 Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the downstairs at Lamama. This is the new space. It's part of an organization that's been around for going to be going into an official fifth year of Lamama. I want to welcome you here. We're going to start to see a lot of really interesting work in this space for the next coming years. This space is unique in that it's sort of disarming to do many different things. It's to basically expand over the past five years. Lamama has really expanded beyond being the performing arts center. It's moved into education, obviously community programs, international exchange, and also art and technology and the integration of those presenting works that are both within media and performance. So those types of things are going to be happening in this space and sort of circulating through all together. And we're really happy that you're here. We hope that you can tell your friends. And then a little bit about Culture Hub. Culture Hub was founded by Lamama and also the Seoul Institute of Arts in Korea. And the Seoul Institute of Arts was one of the first contemporary art schools in Korea. And they've been working with Lamama for several decades. They wanted to sort of extend that window and those interactions by using the internet. So we formed Culture Hub to create a studio that was about researching how people collaborate using the internet both from a computational standpoint but also in an art-making space. So that's a little bit about who we are. I hope that you will join us on Facebook or join our mailing list. We have a lot of events that are very reasonable and very diverse. Now, without further ado, I'm going to give you both a moment of a lot. I think it's a really special performance. We're really fortunate to have this amazing creative team. And I want to give a special thanks to Harvestworks and Carol Parkinson in particular who has co-produced this event with us. And I think it's a pretty exciting moment that organizations that are like-minded can come together in a way to support some artists and a project together. So thanks to Harvestworks. And without further ado, I'm going to give you those along the way. Very importantly, please silence your cell phones if you haven't already. And fire exits, you've got two going back that way. That will give you two 4th Street elevator, fire exit, both kinds of buildings. And then you also have the fire exit back here in this corner that will allow you to get out in the case of emergency to 3rd Street. Okay, thank you. In the 4th century in Koguryo, ancient Korea, Prime Minister Wang San-nak built a new string instrument. When he composed and performed 100 pieces on this new instrument, a black crane, bird of sky, Komunhak, flew to the instrument. So it was named the black crane zither. Later it was called Komungo, meaning black zither. In 2010, I was in Jakarta, Indonesia to perform at Salihara Festival. One day, I entered Puppet Museum with four tall puppets at the entrance. Their faces projected such an intense light that I could hardly look at them, but I took photos of them without really seeing them well. A little afterwards, I felt weak and almost fainted. A festival staff person accompanying me at that time asked, Are you possessed by an evil spirit? I was sitting on the floor for a while until I got better. I then continued upstairs to view the exhibition. At the exit pathway, there was a puppet store. I did not pay attention to those souvenir puppets, but, all of a sudden, my eyes are caught by one in a glass case. It was a highly crafted puppet, made by a renowned artist and consequently the most expensive one in the store. I was attracted by Jatayu, mystical bird in Indonesia and India, which saved Shita Princess when she was kidnapped in epic Ramayana. Jatayu tried to rescue Shita from Ravana when Ravana was on his way to Lanka after kidnapping Shita. I thought to myself, might it be true that Jatayu saved me from an evil spirit just before? I had to buy the Jatayu puppet, believing that Jatayu would protect me further from any disaster or obstacle that may occur in the future. That night, I suddenly woke up with chest pressure and had a strong feeling of something pushing on my chest, and I was breathing difficultly. My intuition had me check my photos that I took at the museum. Most of them were blasted by the bright lights that I saw when I entered the museum. I found one good one. This puppet was wrapped tightly in many layers with a long, fat, strong snake, all around the upper chest. Oh my God, that is what I felt on my chest and couldn't breathe well in my sleeping. I am connected to the puppets. I never had an experience like this in my life. But quickly, I had a smile on my face. I am a real artist. Two months later, I was invited to International Society for Improvised Music, held at University of Santa Cruz, California. I had a driver who took care of my commungo early each morning and late night. One day, he took off his hat and told me, I know who you are. Please, let me introduce myself to you. I am not a humble driver, but I am a Native American Indian chief. He said that he had worked at a lawyer's office, but six months ago, had a heart attack. He refused to have an operation, but instead joined a ritual with his people. He was completely cured by this ritual, and from this experience, he understood that he was called to offer rituals for his people. He told me, I have to meet four nobles from each direction, and you are the one from the west. He said, I will bring you eagle feathers. Toxuri-nalge-kitter. Next day, he brought