Guqin research-creation : 2000 Dapu video documentation - 2004 Digital Guqin : graphics to music software - 2009 : Design and Creation of a Digital Guqin Museum in a Virtual World - 2013 : creation of a contemporary "xyz Qin" based on Shosoin qin in Nara

Guqin research-creation : 

2000 : Dapu video documentation -  research output, Changshu, China PRC.

2004 : Digital Guqin : graphics to music software - publication and presentation international conferences.  Many conferences and events.

2009 : Design and Creation of a Digital Guqin Museum in a Virtual World - publication and international presentation, Hong Kong, Taiwan, international online virtual World conference slactions10.

2013 : creation of a contemporary "xyz Qin" based on Shosoin qin in Nara, Japan.  Publication, presentation in an international conference.  Leiden, Netherland

Pre-history:

I have a complete video record of the 4th International Guqin Dapu Conference, in Changshu, China (PRC) 2000.  Including some after conference evening informal concerts - called : YaJi - Elegant Gatherings, which happened in all the hotel rooms.  We were housed at a private resort owned by a bank in Changshu.  There were concerts non stop during the 4 days.  People met each other, exchanged ideas got all excited - people hung around in the hotel everywhere from 9h00 to midnight.

I purchased my first guqin made by Zhang JianHua in year 2000 at the occasion of 4th International Dapu Conference at Changshu, PRC - who is a famous qin maker now, in Beijing.  His atelier is shown in the prize winning book on Qin by Professor Cecilia Linqvist.  I have not been to his atelier but hope to do so when I visit Beijing next time.  Changshu is now declared Historical Heritage Town of Guqin by Unesco, and a very elegant museum of Guqin has been established.  Many years later, I have visited the museum and filmed the director Mr.Zhu Xi, a passionate Qin player.

I participated at the conference in 2000 and filmed the conference to have a record of the event - for my own reference purpose.  At that time, no one really had good equipment to do so.  I presented my research-creation project and found a suitable collaborator to work with me.  Professor Chen Changlin - a reknown Qin player and computer scientist was at the conference.  Chen Changlin was playing with a mini qin that he made himself.  It was a simple chipboard he cut from a retired computer cupboard and he added strings to the qin.  This little qin he gave me after we completed our research as a gift!    I thought it so marvellous that we could make a qin simply and it works!  He said he takes it with him everywhere in order to practice everyday.  I filmed his little qin playing session in his hotel room.  There were a few other young players.  The ambiance of the conference was very warm, everyone was so excited because the last conference on guqin had been 14 years earlier!

So, I felt very previleged and lucky a// to learn of this instrument up close, with this  group of passionate people in it, and b// that the conference had accepted my participation to present a project on the preservation and promotion of guqin using Digital Technology.  I wanted to do something meaningful with Digital Technology and as i had successfully received a research grant for my idea - why not do it with the guqin!  Take ancient Chinese Culture and bring it into todays world!  The instrument was very elegant and simple - with shapes of very clean lines - the sound is so human like - I decided that is the most worthwhile idea and I wanted to do "Qin and Qin Culture" with the grant.

At the time, some Hong Kong players proposed that I purchase a collectioner item from their own collection.   As I was a complete beginner, I prefer to begin at the beginning and buy a beginners guqin.  With the help of very enthusiastic Hong Kong friends, I had met Zhang JianHua and Wang Peng, and with careful deliberation, testing of sounds, playing notes, etc.  The dear friends collectively helped me choose a "Fu Xi" style qin.  Very big bodied, with a very nice sound.  It will age very well, they advised me.  

I am very happy with the Zhang JianHua qin.  I play with it and hang it up on my wall til this day.

I now have several qins.  Two prototypes, I had designed myself and had the embryo made to specification by Tian Shuang Kun, and the lacquer layer put on, through instructions by Zheng Min Zhong.  These were finished by a Cantonese Qin maker later as I had not enough off hour time to do it.  Qin number one is called "Half HunDun 2006", and Qin number two, "Small Hand scroll".  Pictures later.

