Episode 11: Mutual Agency, Machinic Bodies with Xuan Ye 叶轩

Mutual Agency, Machinic Bodies
A conversation between New Works Calgary Artistic Director rebecca bruton and Toronto-based object prototype Xuan Ye 叶轩.

Xuan Ye 叶轩 (CN/CA) works across various art, music, design and technology contexts. Their work coheres around hacking-informed noisemaking, the erratum and the untranslatable. They work with more-than-human agencies to construct multisensory networked experiences synthesizing language, code, sound, body, image, data, light, and time.

The artist has been featured and exhibited internationally, including at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (CN), the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, Venice Architecture Biennale (IT), MUTEK (CA), Centre de Design de l’UQAM à Montréal (CA), Fonderie Darling (CA), Varley Art Gallery (CA), the Art Gallery of Ontario (CA), Inside-out Art Museum (CN), the Goethe-Institut (Beijing & Montreal), ArtAsiaPacific (Issue. 111), KUNSTFORUM (Bd. 257), among others. They have received grants from the Arts Councils at three levels in Canada. They are a recipient of the SSHRC scholarship and a finalist of the 2018 EQ Bank Digital Artists Award.

As a musician, X is techne agnostic and genre eclectic and has been lauded as “one of Canada’s most exciting voices in textural soma.” They have been commissioned by Edmonton New Music (2021), and the Canadian Music Centre (2020). They have performed at numerous experimental music festivals and DIY shows, sharing programs with Phew, Pharmakon, Chris Corsano, Carl Stone, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Xylouris White, GOOOOOSE, etc. Their live performances and music releases have received critical accolades from Bandcamp, Exclaim! and Musicworks.