electronics 5
Trombone, Live Processing, Composition
Solo trombone, mubone, battery-powered electronics, objects
Public Premiere: March 20, 2019 @ Spectrum Westbeth, Manhattan, NY, USA
performance Kalun Leung
sound Weston Olencki
film Peter Brensinger
What happens when you get to the venue and they have no power? It happened to Raquel, Jack and I for our debut electroacoustic set at Spectrum, a not so fun fact that we discovered upon arriving, standbying as our gracious host attempted to manual hoist the huge gate that stood between us and the unlit space. Once we decided we could carry on with fully charged laptops and enough Bluetooth speakers to go around, our host stepped up once again and went straight to the liquor and hardware store to get sorry wine and flood lanterns.
The show turned into a spatialized chamber soirée thanks to the wireless speakers we distributed around the space; with a noticeable audio latency we attempted to incorporate into our improvisation. I was already into the idea of a picnic setup for electronics, one that would require no mains power or large amplifiers, and this opportunity sealed the deal.
I was invited back to Spectrum by another curator, this time at the storied Bell Labs boardroom at Westbeth in Greenwich Village, and I made it a thing (happening?). Here it is in full glory, this time with the providence of power which I happily chose not to utilize.
Private Performances:
January 11, 2019 @ Private House Show, Manhattan, NY, USA
December 14, 2018 @ Private House Show, Manhattan, NY, USA
Interactive Wearable Garment for Performance Artist
Premiere: May 7, 2018 Glass Box Theatre The New School, Manhattan, NY, USA
concept & realization Kalun Leung
fabrication Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator
performer Rae Haas
film Peter Brensinger
This piece is inspired by sericulture, the ancient practice of cultivating silkworms to produce silk. The cocoon presented today is a prototype that demonstrates the structure of the final rendition which will be constructed out of Ahimsa silk, or peace silk, a nonviolent means of extracting silk from cocoons. Traditionally, the silkworm is boiled or steamed to death before it hatches, allowing for the single strand of silk to be unravelled unbroken. Ahimsa silk allows the silkworm to complete its metamorphosis, but at a heavy cost to production which yields ten times less silk than the boiling method.
Silkworms eat mulberry leaves for 45 days straight after which they begin building their cocoon. This process takes around 48 hours and produces a continuous strand of silk of over 1 kilometer in length. Today’s performance will not be 48 hours long, but you are invited to drink and smell the mulberry tea being served and to immerse yourself in the space as desired!
The final rendition of the garment will be a long scarf-like “strand” that can be sequentially buttoned to form the cocoon shape that you see today. The performance is intended to be durational and meditative, designed to encourage the user to focus their thoughts on snapping each button to activate tones and sounds that are transcribed from field recordings from the BF+DA production lab. Tonight’s pupation will be performed by Rae Haas.
Photo Courtesy The New School © Phillip Van Nostrand
Solo trombone, electronics, Casiotone, Keith Haring digital sketches
Premiere: December 7, 2017 @ The Bruno Walter Auditorium, Manhattan, NY, USA
composition and performance Kalun Leung
mentorship Jane Ira Bloom
From The New School Press:
Q: What interested you about this project? Leung: Getting back to old-school, detective-style, pen and paper research. Digging deep into tangible primary resources; being able to touch archival material; not relying on fragmented and second-hand info from the internet.
Q: What artifact or resources did you end up selecting and why? Leung: I ended up using 5 digital Macpaint drawings by Keith Haring, from the Timothy Leary Archives. Haring’s work is instantly recognizable and continues to permeate contemporary pop culture in the form of graphic tees and fashion endorsements. Besides personally owning Haring shirts, underwear, and branded notebooks, I was intrigued when I discovered digital art that researchers unearthed in a floppy disk that the artist sent to Timothy Leary in the 80s. These were the only known digital images that Haring produced, 3 of which I will reveal to the public for the first time!
Q: What surprised you about combining research with music? Leung: I was surprised that the Keith Haring Foundation gave me permission to use Haring’s works. Using music and academia opened up possibilities for tapping into material that would have otherwise remained in the collections of a private estate.