[← Back to work](https://cheyuwu.com/work/) Installation2022 # Chaos Laboratory [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/cb349e90-hero.mp4) The film shot on 23 June 2022: five surfaces lit at once, visitors sitting among the colour blocks of Rollercoaster, the artist at the console mid-performance.Muted loop; the performance output with sound is below Exhibition year 2022 Type Installation Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 Form First physical solo exhibition: five-surface projection (four walls and the floor), a live p5.js × Ableton Live audiovisual performance and guided tours; some twenty principal works and their variants First performance 18 May 2022, artist performance and tour (preview); open to the public 20 to 22 May, 11:00 to 18:00 daily Venue AMBI SPACE ONE, 5F Taipei 101; the solo-exhibition strand of Metaverse Taipei 2022 (13 to 22 May) Technology p5.js running live in the browser, OSC bridged to Ableton Live, a Launchpad and MIDI keyboard switching twenty layers; a pre-recorded performance film played during the public days Origin In 2021 Strange Robots was stolen and listed on Art Blocks; the community traced the original author. After interviews with Global Views and CommonWealth, Stan Shih invited him to speak at an alumni forum, which led to the immersive room at AMBI SPACE ONE Records An 80-second film (shot June 2022), a full 5 min 35 s recording of the performance output, and a 59-minute artist documentary commissioned by Acer (unreleased) Exhibition page [Dates, venue, images and the curatorial text](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab/) [Original page & interactive experience](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab) Contents & work details Exhibition year 2022 Type Installation Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 Form First physical solo exhibition: five-surface projection (four walls and the floor), a live p5.js × Ableton Live audiovisual performance and guided tours; some twenty principal works and their variants First performance 18 May 2022, artist performance and tour (preview); open to the public 20 to 22 May, 11:00 to 18:00 daily Venue AMBI SPACE ONE, 5F Taipei 101; the solo-exhibition strand of Metaverse Taipei 2022 (13 to 22 May) Technology p5.js running live in the browser, OSC bridged to Ableton Live, a Launchpad and MIDI keyboard switching twenty layers; a pre-recorded performance film played during the public days Origin In 2021 Strange Robots was stolen and listed on Art Blocks; the community traced the original author. After interviews with Global Views and CommonWealth, Stan Shih invited him to speak at an alumni forum, which led to the immersive room at AMBI SPACE ONE Records An 80-second film (shot June 2022), a full 5 min 35 s recording of the performance output, and a 59-minute artist documentary commissioned by Acer (unreleased) Exhibition page Dates, venue, images and the curatorial text [Original page & interactive experience](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab) Overview During the pandemic I stayed home all day and felt like a mad scientist locked in a laboratory, making works and running experiments. The works were a kind of daily diary: whatever I thought, saw or felt, in a bad mood or a good one, all of it went into the pieces. So the premise of Chaos Laboratory is a mad scientist who collects forbidden emotions and dangerous ideas around the city, carries them back to a basement, and breeds strange creatures and experiments on the edge; it was much like my own wish to push past my limits. It was my first immersive space. Most performance-driven shows run on tools built for performance; I insisted on the web, because most of what I make lives there and I wanted anyone to be able to run it on their own device. p5.js was meant to be an artist’s toy, and here I made it a live-performance instrument, wiring twenty to thirty works into a keyboard, a Launchpad and Ableton Live so that the beat drove the visuals on five walls at once. I chose works by two measures only: those that resonate at a glance, like Soul Sea, where you walk in and know it is the sea; and those pure and forceful enough to join into a whole room, like Rollercoaster winding through the space. ### Where the laboratory comes from In my two or three years in New York I made one piece a day for OpenProcessing; for a year or two nobody paid attention, and I did it after work for my own pleasure. In 2021 one of my robot-head works was stolen and sold on Art Blocks, and when the community went looking for the original they found someone who had been making work for a long time. Encouraged, I began putting my own work on chain, which led to interviews with Global Views and CommonWealth. Stan Shih read the story and invited me to speak at an alumni metaverse forum, where he mentioned that the immersive room at AMBI SPACE ONE would suit a solo show; that is how the thread was tied. On 7 February 2022 the Stans Foundation announced the exhibition in its new-year greeting; on 22 February a curatorial meeting grew it from a solo show into a show plus a dense programme, which became Metaverse Taipei 2022; on the night of 23 February I projected Limbo onto the walls of AMBI SPACE ONE for the first time. Between that night and the first performance on 18 May lay three months of scaling down, rescheduling, contracts and workshops; AMBI SPACE ONE carried much