Viola Yip, born and raised in Hong Kong, now based in Berlin, is an experimental composer, performer, improviser, sound artist and instrument builder. In her practice, she develops unorthodox self-built instruments, compositions and performances that explore the complex and dynamic relationships between materiality, media, space, human body and machine body through sounds.

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Her instruments and sound performances have been presented in music festivals and venues such as Issue Project Room New York, The New School NYC, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Cycling ‘74 Expo Hong Kong Arts Center, University of Huddersfield, QO-2 Brussels, Moers Festival, Center for Art and Media ZKM Karlsruhe, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, A L’arme! Festival, DARA String Festival, Heroines of Sound, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Blurred Edges Festival Hamburg, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, NEXT festival Bratislava and Serralves Contemporary Art Museum in Porto. Other than her solo career, she also works closely with guitarist, composer, sound artist and researcher of cybernetic aesthetics Nicola L. Hein as part of the duo Transsonic, investigating immersive performative cybernetic systems with sound, light, space and movement.

 

She is a recipient of Stip-4 Stipendienprogramm zur Künstlichen Intelligenz from musikfonds in 2024. She also received an Honorary Mention from Giga-Hertz-Preis 2021 at Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. Her work has been supported by the Electroacoustic Music Studio at Academy of the Arts Berlin, Elektronmusikstudion EMS Stockholm, NOTAM Oslo, Uncool Residency Poschiavo Switzerland, Harvestworks NYC, The Swedish Arts Council, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Project Stipend for Young Arts/New Media from the City of Munich, North Rhein-Westfalia (NRW) Ministry of Culture and Science, Initiative Neue Musik Berlin, Berlin Senate Department, Goethe Institut and Hong Kong Arts Development Council.