SRCFLP :: Beats + Audiovisual art
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i.
I am passionate about music, a discipline considered performing art. I practice the art as a way to raise questions, resist oppression, and a method of research. 
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ii.

​In an oligopoly where corporations have major power to steer the system, profit-making is commonly taught as a virtue. Competing for work and wage to survive is a commonplace. Meritocracy and economic growth in most case are thought be good. But what good is the growth, if hunger and homelessness cannot be eradicated, even though presumably it can with the use of available technology? 

iii.
Art gives visibility to the unseen and voice to the unheard. Art can become a method of research, as the laboratory becomes the galleries, museums, nightclubs, studios, classrooms, lecture halls, institutions, virtual platforms, concert stages, and theaters, and other spaces that have the potential to become a conduit for healthy discourses.

iv.
I work at the intersection of art and technology to create forms of entertainment, captivate the audience, and maximize opportunities that raise awareness of various systemic problems. 
My research entails interactive, inter-media performative art and entertainment forms for storytelling because stories help people understand complex problems and make emotional connections with them. As we find ourselves in a world surrounded by the social media that is incentivized to stoke the fires of rage, I believe it is important to combat hate more than ever. Storytelling creates participatory, immersive experience that can reveal the differences and commonalties of cultures around the world, and enable us to empathize with the unfamiliar other.
CV
Sound
visual
For me, creating art is essentially activism, even when it's an act of healing. I make art to resist oppression, raise questions, and also view it as a method of research to tackle complex problems. How does structural violence affect human beings? How differently does it affect people of color? Why should anybody care? In terms of global economics, our society is ruled by a corporatocracy. Chances are, if you are reading this website or have access to an internet, you live in that society. A corporatocracy is a type of oligopoly where the system or government is governed or controlled by corporations. In such a system, profit making is a virtue and pitting humans against humans for survival is a commonplace; to cooperate or collaborate is somewhat valuable and gets taught in classrooms but it's more theory than practiced. This is by design; it is the manifestation of a society which dogmatically praises competition as the essential ingredient to growth and meritocracy.

Through the ways of art practice, my aim is to learn how to better harness technology and produce critical work that bring visibility to structural violence which affects us all. I believe it is integral to work with space to bring visibility to it, whether the setting be a gallery, night club, lecture hall, virtual platform, or performance stage. 

AUDIOVISUAL & MUSIC
AS ACTIVISM
Dynamic Performance Sampler (modular system)
The video below is a demonstration and an exploration of new methods, and use of tools for enhancing artistic expression, education and tackling social issues through solo live performances. 
The aim of this project is to create a modular performance system that assists the performer access audio samples or loops, assign them to midi triggers and manipulate its musical attributes (including pitch, tempo, trigger count, sample start and length) on-the-fly. From there, the performer can apply effects to the rearranged loop, resample it and restart the cycle all over for an endless cycle of audio mangling; making dynamic musical improvisation and performance possible.
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The challenge is to work with limited real estate of the rig size. I am always adding and subtracting signal processors, tweaking the audio path and rearranging midi connections. ​The routing constantly evolves according to the needs and inspiration of the performer.
Octatrack_MIDI_chart
Midi implementation chart for one of the hardware modules.
Expressive Video Synthesizer
One of my dreams is to create a rig for live audiovisual performance. I hope to one day produce a multimedia show that bring visibility to various social injustices; an experience that incites solidarity. Though the video below is not quite there yet, it is me working on a small scale prototype, experimenting with visualization. I synced my drum machine and audio sampler/looper software to send out midi clock to a Python graphic hardware processor connected to a projector. I experimented with mapping gestures (XY-pad, potentiometers, encoders, 'g-force' 3-axis motion sensor) // Visual programming & output used: Critter&Guitari ETC (Python) // 
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Hardware used: Roland TR-08, Teenage Engineering OP-1 // Software: Ableton Live, Max 4 Live
Below is a very simple example of modes I used to create visuals for this performance (additional libraries such as pygame.freetype and pygame.gfxdraw were used):
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The result is very simple — a red circle is drawn near the middle of the screen, each and every frame, forever. This example offers the basic framework for the modes written in Python. Though rudimentary, there is broad potential in its application.

