BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:IDEAS: Peeling Cycle - Anqi Liu\, Han Zhang\, Mingyong Cheng X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260715T170722Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_52898524744799 DTSTART:20260522T000000Z DTEND:20260522T020000Z DESCRIPTION:Peeling Cycle is a live audiovisual performance with DIY laser device\, multimodal AI generation\, and embodied interactive performance t hat investigates how artificial intelligence participates in the productio n of gendered visibility. The work understands AI as part of a surrogate h uman order shaped by racialized and gendered structures embedded in social data. Language-based AI inherits social bias as well as structured relati ons: associations\, proximities\, and symbolic hierarchies\, through which social reality is organized and interpreted. From this position\, the pro ject asks whether machine perception can be reoriented through the lived e xperiences of Asian female immigrant artists\, shifting AI from abstract r ecognition toward situated interpretation.\n\n\nTechnically\, the work int egrates endoscopic camera input\, breath classification through spectral a nalysis\, DIY laser projection\, live object detection\, word-vector assoc iation\, language-model interpretation\, customized voice synthesis\, and real-time image and audio generation through TouchDesigner and Ableton Liv e. These processes are incorporated as representational procedures: sensin g\, scanning\, associating\, narrating\, and re-rendering become ways of s taging how bodies are made visible\, classified\, translated\, and misreco gnized through technological systems. By embedding AI outputs within live gesture\, sound\, material interaction\, laser movement\, and manual visua l control\, Peeling Cycle resists the model of AI as an autonomous generat or and instead stages machine intelligence as a contested mirror of social reality.\n\n \n\nA Happy Mennn trio:\n\nAHM\, A Happy Mennn Trio\, is an interdisciplinary multimedia performance trio formed by Anqi Liu\, Han Zha ng\, and Mingyong Cheng. AHM’s work explores the lived experiences of im migrant Asian women artists building artistic practices\, careers\, and ev eryday lives in the West through technology\, sound\, multimedia\, and fre e improvisatory performance. Their practice moves fluidly across audiovisu al ecologies\, experimental performance\, interactive systems\, and embodi ed sonic environments\, approaching performance as a site where identity\, migration\, memory\, labor\, and cultural translation continuously inters ect and unfold.\n\nAnqi Liu\, music composer\, interdisciplinary/multimedi a artist\, photographer\, filmmaker\n\nHan Zhang\, multimedia artist\, com puter musician\, cross-media performer and engineer\n\nMingyong Cheng\, ne w/digital media artist\, interdisciplinary visual artist\, creative techno logist\n\nSocial: https://www.instagram.com/ahappymennn\n\nAnqi Liu:\n\nPr aised by The Wire for music of “iridescent delicacy” and“superb\,” Anqi Liu is a composer\, interdisciplinary multimedia artist\, photograph er\, and filmmaker. Boomkat described her solo album of improvisatory synt hesizer performance as “detailed\, narrative-driven sound that traipses across the physical and historical world to make connections we might not initially perceive.” The San Diego Union-Tribune praised her orchestral work for its distinctive musical color and compositional introspection. He r composition is included in The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Band camp. Her portrait album Veiled Erosion (KAIROS) has been widely acclaimed \, including a review in de Volkskrant calling the music “abstract sound scapes\, at times frightening\, at times heartbreakingly beautiful\,” an d features in The Wire\, Sonograma\, Reportersonline\, musiquemachine\, an d El Compositor Habla\, highlighting her fragile\, intimate sonic universe and its expansive cultural reach. Writing on Veiled Erosion\, critic Pete r Margasak noted that Liu “had already veered from any sort of conventio nal pathway\,” situating her work within a contemporary experimental lin eage shaped by instability\, improvisational tension\, performer agency\, and communal listening aesthetics. Working across acoustic composition\, f ree improvisation\, electronics\, modular synthesizer\, traditional Mongol ian choor khuur\, multimedia\, interactive system design\, and audiovisual ecologies\, she works on an ecology that she called fraysonics\, where at tunement that dwells with fragility\, silence\, and the limits of document ation\, so relation\, memory\, and endurance remain audible without being reduced into extractable form. Beginning in June 2026\, Anqi will serves a s Assistant Professor and Music Production Program Lead at RMCAD. She hold s a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UC San Diego.\n\nWebsite: https://www. anqiliu.com/\n\nSocial: https://www.instagram.com/anqiliumusic\n\nHan Zhan g:\n\nHan Zhang is a multimedia artist\, computer musician\, performer and engineer based on earth. She actively works on creative projects that exp lore the new form of multimedia participatory performances with DIY instal lations that deliver immersive interactive experience and support her thea trical practice. She is interested in discussing the collective comprehens ion of technology\, art\, and substantive human lives. In the realm of mus ic technology and engineering\, she is interested in exploring the interpr etability and controllability of timbre in sound and designing musical ins truments that incorporate innovative research results. Han has presented h er artworks in various academic communities including ICMC\, ArteFacto\, S iggraph\, etc\, as well as in AI-centered conferences such as NeurIPS and CVPR. She is invited as a guest artist in Every Woman Biennale(NYC) in 202 6\, and is currently a composer in residency at elektronmusikstudion(EMS) in Stockholm\, Sweden. Han is currently pursuing her PhD in Computer Music at UC San Diego\, and she has received her Master of Science in Electrica l Engineering from Northwestern University\, and her Bachelor of Engineeri ng in Automation from Tsinghua University\, China. She also visited Center for New Music and Audio Technologies(CNMAT) at UC Berkeley as a research scholar.\n\nWebsite: https://zhanghanunwalled.com/\n\nSocial: https://www. instagram.com/hanzhangpqqo\n\nMingyong Cheng:\n\nMingyong Cheng is an inte rdisciplinary artist\, researcher\, and creative technologist from Beijing \, now based in California. She works across generative AI\, computational media\, and immersive art\, creating interactive installations\, performa nces\, and real-time audiovisual systems that combine sensing technologies \, spatial media\, and machine learning. Her practice treats AI as a creat ive collaborator shaping perception\, narrative\, and audience experience\ , often developed through collaborations with curators\, choreographers\, and composers. She has led commissioned projects for institutions includin g the San Diego Museum of Art and Jacob’s Pillow Doris Duke Theater\, an d her work has been presented internationally at venues such as ACM SIGGRA PH\, NeurIPS\, ISEA\, and the IEEE CVPR AI Art Gallery.\n\nWebsite: https: //www.mingyongcheng.com/\n\nSocial: https://www.instagram.com/mingyong_art / GEO:32.882407;-117.234817 LOCATION:Qualcomm Institute\, CALIT2 Theater SUMMARY:IDEAS: Peeling Cycle - Anqi Liu\, Han Zhang\, Mingyong Cheng URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.ucsd.edu/event/ideas-peeling-cycle-anqi-liu- han-zhang-mingyong-cheng END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR