Qiujiang Levi Lu performs with instruments they built themselves: intraoral microphone-speaker feedback systems, motion-sensing electronics, amplified laptops. Their work has been described as “brutally cohesive,” merging tenderness with intensity through sound design that draws on Chinese cultural traditions and contemporary experimental music and noise. Performances have been called “ritual-inflected improvisations,” moving through themes of queerness, spirituality, and transformation. On Thursday, Jan. 14, Lu brings that practice to EMPAC for the Robotics edition of the INTERFACE series, in conversation with RPI engineer and IEEE Fellow John Wen.
About the Show
INTERFACE is a monthly program at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, running September 2026 through March 2027, curated by Dena Beard, Amadeus Julian Regucera, and Tara Aisha Willis. The series is built on a deliberate inversion: “researchers talk about their creative process, and artists talk about their research.” Sessions may involve performances, demonstrations, prototypes, and code — whatever the work actually looks like in the making.
For the Robotics edition, Lu — a 2023 International Electronic Music Competition prize winner who has performed at IRCAM Forum, MATA Festival, and La MaMa, and held residencies at ISSUE Project Room and Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm — sits down with Wen, the Russell Sage Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at RPI. Lu’s film score for Whale 52 | Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale earned the Crystal Bear for Best Short Film at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival; their electroacoustic ensemble Warp Duo, with violinist Scott Li, takes that practice into maximalist electronic composition. Lu currently lectures at Peabody Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. Wen came to RPI after working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on control algorithms for space structures and robots; his current research covers assistive robotics and human-robot collaboration. The session takes up a single question: how technology augments the creative body, and what happens at the intersection of bodies, machines, perception, and creative practice.
Other INTERFACE sessions this season: Immersive Audio (Oct. 8), Cognitive Science (Nov. 12), Mixed Reality (Feb. 11), and AI (March 18, 2027).
Venue & Logistics
The event takes place in EMPAC Studio 1—Goodman, one of the studio spaces at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in Troy, a consistent anchor on the Capital Region experimental arts calendar. The session runs 6–7 p.m., with refreshments and informal conversation at Evelyn’s Café to follow.
Tickets
Admission is free. Tickets are available through arts-people.com. Buy tickets