[← Back to work](https://cheyuwu.com/work/) Installation2026 # The Last Input — Before the End [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/386aade5-hero.mp4) The City act: towers fed by chords rise on the wireframe terrain as the camera slowly circles. Rendered live by the performance system, no post-production.Muted loop Archive year 2026 Type Installation Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 Premiere 4 July 2026, C-LAB, Taipei Showcase 22 to 24 October 2026, C-LAB (two performances and a post-show talk on 24 October) Sound field 49.4-channel spatial sound field (49 surround speakers and 4 subwoofers) Medium Piano and controller input, a live-computed digital world, sixteen MIDI tracks, spatial harmony Residency 2026 IRCAM Sound Off: emerging artist residency Presented by C-LAB × Taiwan Sound Lab Co-presented by IRCAM–Centre Pompidou, France Supported by Ministry of Culture, Taiwan Performance photography 林亞蓁, commissioned by C-LAB [Original page & interactive experience](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibition/the-last-input) Contents & work details Archive year 2026 Type Installation Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 Premiere 4 July 2026, C-LAB, Taipei Showcase 22 to 24 October 2026, C-LAB (two performances and a post-show talk on 24 October) Sound field 49.4-channel spatial sound field (49 surround speakers and 4 subwoofers) Medium Piano and controller input, a live-computed digital world, sixteen MIDI tracks, spatial harmony Residency 2026 IRCAM Sound Off: emerging artist residency Presented by C-LAB × Taiwan Sound Lab Co-presented by IRCAM–Centre Pompidou, France Supported by Ministry of Culture, Taiwan Performance photography 林亞蓁, commissioned by C-LAB [Original page & interactive experience](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibition/the-last-input) Overview This is a digital life system that grows on its own inside a 49.4-channel sound field: a multidimensional space enclosed by 49 surround speakers and 4 subwoofers. In the performance I play a mad scientist of creation, building a world out of notes and leading the audience to observe and experiment. Early on the system holds plants and all kinds of strange creatures; then it develops into two systems that evolve by themselves: a City that keeps building upward and tries to hold order, and a Virus that keeps spreading, mutating and eroding. Starting from the making of the land and its species, when you sit at the centre you first hear buildings rising from the ground in the distance, and then, in the chaos that dissonant sound brings, you hear everything around you slowly being eaten. ### Two kinds of input The work runs on two kinds of input. The knobs on the lab desk set the laws by which this world runs: humidity, wind speed and the speed at which time flows. The keys of the electric piano are the interface that throws variables into the world. A single note plants a seed; a chord calls up a flock of birds or a city, and these begin to form complex structures with one another. The world responds in real time, growing into shapes even I cannot predict. ### Randomness and the uncontrollable Since I was small I have loved simulating and computing ecosystems. The moment the virus is born, and the direction it spreads from, are decided entirely by the environmental conditions the world has accumulated by itself. Every performance is unique; even I cannot be sure which note set off the chain reaction. Randomness and the uncontrollable are themselves part of this performance, and the ending grows anew with every run. > “What fascinates me is this: once my system is built, if it produces some complexity or behaviour beyond me, then that thing is the work itself. So I simply designed it into the theatre. Halfway through I say, I give up control; whatever happens next, I watch it as a member of the audience.” Che-Yu Wu, interview, August 2026 Species6 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) The herd. Horses graze, ants crawl through the grass, and the elephant walks slowest and lives longest. Ground creatures hatch beside plants; more plants, more animals. [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) Flocks. One chord calls up a flock; they fly together and now and then dive for something small on the ground. [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) Plants. A single note lands as one plant, and its velocity sets the size; fourteen kinds, from low grass to blossoming trees, grown by one set of rules. [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) The City. Chords feed the buildings and the towers stack floor by floor; every tower has a sound of its own as it grows. [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) The Virus. Once dissonance builds past the threshold, the first virus seeps in from the edge and begins to spread, mutate and attack. [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) After letting go. The performer stops; the two species fight on by their own rules to the end. Things really live in this world. Every tile is rendered live by the performance system: the same playing gives the same picture; different playing, a different world. The plant act1 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) The terrain after a few dozen seeds and a handful of chords: grasses, blossoming trees, flocks, horses and an elephant, each going about its life on the same wireframe land. ![The performer in a white coat at the piano, a golden city on the wall](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/8e438468-stage-96.webp) White coat, piano, golden city. Photography: 林亞蓁, commissioned by C-LAB ### On stage In the performance I sit at the piano in a white lab coat, like a scientist. The coat stands for starting from zero: studying the world I created with fresh curiosity. I play a few notes and new creatures appear on the terrain, so I pull the camera closer and let the whole room watch together: a horse lowering its head to drink, small insects scurrying through the grass. Laughter rises from the audience, and I let the image linger a little longer. In that moment, everyone in the room is witnessing the birth of a world. On site, premiere, 4 July 202620 ![The Last Input premiere: Before the start, the room is full](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/ba668b66-stage-84.