Canvas Conductor, Duo Cichorium

Canvas Conductor is an interdisciplinary instrument by musical and performance duo, Duo Cichorium, built and debuted in May 2024. It is a hybrid artistic tool that integrates a painter’s canvas with a custom built synthesizer and a suite of other digital musical technologies, giving four painters simultaneous control over sonic and visual output.

The most recent version of this developing instrument utilizes reusable Chinese calligraphy paper instead of standard cotton canvases. Rather than using acrylic or watercolor paints, the artist uses plain water to paint on the surface. As the water evaporates, the surface becomes blank again, allowing the instrument to be used over and over.

The nervous system of the instrument consists of galvanized steel wires woven through the painting surface, receiving input from the painters through electrically charged paint brushes. The action of painting over the wires with the paintbrush continually opens and closes electrical circuits, acting as “buttons” for painters to push with their brushes. The canvas is also outfitted with contact microphones, amplifying the tactile gestures and brush strokes of the painters.

ABOUT THE ARTIST 

Duo Cichorium is the collaborative identity of Jaz Tsui and Louis Pino. Hailed as “truly multi-faceted artists, skillful in a dizzying array of media”, they blend musical performance, custom electronics, visual art, theater, puppetry, and more to present multimedia works rooted in play, absurdity, and abstraction.

Tsui and Pino hold Masters degrees in percussion from the University of Toronto, specializing in improvisation, music technology, and percussion theater. The duo began at the University’s Technology and Performance Research (TaPIR) Lab, where their contributions included six international conference presentations, seven new works, and a peer-reviewed publication.

Their artistic practice integrates a wide range of non-musical abilities—such as computer programming, circuit design, painting, sewing, animation, and sculpture. Noteworthy creations include a two-player synthesizer controlled by paint on a canvas, audio-reactive lighting built into upcycled instruments created from discarded furniture, promotional video games, and a 6-foot paper tree sculpture for video projection mapping.

The duo’s commitment to their community has manifested both in academic leadership and concert production. In the Spring 2024 Semester, they led a student group at Toronto Metropolitan University, working to increase awareness and accessibility to non-generative AI-based artistic tools. During their residency at Toronto’s Tranzac Club, they produced seven concerts pairing improvised music with local artists from different fields including poetry, puppetry, animation, and film. Now, as curators at ArrayMusic, they are producing six more concerts over the next three years, highlighting storytelling in different artistic media through new co-created interdisciplinary works.