竹脑 - zhu nao

This performance presents 竹脑 (zhu nao) a new instrument based on bamboo craftsmanship as both an archetypal technical practice in South East Asia and the articulation of symbolic and technical dimensions of the material. This instrument was devised to explore the concept of environment improvisation – an approach to free improvisation grounded in aesthetics and philosophy of shanshui – traditional Chinese landscape painting and the associated way of forming affective relations with environment and locality (Wang 2021). This allows us to frame these reference points: bamboo craftsmanship and environment improvisation as cosmotechnical activities, following Yuk Hui's proposition to abandon the one-sided narrative of Western technological modernity in favor of pluralist notion of technodiversity.