Title: YPhenomenon-Quadraphonic ver.2
Form: Sound video installation
Length: 8'38” loop
Media: Computer, speaker, computer generated images
Year: 2011
“Granulated sounds, sometimes concentrated, sometimes diffused spread through the space. Grainy images accompany and collide with the sounds, moving through your body.”
- Chang Yung-Ta
Living in a world full of reproductions and representations, Chang Yung-Ta thinks people have become too accustomed to believing in the authenticity of everything they see and hear, and the original version of these images and sounds seems to be no longer important. Our everyday lives are filled with all kinds of sounds: noise, ambient sounds, people speaking and other sounds, and Chang records them all, not to create musique concrete or ambient soundscapes, but rather to experiment with ambient sounds and explore the possibilities of noise reproduction.
Y Phenomenon is a series of sound-art pieces. The “Y” stands for the city of Yamaguchi in Japan. While the sound artist Chang Yung-Ta was participating in an internship at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, he collected the sounds of Japanese life, such as those from nature, those made by people, and traffic and television program sounds. Chang then granulated and rearranged the sounds using digital modulation techniques making each segment of sound into a tiny granule, which travels through the exhibition venue. With the new 2011 version of quadraphonic sounds and semicircular images, the viewer can experience the change in sound and visuals in space.
Chang Yung-Ta has consistently used a low-key, restrained visual style to extend the exploratory quality of his sound art productions and present his unique view of sound-image overload in the information age. Bold yet delicate sound variations are combined with granulated and dynamic visual elements, which drift and collide in the circular, 360 degree surrounding venue, forming an alternative sensory panorama. Using sound particles as electrical current, and the perception of abstract shifting light as a conductor, Chang creates pure landscapes of visual and aural fluctuations in this unique circular space. Viewers will enjoy the sensation of being immersed in granulated sound and light beams, which stimulate both the eyes and ears.
