadians. It seems to manipulate my own sense of belonging. Tsui and Lee, however, provide an arching soundscape that provides intermittent escape from the horrifying images. As Chien continues, I notice his live manipulations of the on-screen images also trigger terrifying noises. I start to ease into the terror and he becomes more dramatic, imposing layers of coloured auras, making the images oscillate and warp while Tsui and Lee also warp their melodies.

Howie Tsui, Spatial Poetics XII at SFU Woodwards, Vancouver BC 2013

work by Howie Tsui, photo courtesy the artist

The piece recalls the deeply deplorable history of exiled Chinese Canadian lepers sent to D’arcy Island between 1894 to 1924. The historical truth recounted by new media forms of storytelling, with live sound experimentations, could be understood as a comment on the contemporary realities of socio-spacial-economic separation, dislocation and isolation that is hardly unnoticeable outside the very doors of the performance space here in Vancouver.

see the full review:
http://vandocument.com/2013/07/spatial-poetics-xii-release-me-sfu-woodwards/

2013-06-13

The Veil of Nature: Museum of Liminal Science (installation/research project)

Sammy Chien is working on this very interesting research & installation project at SFU produced by the super fantastic duo Martin Gotfrit & Patricia Gruben, recreating an old science lab with antiques and new technologies. Imagine if you look through the microscopes and sees real-time projections and your hands creates 8-channel sound that you may only hear in certain spots.

The Veil of Nature: Museum of Liminal Science unveils on Friday, June 14th 2013 with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. in Room 2205, SFU Woodward's, please come join us! (Free!)

One by one, visitors will enter a site inspired by the Cavendish physics lab at Cambridge University circa 1885, on the cusp of the great discoveries in particle physics. There they will find an immersive, interactive ‘cabinet of wonders’ that transports each one to an interior universe far beyond the visible apparatus of the science lab.

http://www.theveilofnature.net/Veil%20of%20Nature%20Installation%20Front.html

also, the Chimerik team in Taiwan are working on an epic RFID project, taking a big step. At the same time, we're working with one of the first hip hop dancer in Taiwan on a dance projection project that will be live soon. More info to come..

2013-04-06

War. Requeim: interdisciplinary performance (dance, theatre, new media projection, music...)

Shang-Han & Sammy Chien (Chimerik) got invited by Vancouver based Choreographer Rob Kitsos to work as guest artists in an interdisciplinary performance in SFU Fei & Milton Wong Theatre (Vancouver, Canada). It has been a while since Shang-Han and I get to work together intensively on a dance performance.

We're very happy to have this chance to push boundaries and try out some new experiments, as well as getting to work with some of the top choreographers and artists in town.

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SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts: War. Requiem

April 4th to 6th, 2013 | 8 PM daily, 2 PM matinee on April 6th
Tickets: General: $15 | Students and Seniors: $10

Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Presented by the Dance Program at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts

war.requiem is a collaborative interdisciplinary live performance exploring ideas related to the experience of war. Each artist in dance, music, media, light and costume contributed ideas that culminated into full evening work performed in the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theater by dance students from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts.

Choreography: 605 Collective, Shawna Elton, Vanessa Goodman, Rob Kitsos
Music: Gabriel Saloman
Projection & New Media Design: Chimerik
Dramaturgy: Elysse Cheadle
Costume Design: Carmen Alatorre
Lighting Design: Sarah Nutbrown Bourdeau, Rui Su
Guest Artist: Nancy Tam

Thursday, April 4, 2013 8:00 PM
Friday, April 5, 2013 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 6, 2013 2:00PM & 8:00 PM

Tickets: General: $15 | Students and Seniors: $10. Tickets are now available online athttps://www.2mevents.com/index.php/event/war-requiem/store or will be for purchase at the Box Office one hour before showtime.

2010-09-07

"The Objecthood of Chairs"-an interdisciplinary performance

My brother and I have been commissioned to work on this performance "The Objecthood of Chairs" in the past weeks as new media designer / video coordinator. This show is an interdisciplinary collaboration, although more heavily towards the theatrical/text aspect, the collaborators are very talented and inspiring profs from SFU contemporary arts.

there will be a free preview show Tuesday Sept 7th 8pm at SFU Woodward's Studio T. The official show runs for 2 weeks.

I'm working on the new media design/ projection mapping for Rob Groeneboer's film that is projected with 3 projectors in this performance. I think the excitement for me would be that this is the first time we've used serious video snitching to create a uniquely wider imagescape.

2010-06-16

Media Design for Interdisciplinary Performance- Imprint at SFU Woodward's

Dear Friends,

I’m currently working on the Media Design for Imprint II with my brother Shang-han, an interdisciplinary performance piece with dance, music, media and telepresence technology. This project is co-created by choreographer Henry Daniel and composer Owen Underhill with the Turning Point Ensemble.

The last Imprint has successfully performed in MoA in January 2010. This time we’re performing at SFU Woodward’s spectacular Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre

Our work involves real-time visual processing and interactive media in dance, music and theatre environment. Although the visual projection isn't the main dish of the show, but experimenting alternative ways to present images and motion on unconventional platform might be somewhat interesting to you.

There will also be an interactive/telepresent installation created by Majid Bagheri, Xiaonan Mah & James O'callaghan in the gallery before, during and after the show. You can see the dancers performing in the gallery in the first half of the show, then they'll leave to the theatre and the that's when telepresence comes into the gallery. This part of the show is accessible for free.