Calls of emotion, from Animal Calls to Sound Creature Observation Tour

Animal Calls to Sound Creature Observation Tour

Animal Calls to Sound Creature Observation Tour

I wanted to share the story and the experience of creating two artworks Animal Calls and Sound Creature Observation Tour, and the transition between the two due to Coronavirus, and how I am interested in preserving the values of human connection, promoting cuteness, and sharing empathy through play in current times.

What did you create?
First, I made Animal Calls, an interactive sound installation before the pandemic happened. This work invites participants to make sounds for fictional creatures in a public space. A surrounding soundscape of human-made animal calls is formed throughout the duration of the piece by collective participation efforts. By using sound as a means for engagement, this project is interested in celebrating the vulnerable human characteristics, such as playfulness, silliness, and self-expressive imaginations, that people might be shy to share publicly due to external circumstances and social expectations.

Then when Coronavirus got worse, I wanted to preserve the sound sharing experience in a way that people could still access distantly. Therefore, I transitioned the experience into Sound Creature Observation Tour, an online workshop and performance that shares a similar concept on empathy and vulnerability, on the video conference platform Zoom. The workshop invites participants to make sounds and drawings together to connect playfully. Events are designed for participants to observe creatures from their imaginations, draw the creature's appearances, share the creature's sounds, and describe the creature's lifestyles with the rest of the group.


Why did you make it?

As an artist, one of the main themes I try to create conversations about is breaking public boundaries to celebrate qualities of care and empathy. Vulnerable yet human qualities, such as cuteness, silliness, clumsiness and imagination, are humanities that sometimes we are shy to or can not present out loud. Long before Coronavirus, I have been trying to create spaces to allow this kind of interaction to happen in my art.

Animal Calls was supported by the SAIC Compassionate and Belonging Grant and was publicly exhibited from March 5-13, 2020 at SAIC campus. Coincidentally, it was the week before the school needed to close in prevention of Coronavirus. During that period, I received a lot of feedback regarding how providing a space to experience less serious art, such as making weird sounds for painted animals, made people feel comfort in times of uncertainty. Therefore, later on in summer, I was interested in making another experience for positive human emotional expression; one that would work well with the nature of an online activity but not lose the essence of experiencing a physical installation; one where people could at least see and hear each other, and do something for a laugh together to feel connected. And it became the Sound Creature Observation Tour.

How did you make it?
Animal Calls consists of a recording and audio playback system programmed in Max/ Msp. In the physical space, the speakers hide behind the painted paper decorations. When Participants make "calls" for the creatures on the wall, it is instantly captured and played back from corresponding speakers associated with the creatures. When the interaction is not happening, the calls accumulated from past participants are distributed from the database to 5 channels of the surrounding audio system. Incorporated with another 2 channels of sounds from nature, the audios create a forest-like sound space from the contributed calls.

Sound Creature Observation Tour is designed as a workshop that guides participants to draw, describe, and make noises for imaginary observation creatures. As the plot proceeds, participants have chances to do these activities both in pairs and independently under 3 different sessions to gradually develop a diverse imagination outcome. A lot of storytelling was incorporated in the plot to break down the strangerness among participants. All participants needed to wear DIY creature hats during the session otherwise they will "scare the imaginative creatures away". Plots such as "creatures will create interference with wifi when they are hungry" were also designed in case of uncertain internet connection.

The essence of the experience is about the emotional connections, so technology was kept simple on the participant's side. Only a pen and paper and the participant's voice were required. However, on the presenter's (my) side, many sound designs were made to create an immersive story environment. Live recorded sound arrangements were routed in and out of Zoom in real-time with a Max/ Msp program similar to the one for Animal Calls. Participants' voices become background animal noises as the workshop proceeds.

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Lastly, I would like to share that I hope these values of embracing and not having fear to share cute and genuine personalities publicly can continue even after the pandemic ends. Coronavirus reminds us of the values and necessities of these humanities, but it is even more important to preserve the higher tolerance to the diverse qualities and not read them as unprofessional or as flaws when life returns to a new normal again. Cheers to create a more gentle and empathetic future that we can celebrate together.

Animal Calls: Animal Mural, 7 Channel Audio System, Speaker, Microphone, Custom Program in Max/ Msp, Painting on Paper, DIY Acrylic Shelf
Dimension: Approximately, 4m x 2.5m x 1m

Sound Creature Observation Tour: Participatory performance and workshop on Zoom. Custom Program in Max/ Msp, DIY Paper Hats, Drawing Materials (Pen and Paper), Headphones
Workshop duration: 1.5 hr

https://youtu.be/jp31suhw4lM

https://www.ahungrybadger.com

I have promised the participants in Sound Creature Observation Tour that their footage will not be public, therefore the video URL is set to limited view with link only on YouTube. If my submission is selected, I will ask the participants if their footage can be public.

Artist Profile:

Chen- Huan (Julia )Tsai is an artist working with drawing, sound, sculptural objects, and interactivity. She focuses on investigating how gentleness, empathy, cuteness, and other vulnerable qualities of being human can have value in art. She sees "qualities that we are sometimes shy to share out loud " as a major medium for her practice. Through her works, she explores the relationships between emotions, materials, form, scale, and imaginative world-building.

As an artist, She is interested in how things are perceived and how combinations of things make people feel. Under this context, she conducts various experiments to connect, to create intimacy, and to understand how people feel when engaging with her works, especially by using sound as a means of engagement. By merging disciplines to creative multimedia environments, her works also provide space for participants, especially grownups, to play and behave silly. Recently, many of her works consist of fantastical animals and silly noise-making activities.

Chen-Huan Tsai: creator of Animal Calls and Sound Creature Observation Tour.
Divyamaan Sahoo: Live audio mixing technician for Sound Creature Observation Tour.

Taiwan/ USA