Matthew Ka Git Wong

Portfolio (3 pieces and writing samples)

"English. English." By Matthew Ka Git Wong
Alto Saxophone, Speech, and Electronics
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An electronic performance created in Max/MSP. Beginning with a recording of myself speaking Cantonese, narrating about growing up in America with Cantonese as my first language, but realizing the conflict that emerged from an ungratefulness to my culture to a newfound appreciation. I created a system to emulate these emotions along with a structured improvisation on the alto saxophone. The system autotuned incoming signals to the nearest frequency in the given pentatonic scale, one outputting signal would be immediate and clash directly with the live sound, and the other would only be heard after a 15 – 30 second delay. I intended the system to represent my cultural upbringing that clashed with my own ideals and rebellious attitude towards independency. However, as the piece continues, I begin to realize that my inclinations are naively ignorant and find a newfound acceptance towards my heritage and my own identity.

“English. English.” Uses speech on my own narratives, improvisation, a live electronic system utilizing no physical interaction with the laptop throughout the performance, no midi controllers turning things on or off, and a system completely triggered by the analysis of the incoming alto saxophone signal.

English. English. By Matthew Ka Git Wong (2019) from Matthew Ka Git Wong on Vimeo.

"Jointly Disconnected" By Matthew Ka Git Wong
Sonic Installation
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Presented and installed at Berklee College of Music in April 2018. A surround sound sonic LGBTQ installation with visuals being both projected and played on projector screens, monitors, phones, and tablets. Multi-lingual recordings using conducted solo and group interviews about LGBTQ events around the world and spoken in their native language. Events are time-lined in the video with an electronic soundtrack intro expressing the struggles the LGBTQ community faced throughout history. Hinting at the small moments of acceptance implied through brighter timbres, higher frequencies, and more ‘key-fitting’ tones. After the intro, voices begin entering, being placed in the perspective of a globe, hearing American English in the upper left side, Mexican Spanish in the mid-lower right side, Russian in the mid-upper right side, Mandarin in the middle left side, etc. The audio is paired visually with photos and articles of discussed LGBTQ events all around the room, some being played as videos and others as interactive photo libraries.

“Jointly Disconnected” describes a scattered community that is unaware of the events happening around the world that affects the entire international perspective of the LGBTQ community. The purpose of this installation is to raise awareness on key events that have happened within the generation of the speakers, one talking about the legalization of same-sex activities, and another discussing denied health services to a pregnant female identifying as lesbian – all equally important and affecting the LGBTQ community.

Jointly Disconnected (installation) By Matthew Ka Git Wong (2018) from Matthew Ka Git Wong on Vimeo.

"Becoming" By Matthew Ka Git Wong
Speech Voice and Electronics
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An electronic performance piece emulating depression and anxiety through reactive sound processing effects in Max/MSP. The effects are triggered through analysis on the voice; pitch frequency, amplitude, and the durations of silence. The effects being both altered live and activated are granulation, milliseconds in the delay time (both L and R channels), filter resonance amounts and frequencies, and reverb room size along with duration on reflections.

“Becoming” is a reading on texts describing the feeling and effects of depression. Two texts are being used, (i) is by Ivan Cabrera who discusses the firsthand physical and mental pains of the waves of depression, and (ii) is by Yuling Wu who discusses the secondhand experiences of the taxing emotions needed in order to support and be relied on when helping firsthand individuals with their mental illness.