Guangzhou to Vienna
Edward Sanderson (ES): What has been your experience of the COVID situation since last year?
Ye Hui (YH): The situation in my city, Vienna, is of course different from the situation in China. I think in Mainland China they have already had more than one year of quite normal life. But it’s not the same in Europe; it has always been an on-and-off situation here.
For me it was very crazy last year. I was actually in China during the outbreak – this was a terrible experience for me. I am Cantonese, I originally come from Guangzhou. Normally I travel quite often between Europe and China because both of my parents still live in Guangzhou. Just like normal I had gone back to China in February 2020 for Chinese New Year, and exactly two days after I arrived there was the COVID outbreak in Guangzhou. It was a very terrible experience: I saw this huge city suddenly go silent, within just one or two days. What is more terrible and scarier though, at a time when everyone is scared you really feel how bad the political response is, how it affects things. There was zero transparency about anything – there is this fear but no information. It was a nightmare for me; it was very stressful. My family thought that I should immediately get a flight back to Europe; they were panicking about whether I would be able get back. So, in March, after two weeks or so of staying at home most of the time, I flew back to Vienna. But it was so funny: ten days after I arrived back in Vienna there was the lock down here. At the beginning, while I was in China, everyone in Europe was sending me messages asking how I was and how the situation was there; everyone was worrying about me there. But I don’t think Europe was ready for COVID, and ten days after I’m back it was lockdown here.
Platforms and Collectives: Echoraeume and Mai Ling
YH: In terms of music, I must say that in my musician circle in Vienna they did quite a good job. A few friends of mine reacted very fast and they very quickly built up an online platform during that first lockdown. There is an off-space in Vienna called Echoraum, quite an old one, that has existed for thirty or forty years already. It has even gone to the next generation of organisers; it is always getting more young people involved. They arranged to build up this online platform (Echoraeume) for the off-space from the very beginning of the lockdown, and then a few musicians started to hold online concerts on that platform. The platform design is quite interesting as they really thought hard about reflecting the physical space: they included a bar, an audio room, and they even created a balcony where we would normally smoke together. I think this is really nice. In terms of my own work on this online platform, I didn’t do any music performance at that time, but Mai Ling, an artist collective for female Asian artists that we started in 2018, began a live broadcast in May on there. This is called “Mai Ling Speaks” and is focused on the anti-Asian racism. This was a very important work for me at the beginning of this pandemic. I was very grateful that they gave us this online space to start this broadcast.
We got in contact with different artists, cultural associations, and campaigns over the whole world, that have started similar work to go against this anti-Asian racism. For the first Mai Ling Speaks we invited the New York-based artist, Kenneth Lam, because I had heard from a friend in New York that he started a campaign named “Stop discriminAsian” and had created a spreadsheet for people of Asian-descent to write about any anti-Asian incidents they had confronted during this period – they are doing a great job. The second episode of Mai Ling Speaks was with an association in Germany, and now recently we did an episode with an activist in Paris.1Germany: Korientation (https://www.korientation.de); Activist, author and broadcast producer based in Paris: Grace Ly (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Ly); London/Asian Art Activists: Annie Jael Kwan; Curator and Scholar from Guangzhou Times Museum: Nikita Yingqian Cai. The anti-Asian racism was the starting point for this, but we have also done some episodes about research into the Asian diaspora. We invited a scholar and curator who did this kind of research to contribute on this topic. We also interviewed someone from London from Asian Art Activists. I hope that we can do this more often, but the problems are of course organization – many of us are really busy with our own work, and funding – because we want to be able to pay our guests and also ourselves.
Live or otherwise
ES: How long were there no live performances, and when did they start up again?
YH: As I said, it was quite an on-and-off situation last year during the lockdown. But we had this online platform and I know many musicians did programs and concerts there at that time. During the Summer until the beginning of Autumn Vienna was more open, it was getting more relaxed again and there were some concerts. Then I think the second lockdown was in October, and this went on for quite a long time, more than half a year. We didn’t have any restaurants or these kinds of places open for half a year – it was terrible! During this time of course there were no performance at all.
ES: Did you see any live-streamed experimental music performances organised during lockdowns, particularly by artists in China? Did you do any yourself?
YH: I attended some online events organized by my friends at Echoraeume. Unfortunately, I didn’t watch any live-streams by the Chinese artists – I was not really updated with information of my Chinese friends during that time.
I must say that I didn’t do any online performances last year, but I think I played a few live concerts. I only got requests for online performances very recently, and I only started to think about them at that point. For me this is quite new and I didn’t really want to do live online performance before because I was concerned about the sound quality which is so dependent on the internet. But recently, this year, I have been doing these pre-recorded sets. This is for me a better option, as I have control over the sound. Therefore, I go for it.
ES: Did you feel that there was no way to resolve the technical and sound quality issues for the online performances?
YH: I was really not sure about this. I always had the feeling that if I’m going to do this I also need to carefully consider my concept. My opinion is that I don’t believe that this kind of live performance can be one-to-one live, live in real-time, because on the internet there is no real-time. So if I am really going to do this, I think it’s very important to include the medium and the situation in the concept of the performance.
ES: It’s interesting that you are now getting requests for pre-recorded performances. These get around some of the problems with online live performance, but obviously you lose that impression of a “direct” liveness.