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: In place, lights down](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/1e6adc75-stage-85.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The genesis terminal: a world born from a line of commands](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/d0305af5-stage-86.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The hum of genesis: the first light](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/2ac3a534-stage-87.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Terrain carved out of white noise](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/876f7b85-stage-88.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The blue-white wireframe land](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/bfb48123-stage-89.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Land and climate: the first plants](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/9545d552-stage-90.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The plant act](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/d4d717a6-stage-91.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: A burst of green](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/01a45f5d-stage-92.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The first seed is played](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/d409977e-stage-93.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The golden City fills the wall](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/57d7bb33-stage-98.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Between the desk and the piano](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/1d5bd2e4-stage-94.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Head down, listening to the world](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/0fa2f783-stage-95.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The stacking of civilisation](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/ac6e25aa-stage-97.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The City at full height](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/84347cde-stage-99.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The City at its brightest](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/293c61c7-stage-100.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Watching the world he made](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/9b7357cb-stage-101.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: The end: the audience in red light](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/2da22d83-stage-102.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Post-show talk: the ten residency groups and the mentors](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/57dbda6f-stage-162.webp) ![The Last Input premiere: Group photo](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/afc35e95-stage-174.webp) In performance order: before the start, the genesis terminal, creation, terrain, plants, the City, the end; the last two are the post-show talk and the group photo. Photography: 林亞蓁, commissioned by C-LAB. Click any image to enlarge. The premiere in full, 4 July 2026 (with sound)566s [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/be7cdb41-performance.mp4) The sixth piece of the C-LAB Sound Off workshop showcase. Video: C-LAB. ## Audio-Visual Audio Most audiovisual performances start with the image and add sound to it; this work is the other way round. Through the musical performance I first build a living simulated world, and sound is simply what that world produces as it runs: a horse makes a drinking sound only when it reaches the water, and the city roars only once it has grown. I call this logic of performance Audio-Visual Audio: the performance produces the world, and then the world itself joins in as part of the sound performance. Genesis terminal1 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/) The boot sequence, 38 seconds, silent loop. The performance begins with a line of commands: the terminal boots, allocates a 22 by 22 terrain lattice, connects the 49.4-channel speaker array, then waits for hands. At the end the same wireframe cube is drawn once more. Six acts: every performance is one evolution6 1. 01 ### Genesis - The hum of genesis: noise carves the first light - First life: one geometric bird, the signature tone PerformerTurns a knob; the land rises WorldTerrain grows out of white noise 2. 02 ### Terrain - Land and climate: relief, ruggedness, day, rain, wind - The first seed: from the desk to the piano PerformerPresses the first key WorldA single note lands as a plant 3. 03 ### City - The stacking of civilisation: chords feed buildings - The richer the harmony, the taller the city PerformerImprovises, desk and piano in turn WorldFlocks, beasts, towers stack upward 4. 