Yunyu

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}

{{Use Australian English|date=October 2016}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Yunyu

| image = Yunyu at The Revolver 2012-06-22.jpg

| caption = Yunyu at The Revolver in Melbourne, 22 June 2012

| background = solo_singer

| occupation = Singer-songwriter, composer

| birth_place = Singapore

| instrument = Vocals, Keyboard, Synthesizer, Theremin, Guzheng

| years_active = 2002-present

| website = {{URL|www.yunyu.com.au}}

}}

Yunyu(王韵毓) is an Australian musician, film composer and singer-songwriter originally from Singapore, now living in New South Wales.

She won Australia's Triple J Unearthed{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/unearthed/bands/yunyu.htm |title=triple j's unearthed 2002 - Bands: WA |website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=2007-04-25 }} in 2002 with the song "You are Expendable", followed up with "A Prayer" a year later from her self-titled EP. Her music is mostly played on keyboards, pianoforte and synthesizers. Occasionally, when looking for variety, she will play the guzheng.

Yunyu is an alumna{{cite web|title=Yunyu - Australian Film Television and Radio School|url=http://www.aftrs.edu.au/history/graduates-by-year/2014/yunyu-ong|website=Australian Film Television and Radio School|access-date=5 December 2014}} of the [http://www.aftrs.edu.au Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS)] with a Graduate Diploma of Screen Music, taught by Martin Armiger, Christopher Gordon and Kirke Godfrey.

Yunyu won the Crystal Pine award for Best Original Score | Short Film{{cite web|author1=Ozren K. Glaser|title=2015 Film Music Awards Winners - ISFMF|url=http://www.isfmf.com/2015-isfmf-winners/|website=International Samobor Film Music Festival|access-date=25 November 2015}} category at the 2015 International Samobor Film Music Festival[http://www.isfmf.com/ International Samobor Film Music Festival] for her work on a hybrid documentary, inspired by Ted Egan’s folk song, "The Drover’s Boy".

She branched out to experiment with game and spatial music, after being introduced to virtual reality spaces by [https://michelaledwidge.com/ Michela Ledwidge] from MOD Productions. This led to Yunyu modding the VR game, Beat Saber, fusing wushu martial arts movements into the game of her own song composition, [https://yunyu.bandcamp.com/track/pirates-of-the-silk-road Pirates of the Silk Road], featuring guitars by Michael Sheridan, who she collaborated with from her last album, Twisted Tales. It was an exploration to see whether players can move and copy the choreographed wushu movements in time with the song, by hitting, slicing and avoiding blocks placed inside the game. This experience formed the basis of an academic paper she co-authored with Dr Rhett Loban, The fight is the dance: modding Chinese martial arts and culture into Beat Saber.{{Cite journal |last1=Ong |first1=Yunyu |last2=Loban |first2=Rhett |last3=Parrila |first3=Rauno |year=2022 |title=The fight is the dance: modding Chinese martial arts and culture into Beat Saber |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359437738 |journal=Journal of Games Criticism |volume=5 |issue=Bonus Issue A }}

In 2022, Yunyu was awarded a scholarship by Dolby Laboratories and Animal Logic Academy at The University of Technology, Sydney as a PhD candidate in Engineering and Information Technology,{{Cite web |date=2023-06-14 |title=Animal Logic Academy Research |url=https://www.uts.edu.au/about/faculty-engineering-and-information-technology/animal-logic-academy/about/animal-logic-academy-research |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=University of Technology Sydney |language=en}} researching new composing methods and frameworks for music in mixed reality spatial audio environments, or Quest Driven Spatial Songs.{{Cite book |last=Ong |first=Yunyu |chapter=Quest Driven Spatial Songs: Exploring how narrative structures of Quests in Games can be mapped onto songs |date=2023-11-28 |title=SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Doctoral Consortium |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623053.3623367 |series=SA '23 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1145/3623053.3623367 |isbn=979-8-4007-0392-8}}

The following year, as part of her research, Yunyu and writer Michelle Mead wrote a multi-perspective sound narrative, called No One Died, which made its debut at the Ars Electronica Festival 2023 in Linz, Austria as part of a workshop for listeners to question accepted truths and discover how truths can be shaped and manipulated in story space.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-02 |title=No One Died |url=https://ars.electronica.art/who-owns-the-truth/en/events/no-one-died/ |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=Ars Electronica Festival 2023 - Who owns the truth? |language=en-US}}

Yunyu was commissioned by Australian taiko drumming ensemble Taikoz in early 2023 to compose a new piece for the Roland electronic taiko, TAIKO-1. The solo piece titled, “When The Rain God Sings, Storm Lions are Born” is performed by Ryuji Hamada and made its debut on 14 July 2023 as part of the Taikoz main stage program called Lion Dogs.{{Cite web |title=Taikoz |url=https://taikoz.com/whats-on/lion-dogs |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=taikoz.com}} The piece was performed again at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 as part of Real Time Live!{{Cite book |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3610539 |title=ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Real-Time Live! |date=2023-12-12 |publisher=ACM |isbn=979-8-4007-0310-2 |location=New York, NY, USA |language=en |doi=10.1145/3610539 |last1=Ledwidge |first1=Michela |last2=Kim |first2=June |last3=Spencer |first3=Stephen }}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9F0G-mgAp4 |title=SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 – Real-Time Live! |date=2023-12-22 |last=ACMSIGGRAPH |access-date=2024-08-24 |via=YouTube}}

The composition and its implementation was novel, turning the e-taiko in an electronic windchime where the player triggers sounds and loops not associated with a percussion instrument and beyond its original intent.{{Cite web |title=digitalDrummer August 2024 |url=https://www.calameo.com/read/00430531039355047ed58?trackersource=library |access-date=2024-08-24 |website=calameo.com |language=en}}   The composition was recognised nationally with Yunyu being nominated as a finalist in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards for Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art.{{Cite news |date=2024-08-14 |title=Where are all the women composers in Australia? Right here, crushing it at a major awards ceremony |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-15/2024-art-music-awards-winners/104193806 |access-date=2024-08-24 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}

Yunyu has been invited to showcase her works in 2024 at The International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) and Gaudemaus Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands and Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, teaming up with visual artist Emma Smith and Taikoz player, Ryuji Hamada.