of the administration and the visitor experience, and I was left to concentrate on the work. ### Performing with a web page The performance program is one full-screen p5.js canvas with twenty layers stacked on it, blended with screen and multiply; every key on the keyboard toggles a layer, and the space bar clears them all. The drums in Ableton Live send notes and velocities into the browser over OSC through Max for Live: each hit pushes the scale, rotation and brightness of the picture up and lets it decay, so the visuals breathe with the beat; one particular note changes the palette and the grid and resets the robots and the flakes of light. A Launchpad switches the musical sections, a small keyboard switches the layers, and the laptop projects straight onto the five surfaces without passing through the venue’s servers. At the first performance on 18 May and the guided sessions that followed, this system ran live; on the public days a pre-recorded performance played, five minutes and thirty-five seconds long, and the scrolling CHAOS EXPERIMENT wall, the code and the ticking counter on the screens are the system naming itself. The millimetre-wave tracking, NFT ticketing and five kinds of audience input in the original plan were not built that year; only The Great Equation, a year later, brought millimetre-wave sensing into the room. Eight layers of the performance8 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) Rings [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) Geometric frames and spiral particles [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) The code wall and the counter [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) Coloured strokes [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) A blue network [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) Metal wave [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) The CHAOS EXPERIMENT wall [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/) Spinning discs Six seconds each from the five-minute-thirty-five recording of the performance output; twenty layers toggled from the keyboard and stacked on one canvas, each drum hit pushing scale and brightness up before they decay. The journey: from a theft to a room10 1. 01 ### 2021 Strange Robots is stolen and listed on Art Blocks; the community traces the author and the work goes on chain 2. 02 ### 7 February 2022 The Stans Foundation announces the solo show, titled Chaos Laboratory, in its new-year greeting 3. 03 ### 22 February 2022 Curatorial meeting at AMBI SPACE ONE: from a solo show to a show plus a dense programme 4. 04 ### 23 February 2022 First projection test: Limbo on the walls of AMBI SPACE ONE 5. 05 ### 13 May 2022 Metaverse Taipei 2022 opens (to 22 May): group show, forum, workshops, audiovisual performances and the solo show 6. 06 ### 18 May 2022 First performance: artist performance and tour (preview) 7. 07 ### 20 to 22 May 2022 Public days; generative NFT workshops on 21 and 22 May 8. 08 ### 23 June 2022 The 80-second film is shot 9. 09 ### October 2022 Acer delivers the 59-minute artist documentary 10. 10 ### December 2025 The final replay and record before the venue is demolished Dates follow the meeting minutes, the preview schedule, file dates on Drive and press reports; the “29 March opening” sometimes cited was a planning meeting and a photo session, not the opening. ![23 February 2022, Limbo projected at AMBI SPACE ONE for the first time](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/4c69cf78-test-01.webp) Late on 23 February 2022, the first projection test: the particles of Limbo across four walls and the floor. Phone photo ![Another angle of the first projection test](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/0c07475d-test-02.webp) The same night, another layer ![A working photo from a performance session: a white grid across the room, the console at the centre](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/0f9e473d-work-DSC02239.webp) The console at a performance session, 4 June 2022 ## The works shown The tour began with Soul Sea and moved through Island Impression, Loop Mountain, Tangled, Limbo and Spike Mountains to Strange Robots, CryptoPochi, Electriz, The Soul, Chaos Dancer, Nightmare and Sweet Dreams and Rollercoaster, ending with Soul Fish, which would only be released that June and swam across the whole room as a shoal. Each has its own page; the tags below open them. Soul Fish had not yet been minted during the show, so the wall carried a preview. Fifteen works, each with its own page15 - [Work shownSoul Seacheyuwu.comFirst on the tour; the green sea and Silent Night variants shown together](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) - [Work shownIsland Impressioncheyuwu.comGenerative impressionism: ocean, boat, an island in the mist](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/1245328/) - [Work shownLoop Mountaincheyuwu.comRhythm, repetition and random circles](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/890072/) - [Work shownTangledcheyuwu.comWhere the particle series began](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/941007/) - [Work shownLimbocheyuwu.comThe first work projected on the walls, on 23 February](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/954228/) - [Work shownSpike Mountainscheyuwu.comA new work from February 2022](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/1489900/) - [Work