four feathers that had been handed down from an older chief and used in sacred rituals by past generations. He asked me to touch them. That night, when he picked me up a little after midnight after a long rehearsal, I heard an owl crying, under halo, around shining full moon. I had heard a story like that, but it was happening before my very eyes. Next day, I was on the airplane on my way back to New York. It was a dark evening, and we must have been around Arizona or Colorado in the air. I noticed a bright area outside, near the aircraft, that looked like a big form of cloud, but it wasn't. The illumination light on the air was suspicious. Out of curiosity, I stared at it for a while. All of a sudden, I saw four light forms running fast, coming out underneath the bright area. Then all of them were quickly passing through back under the bright air. They were identical oval-shaped lights. The lights are dotted with white blinking. The form is oval line with many small dotted white blinking neon lights. They seem to be weightless, but very fast. Each one kept the same distance in a row as they moved. I have never seen a UFO. This is it! It seemed that four young men on motorbikes were flying down from the sky toward me. Each had his own motorbike, and each wore a different color. Yellow. They came down so fast that I only felt the vigorous speed as they evaporated as soon as they reached me. Immediately, I was floating in the air, holding a virtual pole, and I felt secure to be there. On my left, the identical pole is floating to guide me. I was following it. Suddenly, it struck against my pole, making a collision, and I saw a big meteor crater underneath filled with beauty. I continued floating in the air with the guide and had a second collision. As it struck my pole a second time, I saw another enormous meteor crater below me with very clean water in it. Ten days later, I had a car accident on my way home. All of a sudden, on the highway, a car in front of me came to a sudden stop, causing a two-car collision. I did not have time to stop my car, and I hit the car in front of me. My car was totaled, but I was saved by the airbag. In my mind, I saw Jatayu. Jatayu, did you just save me? In Ramayana, Jatayu fought valiantly with Ravana, but as Jatayu was very old, Ravana soon got the better of him. Rama and Lakshmana chanced upon the stricken and dying Jatayu in their search for Shita. Thank you for saving me, Jatayu. But are you already dead after two months from Jakarta? One week later, I went to buy a new car. I got the key for the car. I see the front window of the new car is covered with bird droppings. The dealer was ashamed and apologized intensely. I smiled with joy that Jatayu is alive. A few months later, I went to Indonesia with an Asian Art Council fellowship. I was invited to perform my Komungo at the Toraja Festival. On the first day, the director of festival and I had a breakfast meeting about the program. He asked me to perform in Toraja opera that he had prepared with 60 village people. In the opera, I am a spiritual woman performing with village singers and dancers who for centuries have served their funeral rituals. For me, this was a great honor. A lady staff person from the festival was sent to me to check my costume for the performance. As we were approaching my hotel building, I had a feeling of electricity inside my forehead. It was white, dotted, sparkling, but had a round feeling around my head. The sensation was gentle and not at all frightening. Could it be the UFO I saw on the airplane? The dotted blinking oval-shaped lights? We are inside my hotel room. The lady looked at me once. Were you called to come to Toraja? I think you are a princess. I said, yes, I feel like I was called to come to Toraja and I am princess. My name is Golden Dragon Princess. She then voluntarily called someone in Jakarta. She came back with a message from a supernatural person for me. I did not ask her to do so. She did it on her own. She asked, if she was called to come to Toraja, what is her task here? The message was, tomorrow, when she performs at Ketekesu, all ancestors will come out and bless her. Another message is that I was a Tibetan monk in my previous life. My meditation was not accepted by society and I lived in a cave. I am reborn to do the proper meditation. Go to the temple. Behind the temple there is a cave. Inside there is a bell. Go inside the cave and meditate. This message from a supernatural person who had never met me or talked to me. How shall I find such a specific temple? Suddenly that night, I awoke by a sudden force pushing my back upright in the bed. It was 1 a.m. and a bird came to the balcony of my hotel room and made a persistent sound. Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka. I was visited by a black bird, Kadoya in Toraja, Megalithic Mountain in West Sulawesi, Indonesia. The bird made very forceful sound eight times in a row. I was shaken by this. Soon I felt a deep black hole in my stomach that made me a little uneasy. I ran to the bathroom in an attempt to escape from the scene, but I quickly decided to accept this mystical spiritual visit. I had heard many stories about this kind of spirit visit, but I never had such an experience before. I came out of my bathroom, asking the spirit not to harm me or kill me. As soon as I sat down on my bed, the bird again was making the same strong and persistent sound eight times. Next day, I ran into a lady from Bali. She said it is clear that I was visited by a spirit and she suggested that I ask for permission to be in Toraja since I was a foreigner and it