Beijing Trip | 20-November thru 2-December 2004
In the winter of 2004 I traveled to Beijing, China to perform at the conference Consciousness Reframed 2004, convened by the Planetary Collegium, and held at The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), 24-27 November. There was also an evening of computer music held at the Central Conservatory of Music, which is where I had the chance to perform. This year's topic was 'Qi and Complexity', and I was invited to perform excerpts from my work Sitting.Breathing.Beating.[Not]Thinking for Solo Performer.
Pictures and short video clips can be found below...
I must offer my humble thanks to the following people for making this experience possible:
Kenneth Fields, the main organizer of events who invited me, and who is a fine composer and computer musician
Roy Ascott, the head of the Planetary Collegium
David Rosenboom, the Dean of Music at Calarts, and my mentor with whom I studied intensely while developing the piece I performed, and who also helped secure funding for the trip from Calarts
Lynn Rosenfeld, Dean of Special Projects at Calarts
George and MaryLou Boone, Trustees at Calarts, whose grant, the George and MaryLou Boone Fund for Artistic Advancement, paid for my plane ticket
The Calarts Office of Student Affairs, whose Ahmanson Grant helped fund some basic Chinese lessons
PICS (Sort of in chronological order...)
The nighttime view from CAFA
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Tiananmen Square
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The very strange Chinese Wax Museum, on the east side of of Tiananmen square
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Pics from the Forbidden City and the park just north of it
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Pics from a Tibetan Buddhist Lamasery, and from a Confucian Temple
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Preparations for the performance at the Central Conservatory of Music -- pictured later on are the fabulously friendly duo, Gabrielle and Jan Trutzschler (Jan also performed), and Kenneth Fields, the organizer of Consciousness Reframed (and who also premiered a piece on the concert)
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Temple of Heaven park, with friends Jan, Gabriele, and Eero-Tapio Vuori
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The Dashanzi Art District
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Some pics of the US west coast during the sunset on the plane ride home
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Short Video Clips | These are really short - my snapshot camera only allows 10 to 20-second clips before it cuts off - unfortunately they are also somewhat big files
Tiananmen Square
tiananmen.walking.west1.AVI (3.7 MB)
tiananmen.walking.west2.AVI (3.7 MB)
tiananmen.walking.to.mao1.AVI (2.8 MB)
tiananmen.walking.to.mao3.AVI (3.2 MB)
Spontaneous singing in the park just north of the Forbidden City
singing.in.the.park1.AVI (2.9 MB)
singing.in.the.park2.AVI (3.2 MB)
singing.in.the.park3.AVI (2.8 MB) | it's too dark to see, but you can still hear everyone...
Music near the Temple of Heaven Park
voice&flute1.AVI (3.7 MB)
voice&flute2.AVI (3.7 MB)