YH: Yes, it’s a completely different experience. I have the feeling that I am revealing a new world and this is very interesting. Pre-recording can be very intimate, very private – I am just playing for myself. At that moment I don’t have the feeling that I am playing for someone else. I like it! I’m quieter, I’m more in myself, and I’m quite satisfied with the end results. Of course, it is also important to have direct contact with the audience, but on the other hand I’m also enjoying its lack. With the performance for THY Lab, for example, I was not sure, I had the feeling maybe I’m just doing a kind of music video. I also discussed this with another friend, and he asked whether it was as if you turned on the TV and they were broadcasting a concert? I think, oh yes, this format already exists for a very long time! However, at THY Lab it’s different, somehow reversed, because what I’m doing is very private, but they arrange a public event. This is not the same as watching a public concert on your television at home. This is completely turned the other way. This is quite interesting for me.
We need to change the way that we think about online performance; we can’t just copy everything from reality that we knew before, one to one. We now need to consider and include other factors, like the internet, like the medium used. Before, when we play live we don’t necessarily need to consider such things so much: I don’t need to arrange my own camera, I don’t need to think about where I want to record the performance, or how to deal with the technical things. Sometimes I also think it seems like much more work than before, but on the other hand I feel a little bit more in control.
Pre-Recorded Live: The Ceramic House and THY Lab
ES: So last weekend (9 July 2021) you had a pre-recorded performance at THY Lab in Hong Kong, and before that one for The Ceramic House in the UK (9 June 2021). How many of other pre-recorded events have you done?
YH: It’s just those two. I did get another request where they also wanted me to do a live set, but I said I would prefer to screen one of my video works related to sound, which they accepted. So, I only started this recently. Before I would prefer to just play live, because the quality of the sound is an important part of my work. I don’t really want to do online performance if the sound is a problem.
ES: The reason I’ve picked up on this is because there have been a few other events which have been comprised of all pre-recorded “live” videos. For instance, there was the Tusk Festival last year in the UK, which Yan Jun had a piece in. They had limited periods where they released series of videos. This was the first time I had come across this format, of starting at a particular time, and then just running the videos in sequence. I felt it was slightly strange: because they’re pre-recorded, the viewing time is surely irrelevant? Although for the Festival itself, the time at which they are “released” becomes more important. This idea of time becomes a bit unhinged.
YH: This is very interesting. Also, some big institutions are releasing video works online at certain times. On the one hand this is great, because it’s never been so easy to approach these video works, by really great artists – it’s quite cool. But on the other hand, you know it is never the same. A video work displayed online or you’re sitting in an exhibition space watching it, these are completely different experiences. Between an exhibition or a cinema situation, is also completely different. I have attended online screenings and I was really grateful that I could see such wonderful work, but I also found it such a pity that I must watch it on the screen of my laptop.
Private or Semi-Private Performances
ES: With your pre-recorded performances, can you talk me through what you were doing and how you tried to address the fact that it was going to be on a small screen, not in an ideal exhibition situation?
YH: THY Lab was a great solution for me because there was still a live event, people were gathering in a physical space to watch it together. Since COVID began we have been able to attend so many online lectures or symposium, sometimes I also arrange to watch these together with friends. This is a completely different experience – we can discuss the event with each other, and it becomes much more interesting than if I watched it at home alone. So, even though THY Lab had a pre-recorded set, they arranged an event where people could gather, live. I’m very happy this happened, and I think it’s great that afterwards I was also able to appear live on screen to answer questions. Even though I’m not going to play the music live together with the audience, I can still communicate with them afterwards.
ES: For these pre-recorded performances, what choices have you made in terms of how you present yourself?
YH: I tried to find what kind of environment at home it could happen in that would make it more fun. I’m in my home, and so I’m showing something private, but I also don’t want to show too much of my private space. So my choices have been on the balcony, and in the kitchen – these are my environments. They are private, they have a certain meaning, but they are also places that I think I am comfortable showing. I don’t want to do this on my work table, for example, which I think is too private. When I was being interviewed by The Ceramic House they also asked me about my decision to play on the balcony. The balcony is a very interesting space for me, because it is a half-public space; people can see me, and I overlook this garden in the centre of the block of apartments. I have no idea if a neighbour sees that there is something different happening on one of the other balconies. I have my very small setup, and the camera. Maybe it looks a little bit strange? But nobody knows what I’m doing except me because I’m wearing headphones. I don’t know yet what this means for me, being half-public but absolutely isolated as the only one who experiences what I’m doing. It was a quite interesting experience for me.
ES: How does it differ from the way you would normally perform?
YH: Because I’m more of a computer musician, I predominantly just perform with my computer. So normally this is less interesting as a live set because people have nothing to see. But this is completely okay for me. I always have quite a minimal setup.
ES: Do you have any other performances coming up, either pre-recorded or live?
YH: If I can arrange my schedule in September, I will compose a small sound piece for an installation in Innsbruck and also perform live there. Otherwise, we’re taking a break from Mai Ling Speaks at the moment since the COVID situation has become a bit more relaxed and public events are now allowed again, so we don’t have a big audience for the online streaming events. But we probably will re-start in Autumn and will keep our Facebook page updated regarding this.
- 1Germany: Korientation (https://www.korientation.de); Activist, author and broadcast producer based in Paris: Grace Ly (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Ly); London/Asian Art Activists: Annie Jael Kwan; Curator and Scholar from Guangzhou Times Museum: Nikita Yingqian Cai.