04 ### Virus war - Virus birth: corruption crosses a threshold - Panic and rescue: consonance heals PerformerPlays faster, trying to save the city WorldThe virus spreads, mutates, attacks 5. 05 ### Letting go - The Last Input: the final input - Autonomy: a ladder war between two species - The virus speaks PerformerStops giving input; becomes an audience WorldThe system runs itself; the outcome is computed 6. 06 ### Survivors - Darkness and silence - Epilogue: something outside the cycle PerformerListens with the audience WorldSomething has survived - Order: the City - Chaos: the Virus - Outside the cycle - Brighter frames are the three signature moments ## The last time The 'last' in the title comes from a question I put to this era: when AI can generate everything, what meaning is left in the one input a human presses by hand? An input that cannot be taken back comes closer to being real than generation that can be redone without limit. When the last input is pressed, I take off the white coat and walk off the stage; what remains is no longer mine to decide, and is handed to the system to wrestle with chaos. Premiered on 4 July 2026 at the C-LAB workshop showcase; two performances and a post-show talk follow on 24 October. Signal flow: the keys grow the world first, and the sound comes out of the world6 1. 01 ### Keys and knobs 88-key MIDI controller and 8 knobs 2. 02 ### Input analysis note = seed · chord = flock consonance = growth · dissonance = decay 3. 03 ### A living world terrain, plants, creatures city vs virus, computed live 4. 04 ### Sixteen MIDI tracks and positions ambient / event / narrative layers the spatial coordinates of every object 5. 05 ### Sound and space Ableton Live as pure sound source Spat spatial harmony 6. 06 ### 49.4 channels 49 surround speakers and 4 subwoofers sound arrives from where things are Auditory perspective: what the camera looks at is what you hear (proximity, on-screen energy and visible density feed back to the sound) ## Sixteen tracks, three layers | Layer | What sounds | How | | --- | --- | --- | | Ambient | Buildings, virus, plant families, the bird | Breathes with the state of the world: the taller the tower the higher the note, up to fourteen at once; trees and palms low, shrubs mid, grasses and reeds high, flowers as colour | | Event | Topping out, infection, collapse, impact, flocks, seeds, birdsong, ground creatures | One-shot sounds the world throws up: a seed’s velocity is audible; ants high, horses mid, the elephant in the sub-bass | | Narrative | The blessing, the hand, shutdown, the typewriter | Cues on the timeline that always land: the four-voice blessing enters seventy milliseconds apart, and shutdown is a single trigger | The sound sources and spatial rack follow no timeline of their own: whatever event the world emits, they sound. Technical2 ![First connection to the spatial sound field](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/b4eccfff-ableton.webp) April 2026, the first connection to the sound field: five sources, each placed in the 49.4-channel space. ![The flow runner](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/the-last-input/44555751-director.webp) The flow runner during the big-hall rehearsal: timeline, parameters and the playing map. In performance only the world is projected; the tools stay on the desk. ## Rehearsal footage [Rehearsal Footage · Premiere Day, 4 July 2026](https://www.youtube.com/embed/H291UarrGvY) Rehearsal Footage · Premiere Day, 4 July 2026[Open in a new tab](https://www.youtube.com/embed/H291UarrGvY) ## Credits Concept, system and performance Che-Yu Wu Presented by C-LAB (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab) × Taiwan Sound Lab (TSL) In collaboration with IRCAM–Centre Pompidou, France Supported by Ministry of Culture, Taiwan Residency 2026 IRCAM Residency Programme for Emerging Artists Technical guidance 泓凱 | Taiwan Sound Lab Spatial audio Tsang Ching-Hsuan | engineer, Taiwan Sound Lab Musical feedback Chen Chia-Hui | composer One-to-one mentoring Johannes | IRCAM Theatre feedback Huang Ling-Hsuan | lecturer Performance photography 林亞蓁, commissioned by C-LAB Performance video C-LAB System imagery MonoLab ## Context & sources - [2026 IRCAM residency: project information from C-LAB](https://clab.org.tw/projects/soundoff-2026) - [Rehearsal footage, premiere day (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H291UarrGvY) - [Creative notes: White coat and curiosity (Chinese original) →](https://cheyuwu.com/zh/dialogues/2026-08-10-white-coat-curiosity/#section-f5145576e7) - [The Last Input — Before the End · 2026 →](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibition/the-last-input) Exhibitions, research & collaborations [Contact the artist](https://cheyuwu.com/contact?work=The+Last+Input+%E2%80%94+Before+the+End&from=/work/the-last-input/) ## Continue through the work ![Algorithmic Verses](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/mirror/15b4481d93ff.webp) 2025 ### Algorithmic Verses [https://cheyuwu.com/work/algorithmic-verses](https://cheyuwu.com/work/algorithmic-verses) ![Woven Land, Woven River](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/woven-land-woven-river/cover.jpg) 2026 ### Woven Land, Woven River [https://cheyuwu.com/work/woven-land-woven-river](https://cheyuwu.com/work/woven-land-woven-river) ![The Eternal Garden in a Bottle](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/covers/eternal-garden-in-a-bottle.webp) 2025 ### The Eternal Garden in a Bottle [https://cheyuwu.com/work/eternal-garden-in-a-bottle](https://cheyuwu.com/work/eternal-garden-in-a-bottle) 1 / 0