SOCIAL PRACTICE
No Country For Old Rhetorics 
A live performance at UC Berkeley as an act of dissent towards Donald Trump’s racism. I used a portable semi-modular synthesizer to express my sentiments sonically. In post-production, I transposed footage of the racist rhetoric of Trump getting denounced publicly on MSNBC. Trump blamed the Chinese for "taking all our jobs". But of course American business owners are responsible for giving the jobs away. The free market system is structured in such way to incentivize one to do so. Both parties have willfully participated in the exchange facilitated by capitalism. Yet the President of the United States stokes the fire of xenophobia, making it sound like the citizens of the US are under attack by the foreigners because they are solely to blame for taking away resources. This blame game reminds me of the rhetoric that was used to justify the Chinese Exclusion Act back in 1882. 
They All Look The Same
The second part of the ...Old Rhetoric performance. After the music performance, I followed it up with a solo performance of a protest. It is my answer to the narcissitic politics of Trump. Nonetheless, the culture we live in structurally supports xenophobia. Since a presidential candidate was manifesting it, I felt it was time to voice my dissent towards the practice of labeling foreign nationals/humans, an Alien.
Getting back to narcissism, I'm still bewildered by the fact that a candidate losing the nationwide popular vote (the people of the United States/the demos did not vote for him; he lost) can become a president of a "democratic" country - that probably feels alien to most of us. 
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A still frame of They All Look The Same 
Unarmed...Don't Shoot!
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A performance piece in rememberance of Oscar Grant.  I hope that more people would come to recognize the problems that are structural and see beyond localized perception, superficial and bigoted assumptions.
What Elephant?
A collaboration project I worked on with UC Berkeley students. This is a two-part documentary film as a discourse on race. (2018)
PART I:
The COLOR of People - A Brief Inquiry into Whiteness and People of Color
PART II:
​The Secret of Affirmative Action -A Further Inquiry into Whiteness
#XENOPHOBIADISCOURSE
1) A platform for discourse on xenophobia, capitalism, and mainstream media.
​2) A place to find collaborators for making participatory art.
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screenshot of the blog/website

VISUAL NARRATIVES
Forever Foreigner
A short film I produced which examines the discriminatory characteristic within the US legal lexicon (2017)
ALMA
This is a music video I produced about a murder story of a man's spirit (2014)
Story written by SRCFLP & Rigel Yaluk // Animation & Illustrations by Señor Danger // Vocals by Aimi Shibata // Edited by Rook Murao
Storyboard (protagonist confronting the inner demon 'The Dream Seller')
The story originally had the idea of being a live action narrative film. But due to constraints, I couldn't actualize a full feature, and this is a partial short reel.
Live performance appearance of "The Dream seller" @ Low End Theory
I collaborated with a dancer to appear in the costume of The Dream Seller (2016)
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Graphic Novel
This is a story about a protagonist discovering a mask that has special powers; it transforms emotions into a powerful gigantic beast called J-Zilla. Unbeknownst to the protagonist, the mask also absorbs 'hate-energy' from random strangers which manifests as city-destroying monsters. The protagonist must master emotions and work together with J-Zilla to find peaceful resolutions for the hate-driven monsters. (2018-present)  
Below: I used Photoshop and free hand drawing, to mock up a sequence of the protagonist coming to terms with the power of the mask. 
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[The protagonist understands and accepts the power of the "mask"]
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[The protagonist wears the mask]
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[The protagonist is on top of J-Zilla (summoned by the power of the mask, which does it by converting the wearer's emotions)]

LIVE 
PERFORMANCE

 Robotspeak, SF 
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Improvisational live performance using semi-modular electronic instruments (2018)
Equinox 
Rave event in Oakland, CA which I was responsible for performing music and installing interactive visual projection using video synthesis technique (2017).
Performance Archives
A synopsis of my journey as a performing artist. (2006-2016)
After gaining experience in running an independent record label, I joined a larger production company to learn about scaling up the music business. After three albums and touring the country in the supportive effort, I took a brief hiatus to research how to scale down preserving only the essentials. When I returned, I changed my artist name to SRCFLP and formulated a cocktail of beats, noise & bass.​

PRODUCTION RESEARCH
Rocksmith Recordings
I co-founded a record label to produce an album for a multi-ethnic Hip Hop group, The Alliance, an artistic endeavor to express solidarity and address racial issues, police brutality, and unethical business practices. Through the experience, I learned about managing, performing, and producing in the music business (2003-2006).
The Alliance promotional video I took part in producing.
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DVD cover I designed.
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The album cover I designed and produced.
Scion CD11 Label-less Lifestyle
It was an honor to be featured on this project.  The liner note reads, “We’d like to introduce you to a generation of artists that are making names for themselves without major labels, superstar budgets, or Hollywood flair. Maybe one day they will, but for now, it’s 100% pure, no additives or preservatives, and just as good as everything else on the market. Welcome to the movement of the Labelless Lifestyle…”
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The CD's eco-wallet booklet with liner notes.
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The physical CD and survey.

JOURNALISM
Distiller
This is a weekly TV show I produced featuring music and street culture. Airing for a year on a digital terrestrial station, the program featured artists and entrepreneurs of diverse ethnicities in Los Angeles, giving Asian Americans and other minorities the chance to share their experiences and involvement with various subcultures (2014)
Produced by: Rook Murao + Jared Chung Lundy ・Associate Producer: Nygle Gillett ・Hosts: Moriah Brown + Erika Mariko Olsen ・ Editor: Victor Hernandez ・ Music: SRCFLP・ Motion Graphics: Tu Trinh ・ Graphic Design: Miko Murao
 The Media Remix
The goal of this series was to promote Los Angeles based artists and subcultures underrepresented in the mainstream media. (2006 - 2008)
Asian Hip Hop Summit (2006)
Q&A with KRS ONE​
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

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