Although the question of "what is sound art?" has been largely set aside and remains difficult to resolve, two Taiwanese sound artists who form the group HH have been probing the gray area of "what is and what is not," once again placing that impregnable question back at the edge of the mesa.
The duo HH was founded in 2013, with Yao Chung-Han responsible for sound and Yeh Ting-Hao managing visuals and lighting. The former transmits digital audio signals to the latter, who uses them as parameters for the group’s visual dynamics. Throughout an HH performance, sound and light maintain precise synchronization.
Their ambition goes even further when they attempt to use the format of abstract audiovisual performance to trigger the audience, turning the crowd into the subject of synchronization that moves with the music. This requires Yao and Yeh to reduce their egos as artists and induce a techno-party-like audiovisual environment, offering abundant sensory stimulation to animate the stubborn, motionless bodies and alienated emotions of the art crowd.
In HH’s performances, experimental sound is mixed with recognizable beats and basslines, while projectors, stage lights, and smoke machines (hazers) are incorporated into their visual production. This is where HH walks a fine line—bordering two opposing forces and distinguishing "what is and what is not" sound art. If the duo fails to maintain a certain balance while walking that wire, they risk becoming traitors to the art—or half-baked electronic music DJs. The group can't get too comfortable in the in-between, either. Unless they create a confrontational situation that challenges their audience, HH will be reduced to mash-up artists trying to please both sides.
Since forming over a year ago, HH has performed in a range of venues throughout Taiwan, including alternative art spaces, live houses, outdoor concerts, and exhibition openings. They have played at events alongside harsh noise artists, electronic rock bands, and electronic music DJs, leading to their performances being dubbed “hybrid” or "crossover."
When HH steps on stage, they shatter the rigid frame of what audiences typically perceive as electronic music. The challenge to audience members cuts both ways. On one hand, those accustomed to more conventional electronic dance music might find the abrasive use of sharp high-frequency noise discomfiting. On the other hand, those expecting something more along the lines of “serious” sound art are likely to find the rhythmic basslines and special visual effects all too familiar, resembling entertainment-driven dance music. But no matter what type of audience attends, they would surely agree that HH excels in how they manipulate emotions, structure their audiovisual timeline, and arrange each musical phrase.
This was evident in Syn-Infection, an epic fifty-minute theatrical performance by HH at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in October 2014, held at a venue with a three-floor-high ceiling and a maximum seating capacity of five hundred people. That performance could be considered the duo’s most mature and complete work to date.
At Songshan, the audience couldn't help but move to the sensory stimulation provided by the duo’s richly layered noise, geometric visuals, and lighting. As the ultra-low-frequency rhythms gained clarity, the visual dynamics became more intense, and the crowd started to dance, clap, and even scream. By the end, still wanting more, they shouted, "Encore!"
Apart from the applause, as always, some in the audience felt HH was merely making a nightclub party out of an art performance. Conversely, some applied the standards of a nightclub, criticizing the performance for not being entertaining enough. Regarding these two contradictory responses, perhaps we should understand that a performance's brilliance is not found in stability or technical perfection, but in maintaining the exhilarating tension of a situation that always feels on the precipice of collapse, but somehow makes it through. This opens the door toward even more possibilities—a door that HH has pried open.
Translated from Chinese to English by Yen-Yi Li
