Collaborators: Leslie Epsztein, Quy Phung Kelly Ta, Qianhua Fu, Wen Wen
Supervisors: Paul Bavister, Luca Dellatoore
My role: Maxmsp coding        Duration:1 week

Presence is a time-based sound and visual performance that attemps to produce an intermediate state dwelling between life and death. It employs a set of well curated sound sequence and visual projection to construct intensive spatial experience. The sound is performed live therefore each time the total length fluctuates around two minutes level.

Audience will first hear sound of heartbeats which signifies the beginning of life. Ticking of a clock symbolizes the approaching of death. With ambiguous whisper passes from one speaker to another among all eight installed on each node of a cubic space, the piece embeds itself in sophisticated spatial narratives. To heighten the overall atmosphere, the room light is turned off. Instead, a breathing white circle video clip projected onto the ceiling provides a hint for serene existence.
Furthermore, we included sound effect of water dripping that is rather commonly sensed in a quiet room to enrich the soundscape. As the tempo of clock ticking rises, we invite audience into an uncertain realm of consciousness as if we are in the limbo. It is where life and death meets, where the presence is constrained and interrogated. Ultimately there comes the escape, or an eternal imprisonment in the void.

本次设计是一个以时间主题的声光融合的表演。它先用MaxMsp编程控制sound Lab的八声道环绕扬声器，构建出一个高保真沉浸式的3D声场，当参与者展在空间中心位置时，可以听到以假乱真的空间声效。我们在空间声效的基础上，给不同的声音设计了不同的运动轨迹，配合灯光投影进行空间叙事。

观众首先会进入到一个黑暗的房间里，随着一阵心跳声传来，这意味着生命的开始，也是表演的开始。随后，时钟的滴答声在空间中环绕，并沿着顺时针运动，随之还有一个女性声音吟诵着古老的诗歌（莎士比亚的十四行诗），不同于滴答声的规律运动，女性吟诵声音如鬼魅般在空间中随机运动，参与者可以通过音量的变化和左右声差来感知其空间运动的细节。整个设计借由不同声音片段的空间构建一个意识迷离的画面，邀请参与者追逐、触摸、体验看不见的声音。

Script

I tell the day, to please him, thou art bright

And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven;

So flatter I the swart-complexioned night,

When sparkling stars twire not, thou gild’st the even.

But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,

And night doth nightly make grief’s strength seem stronger.

——William Shakespeare, SONNET 28

*Read by Leslie Epsztein in French

为讨好白天，我告它你是光明，

在阴云密布时，你将把它映照。

我又这样说去讨黑夜的欢心，

当星星不眨眼，你将为它闪耀。

但天天白天尽拖长我的苦痛，

夜夜黑夜又使我的忧思转凶。

——莎士比亚, 十四行诗 第28首

*译者梁宗岱

Concept Diagram

Maxmsp patch