I then went to UC Irvine to pursue further studies in Master of Fine Arts. In the atrium of my department, I set up two television at the two ends of the atrium. The volume of the television was set at “0,” while there was a Hi8 camcorder with wide-angle lens on top. The scenes captured by the camcorder were displayed on the television. I would walk to and fro between the two sets of televisions and camcorders, and whenever I came to one television, I would turn up the volume by one level, and then turn back and walk towards the other television to do the same thing. From the television screen, once could see a man who kept walking forward, turning the volume button, turning away, and then walking back again. Because of the vicinity of the televisions and camcorder, feedback was generated as the volume became louder and louder. As I turned up the volume, the feedback also became louder and more piercing to the ear. I turned up the volume to the highest level of “63,” and then started turning down the volume as I continued to walk to and fro between the two televisions. The noise generated died down and became silent as the volume of the two televisions became gradually lower. The performance ended when the volume was turned back to “0” again.

I have always been surprised and fascinated by the invention and the existence of the ATM. When users come to the machine and press a button, they leave the camcorder an overlooking, wideangle and close-up footage of a person. Each time a new user uses the machine, this kind of image is recreated. This is a phenomenon unique to our times. I came up with three to four similar projects of the sort, the first of which is this work which consists of walks between two simulated ATM. With the increasingly louder noise, we aware of how our behaviors in the face of the ATM. Yet with continuous walks, the noise peaked and then died down again, letting us experience greater tranquility and greater ease when compared to the silence before.