This is Yan Jun’s bio.
Yan Jun, a musician and poet based in Beijing.
he works on experimental music and improvised music. he uses noise, field recording, body and concept as materials.
sometimes he goes to audience’s home for playing a plastic bag.
“i wish i was a piece of field recording.”
Yan Jun’s bio was interesting and humorous, it seems he doesn’t take himself entirely seriously as a lot of other realms in sound art are. I’m currently heavily into field recordings and I’m interested to see what his process of recording field recordings are? As well as playing in the audience’s homes? A plastic bag?
Plays John Cage
https://yanjun.bandcamp.com/album/plays-john-cage
I found this album on Yan Jun’s Bandcamp. It’s a reflection of John Cage’s work, 4:33. He performs 4:33 in different ways. For example, electric guitar in the elevator. In specific, I enjoyed electromagnetic wave of cd player. This piece captured with electro magnetic microphones displayed the hidden audio that isn’t usually noticed. Sometimes I believe we can forget that even our equipment emits sounds and it doesn’t just produce sound when being used. When it’s on standby, the circuits still receive electricity through them. This sort of project displays our hidden sonic world.
Yan Jun (self-titled)
This project isn’t untitled but self-titled. In similar regard to what Marcel Duchamp says, “title is invisible colour, for me be with no title is using invisible canvas.
I listened to a small extract of the piece as it’s fifty-four minutes long. The piece has an almost generative feeling to it. As if there is a contact mic positioned on Yan Jun’s skin. I’m curious to understand the process of making this project. Why did he do it? What does it mean to him?
Yan Jun – Speakers Have A Right To Die
In this article, Yan Jun, speaks about blowing speakers up intentionally. The reasons why for him are a few, firstly in China where he is from. A lot of the live performance circuit venues have fake speakers that don’t display music properly. They have the same casing as other speakers that are imitating but don’t have the same sound. Yan Jun specifically goes there to blow up these speakers so the owner of the venue has to purchase them. He also speaks about how accepting that speakers will die is a good process for artists to understand that nothing is perfect.
Post Lecture Reflection
Yan Jun begins by showing us his room and space he works in, he spoke about the minimalism of his studio and how important that is to him. He’s used his space for a few things, he organises gigs and performed in his space as well.
Yan Jun speaks on how he has two types of work. One very isolated and concentrated and the other with people. Music for him is something you connect yourself with other people. Music is with others, if not the people in the room then the environment. And this is his physical understanding of music.
He started from electronic music and field recording. Chinese translation of electronic music is, similar to people. They call electronic music people music in china. Since he started to make electronic music they say sit behind a laptop. Table music he finds it? Table music he reassures is what he calls it.
He shows us an example of table music he has made before. Cone speakers on a table, on a foam structure, on a large table with participants. He invited them to watch the speakers.
Since the middle 1990s – 2010s, there was a popular theory of electronic music/ sound art. Table music, calling sound as objects. This created a popular attitude to avoid anything other than sound. To focus on listening, and focus just on sound. No expression, no visual, no text. No sound. That was quite popular and he does agree he was influenced by this and after a while, he starts to change his work.
He shows an example of a performance he’s done in a gallery, a feedback solo performance in Shanghai 2021. In a room with a projection and a lamp. He’s dancing and waving his hands to control how the feedback reacts and changes in live time.
He’s free from the table now he says, he doesn’t sit on the table. He doesn’t touch the mixer or the instrument. It’s feedback, he touches the air. Feedback between speakers and microphone.
He goes on to explain that he won’t go into detail about his technical setup. As everyone should find their own. Feedback for him is a tool to connect to the room with equipment. He now creates self-made small electronic machines and there not perfect. It depends on the electricity he says if he plays it in Europe or other countries You have a different standard of voltage and electricity which is much more professional than in china.
He was aware of electronic faults in his work. Some places didn’t have grounding or have no ground. So it affects the sound. Noise always depends on the equipment.
Noise is a contemporary culture he says. He realised he lives in a country of noise. So he almost never plays electronic music in China anymore. And so he tried to play something different and use his body.
He then plays man jun gestures 1. Using his body to control feedback. In a dark room. Different electronic equipment comes on and off it sounds like typewriters, printers. In this piece, he explains he asked photographers to take photos of him. He does slow gestures. And the sounds are from the camera. His movement isn’t a gesture to act, or fixed but improvisational. Interesting that the sound doesn’t come from him. He just moves his body and lets them take photos. If he moves fast and gives them more things to shoot and they will take more photos and the “music” will become more intense. If he stands still they will take more time to frame the photo and take fewer shots. He is conducting in a different way than usual.
He states that he doesn’t agree with John cages idea that everything is music. But in his case, he has to live with this. His music has to share a room with other sounds. It’s either his neighbour or a roommate, so it changed his mind from the pure sound to the idea that sound lives with others.
He then shares a video of him doing table music, this was before he changed his style to his new performative work. He’s effecting feedback between a cone speaker and a parabolic dish with a microphone. He moves his hands to adjust pitch almost like a theremin.
He places a piezo mic underneath a speaker. And tries to influence the sound. He doesn’t move a lot. One day he realised, from the video he is showing us. When he watched it he realised, he looks like he was performing when he moves, so he decided to develop this performative element. It’s not only about sound, or listening he says. This is why we go to concerts, we want to meet people, hear the room. The air, the smell, the experience.
He speaks on how he sees himself as an artist, not a master of anything. He’s not a craftsman, he’s not a master of playing any instrument, software, voice. He says he tries to be good but he knows to be a master he has to give up something else. But he needs time and energy for something more important than mastering. To him it’s about how does he build a connection, in a small room, a big room, it’s the more important thing for him. Once you find this connection, you build it bigger and bigger. This for him is the meaning of art.
He explains towards the end about his interests in his artistic vision and how he’s constantly jumping and changing, he wanted to share with us this about his practice.
Throughout the Q&A we spoke on the opposite of being a virtuoso. The idea is that being a master isn’t what he wants to be. The idea of being great, rather than seeking this attained expectation of greatness wasn’t what he wanted to do. To him creating is a process of creative reflection, not a desire to become a master or better. As he explained it, to make the audience you perform in front of feel like losers.
I found his lecture really engaging, he had a very laid back demeanour and this allowed me to feel relaxed and take his words for what he truly feels. What spoke the most to me was the long Q&A we had, which mainly focused on the idea of not being a master. Enjoying the creative process, creating for yourself and not just being a master at something.
Seeing as we have an upcoming hand in towards the end of the second year I do feel that this is my current mindset. I don’t really have the interest in becoming a master, I want to enjoy the process. Which I have been for a long time. I’m unsure where I’m going in terms for the hand in but open to exploration is the first step.