[ISEA2023] Paper: Ze Gao, Zheng Wang & Xingxing Yang — Immersive Possibilities: Archiving Sound Art of Live Performance in the Context of the Metaverse

Abstract

Third Summit on New Media Art Archiving

Keywords: Sound Archiving, Sound Art, Live Performance, Virtual Reality, Immersive, Metaverse

This article introduces the new dynamics and challenges in making sound art virtual while posing new questions about previously neglected aspects, such as archiving sound in a virtual space. By referencing the historical examples of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Nam June Paik, this article recognizes the limits of previous archiving methods and technologies while revisiting the essential question of power under emerging media and algorithms.

With a focus on virtual archiving, this article investigates the new boundaries of sound art in an updated context while advocating an alternative framework to evaluate the relationship between the virtual and real, not only as a fluid location as put by Gilles Deleuze, but also as an integrated system to be located in time and space.

  • Xingxing Yang is an interdisciplinary computer musician based in Hong Kong. She is a Ph.D. student at HKUST, specializing in computer-assisted audio, music, and virtual reality. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Music Tech from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Stanford University. She is interested in making novel sound toys, doing AI-assisted music composition, and building VR storytelling experiences,s and constructive tools for builders.
  • Zheng Wang is a curator, scholar, and writer of critical, historical, and creative content. Born in Guilin in 1996 to an Iu-Mien ethnic minority family, Wang grew up in Wuhan, studied in the US for his undergrad and graduate degrees, and currently lives in Singapore. He is a Ph.D. student at the School of Art, Design, and Media, specializing in contemporary art history and theory at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2020, he graduated from Rice University with a bachelor’s degree, double-majoring in Art History and Studio Art. In 2022, he received a master’s in Art Criticism specializing in Aesthetics and Politics from the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. Academically and artistically, Wang is passionate about engaging in comparative and transcultural criticism and curatorial work. He is also a practicing artist in installation and texts.
  • Ze Gao is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and media art researcher based in New York and Hong Kong. The Extended Reality and Immersive Media (XRIM) Lab at HKUST and the Tongji University-MIT Shanghai Urban Science Laboratory are where he works as an artist and researcher. After studying multidisciplinary fine arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art, he received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. His research spans a variety of methods and interests, including artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, museum study, game design, and VR/AR. He has a background in both image science and art. His work has been published primarily in Emerging Technologies, Gamification, and Media Art conferences and journals like ACM Multimedia, ACM ICMI, ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM WWW, CHI-PLAY, IEEE, and ISEA.