Dongxi & Qiyue

Ongoing, since 2011

Electronic music, music videos, and instruments

2012 MassaChusetts College of Art and Design Morton R. Godine Fellowship

"Dongxi" word-for-word translates in Mandarin Chinese to "East-West." With my Dongxi projects, I am exploring the two sides of my culture: the traditional Asian music from my heritage, and the western electronic and hip-hop music I grew up on in Brooklyn, NY.

"Qiyue" means "instrumental music". The Qiyue project is a multimedia live performance. It involves a modified pipa lute, that plays sound and animation live through a computer. The sounds are samples of traditional Chinese instruments, as well as western hip-hop and rock beats and percussion. The animated graphics correlate to specific sounds and are based mainly on Chinese papercutting patterns.

My next project in the series is my proposal to design and build a new electronic instrument for live performance. This proposal, "Dongxi Zither," won the 2012 Morton Godine Fellowship at MassArt:

Qiyue Performance photography by Ben Gebo