Jingyao Shao, "Rewind"
From Steve Luber
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Performed by Jingyao Shao
11/12/2022
Myers Studio, Connecticut College
"Rewind" is a performance that uses tape to explore the entangled relationship between self and familyhood through memory. 9 VHS tapes serve as handles to revisit personal family memories recombining visuals and sounds in them.
The sounds, collected from the old home video footages, were a mix of ambient environment sound, family conversations over gatherings, and recordings from celebrations, which were significant snippets of memory around personal identity and family rituals. Most of the video footages were recorded about 15 years ago, and functioned as an very important part when constructing own culture identity and emotional attachments in the author’s early stage of the life. By adding tangibility to the VHS tape and using it as an interface to reengage with the home video collections, the performance evoked a nostalgia and simple delight. These collected sounds were digitized from the original tape and sonified into harmonies and soundscape to resonate with the emotions. A sensor was built inside of each VHS tape to detect the pulling speed to modify different parameters of the music, and trigger different visuals on the screen. During the performance, the performer pulled out each tape from a gentle speed to a more aggressive movement. The speed determined how heavy the sound was being layered out or the level of the effect.
Jingyao Shao is a Chinese new media artist based in Brooklyn, who speculates different dimensions of self-perception through installations, performances, and research. With individual and collective narratives, her works aim to evoke present conversations about the architecture of interpersonal relationships, across the spectrum from isolation to connection. She is curious about what resonates among people and seeks to build invisible ties to people and space through her practices. Her work is also influenced by her reflections and questions on culture and gender identities, both looking back on culture nostalgia and forward to future bodies.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from University of Washington and is currently pursuing a Master of Professional degree at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
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