Shaping Sonorous Worlds: Listening as Porous Practice

You are cordially invited to a lecture by Zai Tang:

Date: 11^th March 2026
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm
Venue: SDE 3, Level 4, LT427, DOA, National University of Singapore, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117566

Shaping Sonorous Worlds: Listening as Porous Practice

In this lecture, Zai will be sharing about building sonic worlds for dance, moving-image and immersive installations. Zai will highlight the importance of listening as a mode of affective relation throughout his creative process, especially with regards to more-than-human worlds.

Zai will cover listening practices in the field and in the studio, where he often tries to visualise the sounds that he’s recorded through both drawing and animation. He will illustrate this through the works Brodal Serei (2016), a contemporary dance work inspired by Khmer boxing; Escape Velocity (2018-2021), a series of audio-visual installations concerning Singapore’s relationship with nature; and field notes from Biji Biji Buaya Crocodile Seeds, a work-in-progress film concerning crocodile spirit ecologies.

There will also be a screening of {if your bait can sing the wild one will come} Like Shadows Through Leaves (2021) by Migrant Ecologies Projects, a short film exploring entangled relationships between humans and birds in Tanglin Halt and along the Rail Corridor.

Speaker Bio

Zai Tang is an artist, composer and sound designer based in Singapore. Drawing influence from acoustic ecology, phenomenology and electronic & experimental music, his practice is built upon a belief that listening is an invaluable means of attuning to and forming deeper relationships with the worlds we inhabit.

In his solo work, he asks the question: What does it mean to listen to nature in a time of ecological crisis? In response, he experiments with transforming and visualising wildlife field recordings from habitats under threat.

Recent presentations include Duets at Auditoria, Singapore Art Week (2026); The Other Detour presented by Comma Space Singapore (2025) with Kar-men Cheng; Wild Soma at Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2024); Sonic Medi(t)ations at National Gallery Singapore (2023); Escape Velocity V (Solo Version) at Seoul Mediacity Pre-Biennale (2022); Redder at Thailand Biennale, Korat (2021).