shownStrange Robotscheyuwu.comThe one that was stolen, and thereby seen](https://cheyuwu.com/work/strange-robot/) - [Work shownCryptoPochicheyuwu.comSoft, wobbly, world-weary creatures](https://cheyuwu.com/work/cryptopochi/) - [Work shownElectrizcheyuwu.com910 editions, the day the collider first ran](https://cheyuwu.com/work/electriz/) - [Work shownThe Soulcheyuwu.comThe great eye written at a conference in Portugal, with generative music](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-soul/) - [Work shownChaos Dancercheyuwu.comA dancer under the lights with no audience](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/1217113/) - [Work shownNightmarecheyuwu.comMoss on a stopped stone, regret in the cracks](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/1027958/) - [Work shownSweet Dreamscheyuwu.comNightmare’s code in bright colours, with a little black kept](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/1261155/) - [Work shownRollercoastercheyuwu.comVisuals that generate their own sound](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/1240711/) - [Work shownSoul Fishcheyuwu.comThe finale; released that June, shown here as a preview](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulfish/) In tour order; six have work pages, the rest open the original daily sketch. The room, twenty images20 ![Chaos Laboratory, The CHAOS EXPERIMENT wall on all five surfaces](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/c352aed0-photo-06.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, The wall of Strange Robots](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/9f6221a5-photo-42.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, The Soul: a row of eyes](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/d018f0c7-photo-48.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Soul Fish swimming across the room](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/f6a4ca96-photo-61.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Spike Mountains](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/2e1796b0-photo-37.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Soul Sea washing up to your feet](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/a138ef6d-photo-65.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Metal wave](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/f2605f82-photo-18.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Coloured strokes](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/531a2588-photo-10.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, The code wall and the counter](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/b9a45e47-photo-03.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, An eye and a viewer](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/a08028ee-photo-50.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, The lines of Soul Sea](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/6576b632-photo-66.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, The white wall of Soul Fish](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/b6a835f0-photo-70.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Rings and lines](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/5b2a6e12-photo-01.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, A vortex of light](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/939aa91b-photo-22.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Strokes across the walls](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/12f3bc8d-photo-23.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, A network in black and white](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/c1db2575-photo-30.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, White lines across the floor](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/783d4888-photo-39.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, The blue room](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/1f033a6f-photo-79.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, Geometry on the floor](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/22baeb2a-photo-05.webp) ![Chaos Laboratory, A green network](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/192f606c-photo-12.webp) These empty-room photographs were taken later by MONOLAB during a replay for the record, one figure moving through the room; the scenes with visitors from the 2022 run are in the film and the working photos above. Click to enlarge. Performance output (with sound, 45 s)45s [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/af957103-film.mp4) An excerpt recorded from the five-surface canvas: the drums drive the layers, the CHAOS EXPERIMENT wall rolls past. It starts muted as it enters the viewport; press Sound on at the top right to listen. ![The artist performing at the laptop, a Soul Fish on the wall](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/5b3293f1-work-DSC02283.webp) The console: a laptop, a Launchpad, a small keyboard; on the wall swims the Soul Fish that would be released that June. 4 June 2022 ### Afterwards The first exhibition was a grab bag; I did not yet have the idea that a show needs one central thought, and it turned out well almost by accident. Only The Great Equation the following year began to cut the works like courses and cook a meal that said something. An 80-second film was shot in June 2022, and