was my first visit to this Megalithic land. When I asked her how to do that, she suggested for me to put my head on the ground. That afternoon, I looked around the hotel garden to find an appropriate spot to put my head on the ground. The five-star hotel had a very beautifully designed garden, in which I found a spot and I kneeled down, putting my head on the grassy ground, asking for permission to be on this magical land. I immediately felt the same electricity on my forehead again. It was real. Something really is happening to me. It is not my imagination. I said to myself, thank you, thank you for this experience. I am blessed. I walked back with joy to my room and I opened the big balcony doors wide and looked out at the Toraja Valley, asking the spirit to come to me. Soon, I saw an extraordinary vigorous black bird flying in front of me. The bird flying very fast. It looked like a swallow, but bigger than usual. Jebi. Could that be the bird that visited me last night? On August 11, 2014, I arrived at the performance site for Toraja Opera. They had constructed a spectacular outdoor stage at the historical ritual site Ketekesu. Toraja people believe that their ancestors came from Skye, so they are called People of Skye. Ketekesu is built with several Tonkonan, which are Torajan ancestral houses. These houses stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc resembling a boat. They are incised with red, black, white and yellow detailed wood carvings of many patterns on the exterior walls. According to the Toraja myth, the first Tonkonan was built in heaven on four poles with a roof made of Indian cloth. Alas, I had had a very special dream after seeing the UFO about floating on the air holding poles. Had I dreamed about Toraja ancestors? Toraja Opera started with a village people parade from rice fields to the Ketekesu site. The impressive village singers with orange costumes were approaching singing ancient ritual songs hundreds of years old. The stage was fully packed with these spectacular groups of Torajan village artists. Lastly, I came on with my Komungo and realized how blessed I was to be here with these people and their ancestors. I started playing Komungo, receiving grand energy from an audience of 20,000. Oh my God, I looked up and saw a huge super-sized August harvest moon illuminating the stage. That night, on stage, I was in a grand spiritual ceremony reflecting my entire life journey and felt blessed by the supermoon. The Toraja people, the ancient ritual site Ketekesu and the massive audience made me feel this profound fortune and spirituality of this place. Several days later, I arrived in Solo Java Indonesia. I was introduced to a spiritual mentor who has been directing body motion and sound workshops for many decades. At our first meeting, he suggested that we might go to a temple to meditate with my Komungo. A few days later, he took me to an eighth century Kalao San Temple where female Buddha Tara is worshipped. A local young bamboo flute player came along with us. Upon arrival, I noticed a temple board with a picture of a large bell. I was surprised to realize that I was already here at the temple the supernatural person had told me about. I did not say a word to my mentor as he took me inside the cave room. He asked us to meditate and play our instruments. We were individually but simultaneously playing as a group of black swallows. Came in the cave circling above us. The music was rising all the way to the top of the cave ceiling as the birds swirled around the octagonal cave wall. How was it possible that I was already at the temple where the supernatural person had asked me to go and meditate in the cave? One month later, I went to Joshua Tree, California as artist-in-residence at Lou Harrison House. Lou Harrison was my composition teacher at Mills College. Here, rocks are formed by combination of many geological processes. When moisture is trapped on the surface of the rock or in the soil long enough, it erodes away some of the minerals forming the rock. Then rain and wind wash away the loosened parts of the rock. Some of the boulders in this magical desert are of ground size. Director Eva Saltis took me to two majestic boulders that are standing straight to the sky shaped like a standing eagle. The body is very full with gigantic stomach but the face is sharply carved with strong eagle beak. They were far distance apart but stood as a gateway to the mountain village. Surrounded by massive piles and piles of odd shaped rocks, the two eagle boulders were powerful forces. There must be many ancient stories here. Eva said this area was an Indian American habitat and there is evidence of ritual sites. In the past, I might admire the beauty of the site and go on to a new place. But my experience in Indonesia taught me that I must respect the ancestors and the spirits. I had to bring my Komungo to the eagle rocks so a few days later we went there with my Komungo. I climbed up to the bottom of the huge boulder and with Eva's help managed to put my Komungo there. I leaned the Komungo against the lower part of the standing eagle body and I put my hand on it and asked for a blessing. After I sang a few vowels, immediately a young eagle came gliding straight toward me from the south. I stood still and quietly gazed at the eagle wings spread above me. We were humbled, amazed and speechless as to what had just happened. We sat down and meditated for a while. The artist works and the artists are going to join us. I also want to say two or three last things, which is I wanted to thank the cultural team and all the technicians