Asterisms
Asterisms, 2024
quadraphonic spatial audio (mixed to stereo), single-channel video
36 min 36 sec
My testosterone shots and menstrual periods, represented in the sun and moon, are visualized and sonified against the visibility of 304 ancient Chinese constellations (asterisms) in the sky. These three cycles of earthly and heavenly bodies are layered across one full calendar year. The asterisms originate from the Suzhou star chart (c.a. 1247), which is depicted in the background. They are sonified using modern-day astronomical data from the HIPPARCOS catalogue: for each star in each asterism, their stellar magnitudes, spectral types, and relative distances are translated into dynamics, stroke patterns, and rhythmic timings. A custom system of graphic musical notation maps each sonified asterism onto the surface of a snare drum.
Asterisms was originally presented as one element of a triptych, Sonata for the Body in Three-Part Time, which examined my experience of trans embodiment in past, present, and future time. Asterisms, the present, explores the many societal binaries within which my everyday lived experience exists as a duality: male — female, Chinese — American, traditional — modern, artist — astronomer.
Ranger Liu
Ranger Liu is an interdisciplinary artist astronomer whose work across both fields repurposes scientific structures to communicate “alien” subjectivities. They explore many different forms of alienness: their own alien(ated) experience as a queer and trans Chinese-American; the nonhuman and posthuman alienness of particles, trees, and machines; and the reflective alienness of speculative extraterrestrial life. These explorations manifest across multiple mediums, spanning various combinations of sound, video, installation, sculpture, performance, writing, and more.
Conceptually, they reimagine scientific theories, abstractions, frameworks, and methods as containers for expressing these various alienhoods. By cross-applying the truth-making methodologies of science and art, they leverage the cultural legitimacy of science and “rationality” to impart a concreteness to alien subjectivities that are frequently dismissed as “imaginary."
Liu was born in Manhattan and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. They hold an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design and B.A. degrees in Astrophysics and Computer Science from Columbia University. They currently live and work in Seattle, Washington, where they moonlight as an Astronomy Ph.D. student searching for signs of artistic extraterrestrial megastructures elsewhere in the universe.
Liu has performed, exhibited, and published their work nationally, including at CURRENTS New Media Festival, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Bridges Math Art, and multiple galleries across Seattle and New York. They have been awarded residencies from I-Park Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Peter Bullough Foundation. This fall, they will be a New Media artist-in-residence at Alfred University’s Institute for Electronic Arts.
In their free time, you might find them speedsolving Rubik's cubes, playing piano, (begrudgingly) partaking in various forms of exercise, or diligently sawing away at a woodworking project. You can find more of their work at ryurongliu.com or follow them on Instagram (@ranger_yurong).
