Search Interview >> ------------------------------------------------ 2008_03 ------------------------------------------------ 2007_11 2007_10 2007_07 2007_05 2007_04 2007_01 ------------------------------------------------ 2006_11 2006_10 2006_09 2006_08 2006_07 The Dialectic Between Media and Concept-oriented Art Interview with Sound Artist WANG Fu-jui Date: 2008/03/01 Interview with Wang Fu-jui at Studio, Graduate School of Art and Technology, Taipei National University of Arts   Let's talk about your personal background. Wang Fu-jui (Wang): Actually I studied statistics in college, and the only relevant course I took concerning media was computer programming. Sound art was just my personal interest. In 1995, I left Taiwan and studied information science in Los Angeles. I edited magazines and started labels back in 1993 in Taiwan, but I didn’t start to create my own art at that time. That was the time of doujinshi and theater activities. It's very different from now. I even went to the art coffee shop Tian-Mi-Mi (甜蜜蜜) to play noise and the audience's response was...well, better not mention it. Anyway, that was an age of uncertainty. People were still using cassette and artists in different countries all had their own labels. They created and then share their works within the circle. At that time, lots of the artists in Taiwan would also exchange information with their foreign friends. (It was said that since the exchange was made possible by mail system, the term "mail art" was thus created.) People would share and distribute each other’s work. I began to correspond with several foreigner artists even before I went to L.A., and I published the works of hundreds of artists, including Joe Colley (, artist who won an Award of Distinction for the 2006 Ars Electronica in the music category). The drawback of cassette was the noise it produced. It's hard to record clean sounds. When I started to create my own music, I bought an eight-track hard disk recording machine to avoid the noise problem of cassette. In the beginning, hard disk could only offer a storage capacity of 20 minutes. But the digital technology was progressing and things were getting better. Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda was one of the pioneers at that time. He had his own label and his music was circulated among the art lovers. He is quite successful now. I think Japan and Taiwan are similar in many ways. Lots of the sound artists from the two countries do not graduate from music schools; they do their music by instinct. They do not have the burden of academic teachings or theories. What's the connection among noise, music, and sound art? Wang: In the beginning, many people thought sound art was noise. Over the years, I had been thinking why I wanted pursue the career of sound art. I came to the conclusion that hearing and vision are both human senses. In ancient times, sounds could not be recorded. People produced sounds by "percussion." Then they invented instruments, and later started to put down notes in some ways. That's the history of music. When Thomas Edison invented phonograph in the nineteenth century, people must have been excited that for the first time, sounds could be stored. Once sounds can be stored, it is possible to imagine the scenario that the recorded sounds could be used to create art as the way music instruments have been used. Therefore, I think the beginning of sound art is very much related the fact that “sounds could be recorded.” Scientists found out that the human ear is able to hear frequencies ranging from 20 and up to certain hertz. In other words, sound could be said to be a form of spectrum. People would tell you that "music" is what is pleasant to the ear. However, "music" is only a perceivable section of the sound spectrum. And the "perceivable" section can again be divided into the so-called categories such as "enjoyable" or "discordant." But I think our ear is able to learn. In the past, when mechanic devices were rare, even "the clicking of a clock" could be counted as noise. Things have changed. Noise is now everywhere. Most popular rock music combines elements that could be labeled as noise, but you may think it's wonderful. People were rigid in their ideas; they thought noise was simply hateful and didn't want to have nothing to do with it. However, after the continuous efforts of sound artists, the definition of music is changing. Music is no longer confined to a certain acknowledged sound elements. Little by little, minimalism and noise were accepted as part of the family and have even led the trend. And don't forget other kinds of sounds which were once detested, such as electronic sounds. Nowadays people can stand lots of noises. There are lots of sound experiments these days and they are just experiments on unfamiliar sounds. You cannot say those sounds are noise. They are simply an unfamiliar type of music; electronic, noise, and even natural or environmental sounds have been experimented. Even the so-called "music" could be embraced by sound art and play an important role in it. Wang Fu-jui in TranSonic 2008 (The picture here and the one on the upper left corner are provided by TransSonic ) If it is so important that sounds could be recorded, what is the connection between sound art and media? Wang: When people mention media art, most of the time they mean "visual" art. However, human senses include both "seeing" and "hearing." We must not forget sound art. One soon realizes that, relatively speaking, only in "digital art" could hearing be equal with vision. Yet sound itself has all the attributes "media" do. Sounds could be recorded, spread, and