photo courtesy of Brad Serls
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// Kynan Tan (b. 1988)
/ Biography + CV
Kynan Tan is an artist who works through digital means to create audio-visual works, electroacoustic compositions, installations and improvised live performances. These works investigate the use of computer technologies and the manipulation of data through the output of digital sound and image. The majority of works question the role of the computer in the creation of art – as an instrument, mediator, processor and creative tool.
In 2012 Kynan completed a JUMP Mentorship, working with renowned audio-visual artist Robin Fox to explore synaesthetic connections in audio-visual artworks. This resulted in the large-scale, dual-screen work multiplicity, which premiered at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and has since been performed in Melbourne, Sydney and Tokyo. In 2013, Kynan received a DCA Young People and the Arts Fellowship to continue to undertake a program of skills development and new work creation.
In 2011 Kynan finalised two commissioned audio-visual works; split mirror planes for four instruments and four audio/visual sources, written for and commissioned by Decibel New Music Ensemble, and the 32-minute audio-visual work consciousness, commissioned by Tura New Music and premiered at The Bakery, Perth. The Listen/Hear Collective label released Kynan’s debut album raetina in early 2012 as a follow up to his self-released EP, two clouds. In live performances of electronic music, Kynan has supported Actress (UK), Oneohtrixpointnever (USA), Robin Fox and Aoki Takamasa (JPN).
Kynan’s installations have been displayed in various galleries and museums, including the interactive, networked dome installation Sound Chamber (NH7 festival, Pune, India 2012, Wonderland exhibition at MoCA Taipei, Taiwan 2011 and Scitech, Perth 2010-2011). Kynan is also heavily involved in collaborating with dance, working with Emma Fishwick and Jo Pollitt, as well as collaborating with LINK Dance Company - Caused to Happen with Craig Bary (NZ), and Memorial with LINK artistic director Michael Whaites.
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// Press
“a series of audiovisual ‘vignettes,’ that are by turn dramatic, pensive, beautiful, intriguing and confronting”
“I grin with delight. I’m experiencing art and music as not only exciting, but as dangerous, and that hardly ever happens. It’s like I’m hearing Hendrix for the first time or something”
“Kynan’s performance was one of the most remarkable things I’ve seen for a long while”
- Lyndon Blue, Cool Perth Nights, December 2012
“a celebration of everything great art should be, powerful and confronting, yet thought-provokingly cerebral at the same time”
“The relationship Tan draws between sight and sound always favours the obtuse, while never being entirely unpredictable. This results in a work that immediately and clearly communicates its ideas while playing with the audience and their perceptual expectations. Ultimately, it is Tan’s ability to play with tension and expectation that makes Multiplicity such an original and engaging work”
- Sam Gillies, RealTime, February 2013
“Spatialising audio is by now a fairly common technique in new music but spatialised visual material is something I have not seen before. The sound and images here do not merely reflect one another but rather create a sonic-visual counterpoint, constantly in motion toward or away from each other”
- Henry Anderson review of split mirror planes, RealTime, September 2011
“The entire album is more structured than any other release of Tan’s to date, and yet this seems to help him funnel these influences into something truly unique and expressive. From the evolving dark drones and noise bursts of ‘Gleichzeitig’ to the skittering textures of ‘Sleepy Solemn’, everything feels deliberately crafted, the product of an artists vision while exploring the possibilities of sound.”
- Sam Gillies review of Raetina, Cyclic Defrost, May 2012
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// Selected Achievements
/ Awards
2013 – Young People and the Arts Fellowship – Undertake a program of skills development, research and creation of new multi-platform digital work
2013 – Artstart – Skills development, promotion and studio setup to establish a career as an audio visual artist
2012 – JUMP Mentorship Grant – study with audio-visual artist Robin Fox to develop a new synaesthetic live performance work
2010 – Tura Commissioning Award – presented by Tura New Music, creation and presentation of large-scale audio-visual work consciousness
/ Audio-visual Works
2012 - multiplicity – large-scale, dual-screen audio-visual work presented at PICA (Perth), NOW now festival program launch (Syd), Tape Projects (Melb), Test Tone @ SuperDeluxe (Tokyo)
2012 - consciousness – large-scale audio-visual work presented at The Bakery (Perth), Nu Things (Osaka), Tape Projects (Melb), AV Union (Syd), Terrace Bar (Newcastle)
2011 - split mirror planes – for four instruments and four audio/visual sources, commissioned by Decibel new music ensemble – premiered at PICA
/ Collaborations
2012 - All My World is Scaffolding – sound – choreographed by Jo Pollitt and Tara Daniel, performed at PICA
2012 - Multiple Mobs of 1 – sound and video projections – choreographed Emma Fishwick, performed at Chrissie Parrott Art Space
/ Installations
2011 - Sound Chamber – internet interactivity and audio/visual dome installation - Wonderland exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan
2010 - hypnogenia – interactive audio/visual work – Scitech, Perth
/ Ensemble Works
2010 - lucidity – major composition for electroacoustic ensemble: acoustic instruments, computer processing, sound synthesis and video projections
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// Contact Details
e: contact@kynantan.com
m: (+614) 1137 8475
w: www.kynantan.com