ID#: 813

Phantom of Utopia II: The Convergence (2025) ; 10:00

by Ka Hei Cheng

Louisiana State University

The Phantom of Utopia series consists of three movements that depict and reference a Chinese poem, The Peach Blossom Spring, written by Tao Yuan-ming in 421 CE as an exploration of mythically celestial and unrealistically ideal utopia under the cruelty of social unrest and political instability during the Jin Dynasty. The noises at the beginning of Phantom of Utopia II: The Convergence were made from granular synthesis, describing the pixelated dimensions where reality and imaginative realm meets: the reality not yet disintegrate, while the imaginative realm not yet fully formed. In this dimension, an illusion of reality and imaginative realm intertwined, making it unable to differentiate within, falling into the illusion of phantom and mirage that is dreamy, unrealistic, and distinct. The visual media is composed of fixed videos that is controlled by the audio components and live visual feedback that takes the live video from a phone, sending the live feed to a computer to process the visual effects. The fixed and live video sections intersect among each other in the structure to highlight the audio-visual and visual-movement interactivity. The fixed video at the beginning starts from a centered revolving pattern surrounded by darkness imitates the travelling through the narrow pathway, enclosed by glimpse of purple lights that is interactive to the audio components. The live video components are mostly blurry and/or distorted in fine lines as the process of second movement is describing illusions of phantom without material substance; while the audio components sing the poem in Cantonese with pitch-bending tones / glide between quarter tones to create the illusive effects. The well-articulated exhaling and inhaling sounds along with the pitch bending express the mixed feeling of bewilderments, astonishment, satisfaction, fear, relieved, assist with the narration of the storytelling.