Transsonic: Nicola L. Hein and Viola Yip
Open to Stanford affiliates and guests for in-person attendance | Public Livestream
Transsonic, Nicola L. Hein and Viola Yip, is an experimental transmedial duo that creates immersive site-specific performances and installations bridging the vibrations of light and sound. Trained as musicians, both look into the ontology of sound and how musical experience can be transformed beyond its common material—sound. For their artistic research project Transsonic, they explore light as an expanded musical material. They research and create performances, improvising between lights and sounds as equally important but dialectical musical materials. The duo is presenting a new piece for lights and electronics that incorporate their bodies as part of the circuit.
The duo have been commissioned by Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Seanaps Festival Leipzig, Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago and have presented at New York University, Infreuquent Seams streamfest, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Sonic Lab in SARC at Queen's University Belfast, Huddersfield, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Klex Festival in Kuala Lumpur, De Tanker in Amsterdam, Alte Feuerwache Köln, Fuhrwerkswaage, Willows Nest, Studio Börne 45, West Germany in Berlin, and NIME.
The concert will be live streamed to CCRMA LIVE with free access for the general public.
Nicola L. Hein is a sound artist, guitarist, creative technologist, composer and researcher in music and aesthetics. His work is driven by the interaction of sound and space, light, movement, thought and the becoming of embodied and intermedial intelligence in aesthetic systems, community and technology. In his artistic work he uses physical and electronic extension of the electric guitar, sound installations, cybernetic human-machine interaction with A.I. interactive music systems, Augmented Reality, telematic real-time art, ambisonic sound projection, instrument building, conceptual compositions. Inter-media works with video art, dance, literature and other art forms constitute another focus of his practice. With the support of the Goethe Institute and many other institutions, his artworks have been realized in more than 30 countries worldwide. He worked with many of the world's most established artists in the field of sound art and improvised music.
Performances at MaerzMusik Festival (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), Moers Festival, A L’ARME! FESTIVAL (Berlin), Super Deluxe (Tokyo), Sonica Festival (Glasgow), Acht Brücken Festival (Cologne) Experimental Intermedia (New York), Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago), Walcheturm (Zürich), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (Hong Kong), New Interfaces Musical Expression (NIME)(Brasil/UK/China), Ludwig Museum Budapest and Koblenz, Mapping Festival Genf, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Knockdown Center (New York), Harvestworks (New York), Museo Arte Moderno (Medellín), Museo Morelense de Arte Contemporáneo Juan Soriano (Cuernavaca), Centro Cultural Recoleta (Buenos Aires(, Mirage Festival (Lyon), Dark Circuits Festival (New York), Festival International des Cine (Mexico City), KHM (Köln), Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras/CMMAS (Morelia), Klexx Festival (Kuala Lumpur), Palmgarten (Frankfurt), Radialsystem (Berlin), Exploratorium, KM28, Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry University of Chicago, Sonic Lab in SARC at Queen’s University Belfast, New York City Electronics Music Festival and many more.
Furthermore, he works as a researcher in the field of aesthetics, gives lectures at different institutions around the world, such as Columbia University New York, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, LaSALLE School of the Arts Singapore, University of Dijon, Goethe Institute Pune, Chennai College of Technology, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Trinity Laban College of Music/Dance,London UK, Goethe Institut Trivandrum, National Museum of Tanzania, Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz in Berlin, Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch Berlin, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Musicas Expandidas Festival Pasto, Centro Cultural Recoleta Buenos Aires, Universidad de los Andes Bogotà.
Following an invitation of Prof. George E. Lewis, he has been a visiting scholar at the music department of Columbia University in New York. Currently he is a visiting professor of sound art at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
Viola Yip is an experimental composer, performer, improviser, sound artist and instrument builder from Hong Kong. She has been interested in creating new self-built instruments and sound works in the intersection of composition, performance, improvisation and sound art, exploring various relationships between media, materiality, space and our musical bodies in experimental music.
Her instruments and sound performances have been presented in music festivals and venues such as Issue Project Room, The Look and Listen Festival, The New School, Cycling ‘74 Expo, Sonic Arts Research Center at Queen's University Belfast (UK), QO-2 (Brussels), Currents/ Festival für aktuelle Tiefkultur (Köln), A L’arme! Festival (Berlin), Seanaps Festival (Leipzig), Festival für Immaterielle Kunst (Hamburg) and ZHdK (Zurich).
She has given workshops and talks in Stanford University, Yale University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Hong Kong Baptist University, City University of Hong Kong, Ars Electronica Hong Kong Garden (HK) and Universität der Künste Berlin.
She recently received an Honorary Mention from Giga-Hertz-Preis 2021 at ZKM (Center for Arts and Media) in Karlsruhe, Künstlerhaus Villa Waldberta stipendium in Munich as well as grants from Akademie der Künste Berlin.