LO Hao-Ming

“The key to resistance does not lie in whether to critically describe society and take it as a main theme, nor to declare a particular political stance. Instead, in terms of music, it exists in the combative nature of logic and the consciousness involved in sound-making, as well as…… in the self-awareness of one’s own sociality. ……The intense and physical method of sound production generates dissonance that refuses to conform obediently to established tunes, chords, or rhythms, resisting the positions imposed by institutional arrangements. Conversations and conflicts arise from ad-lib performances rather than from a prescribed music sheet or directives from a superior viewed as the sole authority. This evokes a constant reciprocal denial and self-denial within the acapella of subjectivity. The tone clusters are perpetually in transition, refusing to adopt a fixed style; at the moment of utterance, they have already demanded their own demise to make way for succeeding tone clusters. The sound transforms into a verb, representing a perpetual revolution of tone clusters. 

Such music, ……in its own right, has already undergone a “revolution” in the process of utterance. Its resistance is not tied to the form of manifestation but rather to the affirmation and questioning of its own existence throughout the sound-making process. If we are not limited to music, we should and we could find traces of this convulsion of subjectivity in dance, performance art, theater, and even in images, architecture, and literature that strive to resist. (Self-quote: “Music (resistance) is a puncture of a wormhole, then a convulsion of the body. 2023 Autumn Festival Zine Vol. 2, November 2023)

LO Hao-Ming, also known as v, is the guitarist for the impromptu noise band “Goodbye Nao!”. He utilizes noise guitar components to explore unfixed and dynamic sounds that bear the reverbs of history and serve as motivations for the resistance against social structures and power hierarchies. His core methodology involves creating noise, inducing derivative reverb, constructing deconstruction, and interfering with reshapeability. The sound-making performances take place in various venues, including large and small live houses, experimental theaters, tent theaters, Ankoku Butoh mixing consoles, assembly and parade sites, as well as seminar and classroom podiums. As a researcher of postwar Japanese thought, he began his studies with an examination of Tanigawa Gan’s philosophy and is currently investigating the following topics: the theoretical context of “ Theories of Revolution with Jazz”, which emerged during Japan’s All-Campus Joint Struggle League era around 1968; the comparison of anti-statism and anti-nationalism in Okinawa’s “Rejection of the Return to Japan” movement; The “Day Laborers” movements and related theories.