In year 2011-2013, I finally could make an entire guqin by myself under the instruction of Master Shan ZheYuan at National Tainan University of the Arts, Taiwan, at the Chinese Music Department.  There is a Workshop where all kinds of Chinese instruments are made.  This would be the xyz Qin (number three for me), and its called "xyz Qin number 1" as these two xyz Qins are prototypes for other reasons which I will elaborate later in another post.

So as of today, 9Aug2013, I have a third completed qin made by myself.

I have great satisfaction just looking at it, seeing it leaning against a wall - in my bedroom.

Program of Changshu Dapu Conference 2000:

http://www.geocities.jp/qsshc/cmusic/cmusicd3.html 

xyz Qin 

slactions2011 xyz Qin, Shosoin Qin, Making of xyz Qin 1

slactions2011 installation on HK PolyU campus


XYZ Qin


Version 2.228oct2011


Slactions2011

Creation of the xyzQin: an interpretation and re-creation of the Shosoin qin (金銀平文琴) Tang Dynasty (735AD) ; Shosoin Treasure House, Japan :: from rl-> sl -> rl.

Shuen-git Natasha Chow 周 旋 捷 2011
Visiting Associate Professor
Tainan University of the Arts
Taiwan

Description:
In this research-creation– the third in the serie of Digital Guqin Museum Project - we will investigate issues concerning the making of a real life Chinese musical instrument : the guqin - by deploying Virtual World 3D construction capacities and then exporting the model to real life. I will design a new guqin after the style of the locked up Shosoin qin in Nara, tentatively entitled the “xyz琴” (xyz Qin)

xyzQin research-creation
1// design template
2// cut wood, assemble into embryo
3// test sound with string
4// fine tuning, lacquering, fine tuning, polish
5// naming the qin

Technical Advisors:
Master guqin player: Sik ChingChieh
Master guqin maker: Mr. Shan ZheYuen

Making of xyz Qin 1


Picture 1// Preparation of the deer horn into proper coating grades to mix with lacquer. 600gm crushed deer horn per qin. 300coarse grade, 200medium grade, and 100fine grade. Here, we must first scrape out the marrow of the deer horn pieces. Tools: thin, flexible wood cutter type blades, w curved cutting edge


Picture 2// The open air studio of Master Shan Zhe Yuan. The studio should be well lit and well ventilated with long working tables. We will be using a lot of natural lacquer. This liquid has a slight poison people could be allergic to it. I think its good to make two qins at a time because the drying process in between makes it that you must wait, one or two will require the same window of time. Therefore I decided to make two qins, with a different skin at the finish. And a different wood base to see the two favorite woods used. Wood no 1: over 100 year old "Shan", and Wood no 2: "tong". Mr.Shan says : the two woods are very different. "Shan" wood is deeper and darker in tone, whereas "tong" is light and bright. I think making two identical design w different variables allows us to see the difference in material.


Gold inlaid on lacquer for the skin tattoo: 

2014, next and final finish will be the tattoo on the back of the qin, where I will design a special symbol to be embedded into the lacquer surface.

As for the All-Over pattern of the original Shosoin, a similar treatment might be made for the xyz.


In the original Shosoin qin, there are pictures of literati drinking, making music, creating poetry with floating cups all part of their cultural life.  In our year of 2014, what might be the corresponding pictures?  And have we a corresponding new technology to embed the scenes with gold in a similar way?  This will be evaluated carefully and forth coming investigations:  
1// design of a suitable tattoo - marking our age and attachments, 
2// the method we use for creating the tattoo - should it be the traditional way or a new laser enhanced method? , 
3// should there be smart codes linked to the Qin, 
4// sensors for self adjustable tuning? , 
5// using of new silk strings - prototype made of silk and Chinese medicine, 
6// creation of new symbols using personal relevant symbols - this symbol may be relevant to the player/owner in context of our contemporary world.

Links 
Digital Guqin Museum research-creation: