CYBER SERAPH, A SANDBOX STUDY
In the summer of 2022, artist & creative technologist Kyle Chang participated in an apprenticeship with artist Pearlyn Lii & nonstudio. Over the course of a few months, Kyle created a study from video piece ‘My Body Is An Archive, Not A Cage (2022),’ visually reinterpreting the 13-minute performance film.
Statement from Kyle—
This piece accompanies the soundtrack to ‘My Body Is An Archive, Not A Cage,’ a work by Pearlyn Lii which details the story of a futuristic cyber seraph, who recounts her experience with digital aggression. As a child, the Seraph plays with a round, white sphere, the visual metaphor this work is based on. Once a sign of innocence, this sphere becomes distorted, repeatedly being mangled under external pressures. However, rather than breaking or rupturing under the manipulation, the white sphere transforms into something new entirely, a form that, while distorted, takes on its own beauty entirely.
Made in Touchdesigner, the piece reacts and responds to auditory cues within the soundtrack, giving life to the round white sphere and allowing for visual empathy over the complex narrative soundtrack. The energy from the orb illuminates the room with each strike, shedding light on the Cyber Seraph’s formative past. The environment was generated using Midjourney, its industrial, cold, yet somewhat open aesthetic representing liberation in spite of struggle.
Learn more about the original piece here.