In F(ear) and G(reed) (2025), digital artist Henry Chu transforms the cryptocurrency market into generative cello music.

The installation uses as its reference point the Fear and Greed Index, a commonly used metric which tracks market sentiment in the cryptocurrency world. The vicissitudes of the moves in sentiment reflect the twin human emotions of optimism and pessimism which are continually wrestling for the upper hand. The polar opposites are each a trap and an extreme which humanity must navigate in between, like a sailor plotting a course between rocks. The inability of each of us not to feel the siren call of harmful thought patterns alludes to age-old, pre-crypto struggles which the index finds a neat way to represent.

Chu collaborated with composer Lewis Chung, who composed music inspired by recent Bitcoin price charts. The composition is divided into ten sections (A-J), each representing a different phase of sentiment. These sections are dynamically rearranged by a computer in real time, based on the current Fear and Greed Index. The music begins and ends with the notes F and G, symbolizing the two polarizing human emotions of fear and greed. The performance is by cellist Kevin Lam.

The emphasis on opposing forces underlines the psychological resistance we feel to charting a sober, steady course in life. The link with music is a natural one, given the underlying mathematics of musical melody, and the journey of rhythm from silence to crescendo, imparting emotions of tenderness, anxiety or pathos through musical notes.

Asset bubbles and their subsequent collapse are a tale as old as time; F(ear) and G(reed) therefore harnesses influences from Bach and a constant tempo/time signature to embrace the primal human emotions that drive these market outcomes. Just as the market in cryptocurrency and other tradable commodities fluctuates between troughs and peaks, Chu’s work therefore holds relevance at times of market exuberance or depression, and anything in between.

In F(ear) and G(reed) continues a thread which the artist has developed in previous years. Chu’s The Sound of Market (2006) was his first artwork to incorporate market data, whilst Blockchain Piano (2021) was a digital art installation that continuously wavered between cryptocurrency and music, allowing visitors to “buy” cryptocurrency at the press of a musical key.

F(ear) & G(reed)

This is a work about volatility, exploring the unpredictable fluctuations in markets and daily life.

Fear and greed are the dominant emotions in the market, governing human behavior. I provided 200 days of Bitcoin data to composer Lewis Chung, who then created a cello piece incorporating the five emotional states from the Fear & Greed Index.

"Begin with F and G, and end with F and G," I briefed Lewis—because F and G stand for Fear and Greed.

The work is silent when inactive. When the performer draws the bow across the strings, the curved LED screen displays real-time Bitcoin market sentiment data while the cello music resonates.

"This is a window into the world's emotions, viewed through the perspective of Bitcoin."

After 15 seconds, the music fades again, and the LED screen randomly displays the market sentiment from a single day within the past 200 days. These interwoven emotional states form a tangled, flickering ticker stream.

"These tickers are virtual strings—while the physical strings vibrate to produce sound, the virtual strings tremble in response to invisible data."

The arrangement of the cello components follows the rise and fall of price K-line charts.

"I chose the cello because it is an unstable instrument—it stands on a single leg, its bridge always on the verge of collapse. The curves of its body resemble ocean waves."

Henry Chu 朱力行

F(ear) and G(reed), 2025

Cello parts, LED panels and display system, steel frame, computer, software, source code printed on music score, cello performance footage (Music composed by Lewis Chung), generative animation 大提琴零件、LED面板與顯示系統、鋼架、電腦、軟體、印有原始碼的樂譜、大提琴演奏影像（音樂由鍾煦捷創作）、生成動畫

Cello parts 大提琴零件: 155 x 80.2 x 22 cm

LED panels and display system LED面板與顯示系統: 72.4 x 16.5 x 18.3 cm | 104 x 624 pixel

Generative animation 生成動畫: Unlimited duration 無限時長

Live Data Installation: Edition 1 of 1