Junhong McIntosh-Lee
Connections.1&2 seek to expand on the process-driven approach Junhong has brought to past projects. The random and algorithmically oriented aspects of his previous experimental audio pieces have been replaced with raw data, specifically of breath. With this, Junhong examines the changes in breath when subject to different stimuli (shown in each film's visuals).
The musical portions of each film are identical in all ways except for the raw breath data that drives other variables in the composition. The synths, effects, mix and other elements are unchanged between the two scores, allowing the differences in the one variable (raw breath data) to influence movement and impact of the score. With this, Junhong seeks to score each film with a piece of audio that accompanies the visuals without being explicitly written to do so, but is rather informed by the body’s reaction to those visuals.
Junhong McIntosh-Lee
Connections.1&2 seek to expand on the process-driven approach Junhong has brought to past projects. The random and algorithmically oriented aspects of his previous experimental audio pieces have been replaced with raw data, specifically of breath. With this, Junhong examines the changes in breath when subject to different stimuli (shown in each film's visuals).
The musical portions of each film are identical in all ways except for the raw breath data that drives other variables in the composition. The synths, effects, mix and other elements are unchanged between the two scores, allowing the differences in the one variable (raw breath data) to influence movement and impact of the score. With this, Junhong seeks to score each film with a piece of audio that accompanies the visuals without being explicitly written to do so, but is rather informed by the body’s reaction to those visuals.
Connections.1
Connections.2
Dramaturg's Notes
Over the two films, musician and audio-artist Junhong McIntosh-Lee investigates the central question: How can various patterns in breathing be used to create a soundscore?
Specifically, Junhong looked towards the social media platform tiktok to assess how being bombarded with myriad videos influenced his breath. As a control experiment, he also positioned himself outdoors, disconnected from electronic devices and the internet, for the same purpose. Since the intent was to use these patterns as data that would be manipulated as a soundscape, the audio-recording of the ephemeral exhale was crucial. These data were later manipulated using digital synthesisers and audio post-processing. Each musical note assigned to each individual breath was randomised and later moderated with Junhong’s musician sensibilities. These became the soundscapes that we experience in Connections.1 and Connections.2.
In the films the varied tonal qualities that we hear - short, fast and inconsistent versus prolonged, sustained and with greater resonance - are complemented by the visuals that Jun experienced as well. There are moments in Connections.1 where the peaks in the soundscape parallel the viewer's own breathing patterns while watching the TikTok videos that may be manifest through a smile or sigh. In these ways, Junhong subtly brings to the fore his process of the research premise - how breath translates into sounds. The different use of frames in both films, heightens the different perspectives we can have. The multiple portrait-oriented TikTok frames not only mimic the densely packed living conditions in cityspaces. It also becomes a reminder of how we see the world - connections across space and time that we attempt to make through the vertical digital frame perhaps remain tangential at best. On the other hand, Junhong’s control experience outdoors is visually translated through the horizontal frame, an ode to how the human eye also picks up the vastness of landscapes, that we see in Connections.2. Again this keeps to Junhong’s embodied experience of being in that park space.
In succession, the films throw into relief an urbanite's experience. With the multiple TikTok frames in Connections.1, the amount of light pollution that one is bombarded with stands in stark comparison to the possible yearning for an unrestricted natural space of Connections.2. To a large degree then, both films offer a commentary on how urban life has caused us to feel, both physically and emotionally.
About Artist(s)
Junhong McIntosh-Lee
Canadian audio artist and musician, Junhong McIntosh-Lee, has been developing generative sound pieces over the last few years. With a background in electronic music, Junhong has been exploring ways to remove control from the artist within electronic production, allowing the process to influence the art more so than the direct decisions of the artist.
As the composer for the score to Lee Sufeh and Justine Chambers’ dance piece “Spiralling by the Sea”, Junhong worked with heavily affected guitar loops to create a shifting, breathing score that changed subtly with every play through. Influenced by Terry Riley’s “In C”, the score to “Spiralling by the Sea '' grounds itself within a single scale and tempo. All the guitar loops fit within this simple framework so that when they are played back at random periods, the score never feels disjointed, but is still different with every listen. Early versions of this experiment would be featured in Junhong’s solo electronic project “jeff1”.
Junhong’s interest in process based writing has lead to a number of scores and ambient musical pieces, all of which explore different methods of removing conscious decision making processes whilst writing. This allows Junhong’s work to be informed by naturally occurring patterns, and other abstract concepts (chaos, randomness etc.).
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