We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tzu Ni Hung a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tzu Ni, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I am happy as an artist but when the funding system drowns me, I think about having a regular job.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Tzu Ni, a Taiwanese artist, performer, and researcher currently based in the Netherlands. My practice explores the relationships between sound, gender, embodiment, and space through multichannel installations, live performances, workshops, and collaborative projects.

My journey into sound began through DIY sound installations and participation in local experimental music scenes in Taiwan. What initially started as curiosity about sound as a medium gradually evolved into a deeper interest in listening as a way of experiencing and understanding the world. Over time, I became increasingly interested in creating environments where audiences can encounter sound not only as something to hear, but as something to inhabit, navigate, and imagine through.

Alongside my own artistic practice, I frequently collaborate with visual artists, filmmakers, and interdisciplinary practitioners, creating sound commissions, compositions, and spatial audio works for exhibitions, films, performances, and public presentations. These collaborations have expanded my understanding of how sound can interact with image, narrative, and materiality across different media.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think there have been several different moments and stories that shaped my path. It has never felt like a straight or planned career. There were many times when I felt lost, uncertain, or disconnected from what I was doing. But strangely, those moments were often followed by unexpected invitations, new collaborations, or encounters with artists who reached out to me at exactly the right time.

It happened through small coincidences: someone hearing a performance online, a curator visiting a show, a filmmaker asking for sound, or another artist proposing a collaboration out of nowhere. Each collaboration opened a new direction in my work and helped me understand sound from a different perspective.

Sometimes it feels almost like a blessing, or a hidden message telling me to keep going. Not in a mystical or dramatic way, but in the sense that the work itself creates connections before I fully understand where it is leading me. Sound is invisible and intangible, yet it travels, touches people, and returns in unexpected forms. That experience has taught me to trust the process more, even during periods of uncertainty.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Before moving to the Netherlands, I went through a period that profoundly shaped both my life and artistic practice. I experienced situations that made me reflect deeply on gender dynamics, power structures, and the vulnerabilities that can exist within cultural and artistic communities. When I began speaking publicly about some of these experiences and broader issues related to gender in the experimental arts scene, I also found myself navigating legal challenges that were emotionally and financially demanding.

Although those legal proceedings were ultimately resolved in my favor, the experience changed my understanding of how justice, accountability, and public discourse operate. I had previously believed that difficult truths, once voiced, would naturally lead to collective reflection and change. Instead, I learned that transformation is often slow, complicated, and uneven. What I had to unlearn was the expectation that external validation, legal outcomes, or public recognition would provide closure.

I read a lot of poem from Audrey Lorde, and one of the most important lessons I learned was how to transform anger into a constructive force. I know how to use my anger as motivation and to empower myself. Rather than letting it turn inward or become disabling, I channel it into my artistic practice, research, and collaborations. It becomes a source of clarity, energy, and direction helping me define what I stand for and what kinds of spaces I want to create.
Through sound, I continue to explore how difficult experiences can be transformed into forms of listening, resilience, and collective imagination, where intensity is not erased but reworked into something generative.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://iitzunii.xyz
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iilli.i.illii/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/iitzunii
• Other: https://pressesprecaires.bandcamp.com/album/4-methods-of-loci

Image Credits

Photographer : Charlie Spiegelfeld, Joost Verpoort