Contemporary Chinese Sound Art and the Politics of Equality

Location: Young Auditorium, Bey Hall

Contemporary Chinese Sound Art and the Politics of Equality (Lecture and discussion)
Prof. Andrew Demirjian, Department of Communication
Xiaoying Yuan, Independent Art Curator

Since its import into China, the evolution of and the practice of Sound Art, like the art of New Media, has been completely re-shaped by the political system, social structure, and market economy of contemporary China. Sound Art in China – as it’s been greatly affected by the local culture – has very little in common with its original reference in Western art history. In a classroom colloquium format, media art curator Xiaoying Yuan will discuss artists in contemporary China who work with sound as their medium and the issues of equality they encounter from a social, political, and institutional perspective. During her presentation she will play excerpts of compositions and video documentation of influential performances of this vibrant and extremely creative experimental art community that has limited access to gain the attention of Western art media.

About the Lecturer
Xiaoying Juliette Yuan holds a Master of Generative Literature from Paris III (la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France), and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Planetary Collegium (University of Plymouth, UK), under the direction of Roy Ascott. She has worked in the media arts field since 2004, and is one of the most active figures in the Chinese media arts scene.

Her accomplished projects include international exhibitions, conferences and workshops. Her collaborators include governmental institutions, academies, museums, festivals, private institutions, and foundations, both in China and overseas. She is also an active editor and writer, and has widely published surveys and critiques in mainstream Chinese and international magazines.