<Waterfall>

Wang Changcun, also known as ayrtbh, is a pioneering sound artist from China who uses computers to create artworks and performances. He masterfully manipulates natural, artificial and machine-made sounds using software, the internet, and computer-generated electronic technologies to create serendipitous and unexpected causalities for modern listeners.

Through coding, Wang modulates the relationships between people and objects with an understated yet sardonic sense of humor. He employs electronic sound technologies to transform the listening experience, allowing for the redefinition and learning of perceptual habits. For example, he once released a solo piano album called The Klone Concerts, whose title, cover design and acoustics were all parodies of Keith Jarrett’s legendary jazz album of solo piano improvisations, The Köln Concert. Wang claimed that the album had been recorded in a concert hall, but in reality, it was simulated by a random collage of computer algorithms. Wang later released Iterator, an album consisting of 100 tracks generated by running the same program 100 times.

In 2013, Wang created two works that echoed each other at Colgate University in New York: Cicada and Waterfall. Cicada used electronic devices to broadcast the resonant chirping of summer cicadas, making the winter woods of New York echo with humid tropical sounds. The concept of this dislocated and superimposed reality was then repeated in Waterfall, an installation in which Wang stacked six vertically arranged old-fashioned television monitors and played the pepper-and-salt noises they generate when no signals are received. At first, viewers may mistake them for the loud white noises emanating from the television sets, but on closer listening, it sounds more like a cascading waterfall in nature. From a listener’s perspective, the screens and snow sounds could create an artificial waterfall scene. It is worth noting that Wang used field recordings for the sounds in both pieces. While viewers can comprehend Waterfall in the context of Nam June Paik's concept of video media or of glitch art, the rabbit-duck-illusionist ambiguity and tension it creates may be even more interesting to explore.

Amy Cheng