that have been a part of making this possible. Without them it wouldn't have been possible so I wanted to thank you guys. I also wanted to thank... Yeah, let's give them a round of applause. I just want to thank Bose, who made these speakers, which really made a huge improvement on the sound quality. So, thanks to Bose. I also wanted to say that tomorrow is the last day of Refest and I hope you guys can come back out to see performing systems. We've got Eric in the house who's curated a really wonderful night so 7pm tomorrow performing systems will be a really great show. So thank you guys for coming. I really appreciate it. Without further ado, I'm going to pass things off to Carol. I'm coming right out. From staff for this opportunity, comments on art and technology. So, we're going to get started. HarvestWork supports the creation of new work in our team lab, which is technology, engineering, art and music. And since 1982, we've supported the Artists in Residence program. This year, the deadline for this year's program is on Tuesday, so if there are artists in the room, there's a flyer out there by the bar you can pick up. It's a call for proposals for creative residencies and emerging technology. And we started out in experimental sound and we, again, kept up with the technology and has developed and now we're sponsoring works that use biosensors, camera tracking and some of the technology that was used here interactive performance systems. And I'm sure that we'll hear a little bit more about that. And let's see, what are we doing? We're going to, yeah, 1988 HarvestWorks was an early supporter of Touching the Moon, which was a piece by Jin Hee Kim that explored the possibilities of MIDI manipulation of sounds produced by the commongo. And Alex actually was her engineer. Was it 1988? 1988. Long time ago. It's been a generation of working together and HarvestWorks is about developing relationships between the artists and their technical engineers. We're really happy to see the fruits of that relationship and we'd like to hear more. Thank you. Thank you very much. First of all, I'd like to thank everybody who made this performance possible, especially wonderful cultural staff and also the production director Billy Clark. Billy, are you? And everybody who really supports this project. And yes, I had electric commongo first time in 1988. It was a really long time ago. That was the first commongo, electric commongo. And at the time, because a computer program was not available, I was depending on electric guitar devices. So I made a very small commongo because they said you cannot have all the big body. You don't need to have a big body, just need a fret. So I made a very small one with only fret and then they said you have to change all the silk string. The commongo string is a silk. Take all the silk string out and put the metal string so they pick up and take the sound. So when I did this, it sounded like an electric guitar. It was the electric commongo. And so 10 years later when computer program is available and Alexa noise was in charge with me that he developed the program for electric commongo. So we were working so long time and I think we figured out 25 years just developing electric commongo. And then I got tired in that. So I need a new toy. So we talked about the commongo bird, commongo robot. And that's the time we met you. And so it goes because we don't have a physical instrument. But the robot is about computer programming. You have to make a parade. So that's what we've been doing. And this is the first step of doing it. So you might have to go another 20 years to go. That's the reality. I think the instrument evolved organically over a long period of time and we kept on adding new things that he was able to do. All the way back in 1988. Started out with a relatively simple program. All of this is developed inside a language called Max which is pretty widely used in the performing community and electronic musicians. And so it's just sort of we kept on going back to it and adding new features to it and kept on performing with it and changing the way that you reacted to those features. So it's a very sort of back and forth development that took a long period of time. And when was the last time we really revised it? Maybe as recently as a couple of years ago. We've been still adding... Actually every year we'll be devised. So keep going. But I think you have to look at it in terms of a refinement of a new instrument. And you know ad-harvest works we're really interested in the research and development of hybrid instruments that are acoustic instruments that have electronic components or that are enhanced in some ways by the computer and electronic devices. Let me see. I guess just started off actually as a fan of what Jeanine and Alex were doing. And then we started working together on a project called Digital Buddha. And at that point I guess I would say that the instrument was certainly... You were using Max on this piece. Yes. At that point with Alex. But Jeanine and I started exploring the ways that we could both capture and transform the instrument visually and then also maybe capture aspects of the instrument in more of an abstract sense and transform that instrument through video. So at this point we've used quite a few techniques especially on Ghost Kamungobot including thermal cameras you saw here and analog video synthesizers and the whole show is being run with a modular digital live media program called Media Max and there's a long list of things that we've tried but many more left to try. But I thought it was interesting