JINGXUAN FAN
A series of performance works
Grasp It
2024 sound installation
Not long ago, my uncle committed suicide. During the auditory-dominant mediumship process I had with him, unlike before, these communications were filled with unusual hesitation and uncertainty—when that invisible transcendental perception tried to be downgraded and compressed into visible language, words often lingered on the edge, and moments of speechlessness were instead filled with ambiguity and multiple possibilities. I tried to capture those words that were suspended in the air, not yet settled, and this experience unexpectedly reminded me of large language models (LLM) and their probabilistic, rather than deterministic, way of working.
I collected these uncertain sound fragments captured during the mediumship with my uncle—those pauses, unclear syllables, and moments that approached words but ultimately dissipated. These fragments became the core material for three artificial intelligence sound devices. The AI in the devices "listens" to the ambiguities in these fragments and then generates new narratives, sometimes even illogical or meaningless, by weaving together homophones, near-sounds, or semantic associations. Meanwhile, the device projects fragmented and distorted images of the ground (the foundation of reality) through twisted mirrors placed at different angles, creating a visual echo with the uncertain soundscape.
The entire narrative system is designed to be fluid and unstable. The audience can speak or make simple sounds through a microphone, directly interfering with and altering the narrative that the AI is generating, keeping the production of meaning in a state of perpetual negotiation and change.This entire process is akin to experiencing the concept of "différance"—meaning always floats in the game of deferral and difference. Whether it is the hesitant, elusive moments in the mediumship communication or the interpretations refracted and derived by the AI like a prism, they all point to the inherent uncertainty of language itself and the eternal fluidity of meaning. This work is like a "dreamcatcher" that captures the mist of language; it does not provide answers but explores how we understand, misunderstand, and poetically (re)construct the reality we perceive through these uncertain media and methods. It is both a continuation of a lost relationship in the echo of technology and a gentle yet profound inquiry into the relationship between language, emerging technologies, and the way we perceive the world.