in October Acer delivered a 59-minute artist documentary; in December 2025, before AMBI SPACE ONE was demolished, the works were replayed in the same room one last time and recorded. ![Teaser title card: a generative art solo show by Che-Yu Wu](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/a755cdc2-title-01.webp) From the 30-second teaser: from the virtual of NFT to the real world ![The console close up: MIDI keyboard and laptop, the counter on the wall](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/chaos-lab/fbfc4ad6-work-DSC02316.webp) The other side of the console: the small keyboard and the layers on screen Clippings and records10 - [**智榮基金會**PressStan Shih’s new-year greeting: Che-Yu Wu’s first Taiwan solo show, Chaos Laboratory, with Ambi Culture2022-02-07](https://stansfoundation.org/articles/378197) - [**NOWNEWS**PressStan Shih on the metaverse and a generative art solo show2022-02-08](https://www.nownews.com/news/5710042) - [**ETTODAY**PressThe generative art solo show Chaos Laboratory opens2022-05-18](https://finance.ettoday.net/news/2253876) - [**央廣 RTI**PressAn immersive generative art solo show at AMBI SPACE ONE, Taipei 1012022-05-19](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2133415) - [**聯合報 500 輯**PressAn immersive solo show threading fifty works2022-05-20](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/12672/6329101) - [FilmThe 80-second film: Chaos Laboratory, a generative art solo show2022-10-30YouTube・哲宇](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3mqk5w8FVo) - [FilmRti news video (1 min 31 s)2022-05-19YouTube・央廣](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CP3Ht4eRyA) - [ExhibitionExhibition page: dates, venue, images and curatorial text2022-05-20cheyuwu.com](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab/) - [Official recordExhibition record: Chaos Lab2025-12-26MONOLAB](https://monolab.world/zh/exhibition/23/) - [AfterwardsThe next solo show: The Great Equation2023-10-04cheyuwu.com](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-great-equation/) Clippings are the outside record, notes our own films, tags the pages of the exhibition and the venue; every one opens. ## Credits Artist, producer, performer Che-Yu Wu Production Monoame Interactive Design (MONOLAB); visual design Jin Venue and co-organiser Ambi Culture and AMBI SPACE ONE, Taipei 101 Metaverse Taipei 2022 Organised by Ambi Culture, AMBI SPACE ONE, Che-Yu Wu and Monoame; with the Culture and Technology Development Association, FAB DAO and Volume DAO; curated by Mashbean, Che-Yu Wu, Lin Yu-Ting and Lin Hsiu-Fen; technical partners 23 Design, Playful Products, Noiz and Sandwishes Studio Introduction Stan Shih (Stans Foundation) Workshop speakers Che-Yu Wu, Li Ting-Ting, Huang Yen-Lin, Huang Hsin, Chang Yu-Sheng, Chang Chieh-Ping Film and documentary 80-second film: the team; 59-minute artist documentary commissioned by Acer (unreleased) Photography Exhibition record: MONOLAB; working photos: the team ## Context & sources - [The 80-second film (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3mqk5w8FVo) - [MONOLAB exhibition record](https://monolab.world/zh/exhibition/23/) - [United Daily News 500 Times: an immersive solo show threading fifty works (20 May 2022)](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/12672/6329101) - [ETtoday (18 May 2022)](https://finance.ettoday.net/news/2253876) - [Rti (19 May 2022)](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2133415) - [Stans Foundation: the solo show announced in the new-year greeting (February 2022)](https://stansfoundation.org/articles/378197) - [Source: monolab.world](https://monolab.world/en/exhibition/24/) - [Chaos Lab · 2022 →](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab) Exhibitions, research & collaborations [Contact the artist](https://cheyuwu.com/contact?work=Chaos+Laboratory&from=/work/chaos-lab/) ## Continue through the work ![The Great Equation](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/mirror/69ba45f52973.jpg) 2023 ### The Great Equation [https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-great-equation](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-great-equation) ![SoulSea](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/soulsea/cover-2026-09.jpg) 2021 ### SoulSea [https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea) ![Soul Fish](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/soulfish/cover-2026-09.jpg) 2022 ### Soul Fish [https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulfish](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulfish) ![Electriz](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/electriz/cover-2026-09.jpg) 2021 ### Electriz [https://cheyuwu.com/work/electriz](https://cheyuwu.com/work/electriz) ![The Soul](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/the-soul-og.jpg) 2023 ### The Soul [https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-soul](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-soul) ![CryptoPochi](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/cryptopochi/cover-2026-09.jpg) 2021 ### CryptoPochi [https://cheyuwu.com/work/cryptopochi](https://cheyuwu.com/work/cryptopochi) ![Sail-o-bots (Strange Robot)](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/strange%20robot.jpg) 2021 ### Sail-o-bots (Strange Robot) [https://cheyuwu.com/work/strange-robot](https://cheyuwu.com/work/strange-robot) 1 / 0