Input/Output Until September 19

The very existence of uber-expensive noise-canceling headphones signals the over- saturation of sound, and the current desire for a silent refuge. For sound artists, however, this ubiquitous force is not only unavoidable – it demands engagement. Input/Output gallery takes this on with Resonance, a curatorial program presented in collaboration with the Society for Experimental Cultural Production.

The program consists of an exhibition, performances, and talks grappling with the nature of sound. It attempts to create a dialogue around the shape and movement of sound, by abstracting sound from its traditional forms. The exhibition includes individual works by two artists, both addressing the breakdown and reconceptualization of sound.

Artist and classical musician Samson Young opens the show with the installation Beethoven Piano Sonata, nr.1 – nr.14 (Senza Misura). Forty-seven exposed circuit boards reverberate with light and ticking sounds, each to its own movement of Beethoven’s fourteen piano sonatas. The resulting static-sound and the visual repetitiveness of the circuitry hypnotize the spectator as viewer and listener.

Sound artist Yao Chung-han takes a different tone, as it were. His installation, I Will Be Broken, is an aggressive imposition upon the visitor’s visual and sonic cognition. A hanging column of circular fluorescent lamps glow or gloom while a volatile sound track drones in the background. This cacophonous choreography of light and sound is a disconcerting removal from the familiar relationships of sound and its cause.

Anna Calinawan