ZHAO JIAJING
赵嘉旌
Compositions
Installations
Sound Design & Soundtracks
Information
CV
Sound Installation //2024
UV Printed on clear film, 8-channel sound
Dimensions variable
Duration: 8’23”
Co-created with Wenxin Zhang 张文心
photo cr. Wenxin Zhang
Link to presentation at IRCAM Forum 2025
This series of works uses vibration as a symbol and film as a medium to create a fictional field of emotional and physical communication between humans and insects. The experience of insect pupation is very intense. Inside the pupa, the larva almost completely liquefies, then grows through a process similar to embryonic development using the imaginal discs that have been incubating within its body. Although the entire process appears to be one of death and rebirth, the insect’s brain and memories are preserved. Since ancient times, humans have been fascinated by insect pupation and imbued pupating insects with a strong desire for spirituality and transcendence.
Inside the pupae, insects are deaf, but they can sense the vibrations of cell division and differentiation and the rhythmic flow of bodily fluids. Butterfly pupae continuously vibrate and shake on branches to protect themselves and ward off predators.
During the differentiation of an insect’s limbs from the imaginal discs, as the name suggests, the imaginal discs look like concentric “discs,” storing information about the butterfly’s future limbs. Its wings and body grow out of these discs, and in a way, this process resembles a vinyl record being played. The life process of an adult butterfly has many points of connection to vibrations and sounds. For example, the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can be seen as a symbolic system for that species, as flapping frequencies and rhythms differ during courtship and predation.
The composer constructed the sound design for this series of works around the concepts of gene expression, hormones, and the intertwining of death and rebirth, namely, the metamorphosis from larva to imago.
This work was commissioned by the "Creative Futures" programunder the Berggruen Research Center at Peking University
Special Thanks to
lris Long
Crews at lCA, NYU Shanghai