Upclose with Samson Young

HK Magazine: Why do you use video games in your music and art?
Samson Young: I only find video games of a particular era interesting—video games of the Nintendo era, of the 80s and early 90s. The thing about technology—especially video game technology—is that it is always changing. It is always updating and becoming newer. But I like the technology from that era because it represents who I am, because I grew up in that era. Video games were more widespread then than now. Everybody played Nintendo and came into contact with Nintendo, so as soon as you see those colors, and those pixel graphics, and [hear] that kind of sound, you immediately recall a whole decade of memory or social events or people that you came into contact with. The sound and visuals are very powerful. But [the technology] kind of froze itself in time because nobody makes games like that anymore, because it’s obsolete technology. But what I like about obsolete technology is the very fact it’s obsolete. It gets frozen in time. It doesn’t change with time.

HK: Can you tell me about the “The Third Pixel”?
SY: “The Third Pixel” is, at its core, a music concert, but there’s a multimedia element. The special feature about the music in this production is that I’m using the actual chip from the Nintendo era to generate sounds to go with the ensemble of musicians. So the electronic parts that you hear, it’s the genuine Nintendo chip sound. It’s a very backward sound chip that can only do triangle waves and sine waves. I’m deliberately limiting myself and the chip’s sound is a thousand miles away from the quality of the live ensemble. So it’s going to be a challenge for me to bring it together. There’s also going to be some visuals. The theme of “The Third Pixel” is very personal. It’s about me thinking about the differences between knowing something, the process of learning something, and perceiving something. Kids are very perceptive. So, for example, I knew the Tiananmen Square massacre was happening, but whether I saw it as a massacre was an entirely different matter. I saw everything that my parents saw; I was very aware—probably even more aware than my parents. I had more attention to detail as a kid. But how I understood it was something entirely different. I think “The Third Pixel” is my way of understanding many significant historical events, and things that happened in my childhood, but as an adult. And trying to figure out what I’ve learned since then.