synthesized, just like the functions of Photoshop and Premiere. They can be edited and modulated. In "digital" art, the concepts of the sound and media art are quite similar that they can both be converted into "numbers," and it is easy to find the connections between numbers. "Sound" is indeed very much connected with media. I shall talk more about "media." Generally speaking, when people mention the early media art, they mean the Fluxus movement. Fluxus emerged in New York and was popular before the 1970's. A lot of the experiments at that time were similar to the ones of the contemporary media art in Taiwan. In Europe and America, there were people who did music and visual art in a quite rigid and serious way. However, some artists, what they were doing, just did not fall into any of the categories, just like the situation faced by today's artists. Among them, some of their works were to present a certain concepts or to capture ideals which were beyond human perception. Sometimes the works were rather short; sometimes they were quite long. The artists faced the same problems as their modern counterparts. Some of them were musicians; some of them were visual artists; and some were performers. But their works were cross-disciplinary. South Korean-born American artist Nam June Paik, for instance, was trained as a classical musician when he was young [but later he chose to join the Fluxus movement]. Therefore, when you are doing something like this, it'd be hard to define the work by the kind of outdated, stiff criteria. And to examine the status quo of Taiwan's situation, I would say, Taiwan's education system, which has always been rigid, cannot satisfy its young people. What the young people are doing is not accepted by the formal visual art education system. I think the Graduate School of Art and Technology (Taipei National University of Arts) is a good exception, though. Many people here are doing video art and they works are great. We are now in the middle of somewhere. To tell the truth, new media art is not an important subject in the academy. However, Taiwan’s technology edge does benefit the development of the discipline. Solidifying Light , Flowing Images by WANG Fu-jui, LIAO Ke-nan (廖克楠), and CHUNG Ming-zei (Picture and caption taken from the website of SoundWatch. Copyright reserved.) It seems that many young digital artists have come from the Graduate School of Art and Technology? Wang: Well, Taipei National University of Arts does provide many resources for the new media art. It is a new discipline in the art education system. Students who are interested in the discipline have come to explore it by themselves. Many of our professors have also participated in the creation of new media art. My colleague Goang-Ming YUAN, for instance, is an expert of video art. I myself do more sound art, though. I think it is beneficial for students to learn all kinds or arts. It can broaden their horizon. Secondly, students who are doing fine work will inspire their classmates to set their goals early and find out what they want to do. The staff are more than eager to encourage the students to bring their own works and their support will push the students to go further. What is the role technology play in sound art? Wang: People now think (new) media art equals technology art. It feels like that the state-of-the-art technology is a must. However, sound art does not necessarily mean high technology artwork. Of course you can use the newest technology to create your art. But in fact, many times it is about concept. Everyday life will influence your work tremendously. Contemporary technology has pushed the artists to reconsider many things, and technology should not be easily presumed as being subordinate to art. It's possible that the reality is the other way around. For instance, an important concept in the mid 90's was "the aesthetics of error." It was still a practice of technology, but it was a practice in the wrong way that aesthetics was derived from the misuse of a technology. The role technology played in such art was not just a tool but a source of new concept. Nowadays, it is very often that people have an obsession with the idea of tool. They think they must use computer. However, speaking from the perspective of aesthetics, the thinking is not always true. If you do employ computer-based technology, that's fine. If not, fine as well. Just don't dismiss it completely. If lo-tech tools suits your purpose, use it. It is possible to achieve better artistic effects with lo-tech tools instead of high. So, open your mind and look deeper. It's not adequate to judge a work by simply stating it employs hi- or lo-tech. For me, they are both fine. So, what is a good work for you? Wang: The choosing of the media is not my foremost concern. The important thing is one must show themselves and make their work special. What really matters is whether an artist has put forth a concept or idea that is original. And the principle can be applied to both visual and sound art. This is really what is important. Don't waste time on arguments such as whether computer should be used or if we should choose lo- or hi-tech. My friend Joe Colley had never employed computer technology in his work, but he was the winner of Ars Electronica. How are you going to explain it? Nowadays people's attention has been shifted to the definitions of terms. There are a lot more discourses today, but things have never been so obscure and fuzzy as they are now. [LINK:] 　WANG Fu-Jui's Blog  soundwatchtw.blogspot.com/ 　TranSonic 2008 transonic2008.blogspot.com/ (Interview: Rikey CHENG; Translation: Tienning HSU) Type:JPG Size:100K