the screen in front of the player or the performer. Is that a standard configuration? Well we tried to get the mystical... the atmosphere and by the way you used the ledger before you were trying to project the image on the air not on the screen but this space was not really made for that so we come up with the idea of a screen to make that mystical atmosphere. Ideally the images that I'm putting on the screen and Jean's performance can all merge together into one complete painting. But also the moon the images in the moon which I thought the video design was just awesome. I love the live camera and the analog stuff and the bird stuff all that stuff I thought it was really good. Very nice. Well we're all just mixing it all together. Are there any questions? Can I see a hand? The screen, you wanted to get the images in the air? Well the screen was a choice to get images in the air essentially. So one way or another that was always an idea of this project the visual performance and the projection design the idea was to get away from like oh there's a movie accompanying the performance the idea instead was to make ethereal floating images and this is one way we hope to get closer to that idea. Well first time you had the smoke completely huge the smoke machine and I filled up the space and then he project but you can imagine we can do this. By the way I see the Kyoko Kitamura Yes she's the one narrator why don't you take a bow? By the way The other thing I want to know about is decisions about spatializing the sound over the six speakers Can you tell me what decisions you made in that process? We wanted to separate from the electric and then the ghost So the ghost is the electronic sound? There's two different There's a total of six speakers in here right now the four that are basically around the audience are quad and that's the part that's generated by the ghost and the two speakers that are front of me it was just electric So then you can actually tell the sound comes in and then you can spin the sound there was also a sound effect not necessarily a ghost but then sound effects as well All of that stuff So the ghost is basically processed Is that true? I trigger a ghost Some of it is based on Kumongo sounds that have been manipulated Some of it is sounds of birds was one of the other sort of thematic things that we took a look at and took some bird sounds and slowed them down and did some spectral synthesis on them But actually it's a response to what I'm doing So we do not know when how it's going to be response Yeah, she's triggering it with the sound of her instrument And that's nice because ghost you don't control ghost it's just coming in its own way So that's the way we just leave it that way so it just comes randomly I mean we made some kind of frequency which pitch you will trigger However, my instrument's string wants to vibrate it's confusing all kind of pitch So this ghost is just coming whenever he wants Sort of like we think of it like a seance We're sort of having a seance The scene in the Joshua Tree area The rock formations It looked like the rock formations were a cutout I mean it didn't look like projection with rock formations It looked like it had been cut out like a scenery almost you know, like a piece And I don't know if that was just what I perceived That's a video effect We had a team of ghosts stayed there in the scenery really quickly and then I'll just say Well first of all I'm glad to hear that that you had that impression and thanks for sharing that But I'll just say one other thing is that those images were three photographs that Gene took Actually it's in the story The real story And then what I'm doing in the performances I have a MIDI controller and I just about an hour ago put in an hour before the show put in a bunch of effects I was just dialing in various effects in real time with the goal in my head of sort of keeping it a bit mysterious like you know am I really seeing this is it flickering away and trying to play with images on the edge of the picture It was the entire photo put through effects that effectively made it look just being cut out But it looks very realistic They're big Actually the show is never the same in terms of video Music too So it's different each time that it's performed So how much of the video is in question Do you know in the city lines of you know is this point or There's a Q sheet But within the Q sheet there's I guess improvisation We all did improvisation tonight Improvisation within the score In the score Structured improvisation There's no other questions Actually I'm really interested in the story because it's really narrative and visualization every single gear is just come together and because the story makes it work again How do you see how it makes a 3D animation on the screen Well we could do the animation and I mean there's a lot of ideas As I said before this is like a newborn baby So we have a long way to go Yes And we apply for the grant We hope that we get it so we can keep working Oh those experiences They're blessing I mean completely blessing This has only happened in the last 4 years I never had this kind of experience but it just came to me very naturally I didn't ask for I don't know when it's going to happen but it just came to me It's just completely blessing and it doesn't happen easily in the city I think we are living with too much of stuff so we can see it If we are in so quiet transparent space then something happened and I just have that It's not something that I'm looking for It just came to me and I'm completely blessed for that Thank you very much