synaptic._null: An Experimental Audiovisual Performance on Perceptual Collapse by Kaiyuan Tang(China)

Audiovisual experimental Perception Performance

An exploration of perception, logic breakdown, and drifting consciousness through real-time audiovisual performance, combining Ableton Live and TouchDesigner in an immersive setting.

synaptic._null is an experimental audiovisual performance created by Arcky Tang, an artist working between sound, image, and real-time systems. The project investigates the collapse of perception and the instability of consciousness, drawing from philosophical frameworks such as Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation and Morton’s concept of hyperobjects, alongside phenomenology and quantum cognition.

The work unfolds as a live performance in three nonlinear parts—Simulacrum, Paradox, and Consciousness—each blurring the boundary between sensory input and cognitive expectation. Rather than following a linear narrative, the performance operates as a generative system where sound and image interact, dissolve, and reassemble in unpredictable ways.

Technically, the piece is constructed through a feedback loop between Ableton Live (handling modular sound design, looping, and experimental structures) and TouchDesigner (driving generative and audio-reactive visuals). Signals are exchanged in real time via MIDI/OSC, allowing each domain to destabilize and reshape the other. This system reflects the project’s conceptual interest in perceptual collapse: just as one thinks they recognize a pattern, it dissolves into noise, only to re-emerge in a different form.

synaptic._null was presented at Outernet London as part of the RCA Digital Direction graduation program, staged across immersive projection surfaces with multichannel sound. The performance emphasizes immediacy and ephemerality—its form is never fixed, and each iteration becomes a unique drift through audiovisual instability.

At its core, the project aims to question how we construct meaning under conditions of uncertainty. By placing the audience inside a constantly shifting sensory environment, synaptic._null invites participants to experience not clarity, but the beauty of collapse itself—where perception becomes porous, and consciousness drifts beyond stable form.