[Concert] Spectres Live

01 July 2017

“Spectres Live”---The O.P.E.N. (Singapore International Festival of Arts)

Country: Singapore

Performance: Zai Tang, Fuzz Lee, Shark Fung, Wu Jun Han (for the 1^st of July)

Location I watched: 72-13

“Spectres Live” is an electronic music performance as a response to an audio-visual installation, “Spectres”. I did not go to watch “Spectres” and watch only “Spectres Live”. For reference, here is the introduction from the festival program about what kind of installation “Spectres” is.

“Spectres is an artistic response to the Anthropocene epoch, a geological time when human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Evoking dystopian narratives of a future in which the wildlife of Singapore has all but vanished, Spectres takes the form of an immersive audio-visual installation. Its environment is haunted by the remnants of sounds that once inhabited this island.

Derived from artist, composer and sound designer Zai Tang’s archive of field recordings in local natural habitats, Spectres brings these deceased sonorities back to life, re-animating them using digital imaging and sound visualisation techniques.

Yet, these ethereal images and sounds no longer resemble the creatures from which they originated. They have metamorphosed into myriad phantasmagoric forms and disfigured expressions, embodying a deep, full vision of a desolate horizon.” (from the festival program)

This is a publicity image from the show.

From my understanding of this introduction, “Spectres” is an audio-visual installation by using audio recordings of natural sounds to express dystopian future when nature is destroyed and life is extinct. The present natural sounds are processed and used to express the future sprits (spectres) from a dead nature.

In “Spectres Live”, Zai Tang, the artist of “Spectres” collaborated with some experimental musicians to produce live performances following the theme of “Spectres”. “Spectres Live” is shown for three continuous nights and every night, different musicians play with Zai Tang. The program of the day that I went is as follows:

The first set: Fuzz Lee, Shark Fung

Short break

The second set: Zai Tang, Wu Jun Han

Short break

The final set: Zai Tang, Fuzz Lee, Shark Fung, Wu Jun Han

The venue, 72-13, I do not like because it is far from any train stations or any bus stops despite being located in the centre of the city. Whenever I go there, I am always wondering which route is the most efficient. This makes me feel irritated.

Anyway, for “Spectres Live”, when I reached 72-13, the first set has already started. I was 10 minutes late, but this performance does not require for you to stay there all the time. When you go in the venue studio, there is a stage with music equipment (an electric guitar, mixing desk, cassette tapes etc.) in the centre. Around the stage, many big white cloths are hanging from the ceiling and different images are projected on them. While you are listening to the musicians’ play, you can walk around among the cloths or sit on the floor. You can even lie down on the floor. I saw somebody sleeping.

This image taken during the performance

I do not have good ears and I do not properly understand it, but for some reason, I like listening to experimental music or sonic installation. That is why I was sitting on the cold floor of 72-13 studio among the young hipsters or geeks. Actually I did not feel dystopia or something ethereal from their performance. Anyway I was sometimes browsing and sometimes chilling on the floor under the cloths. I was half thinking about today’s work from the office (I went there after work on that day) and half absent-minded during watching and listening. How to spend time like that is OK to me and I enjoyed that. In all the 3 sets, the 2^nd set sounded the most friendly because it had a rhythmic tempo.

There is one request I have. As I have a backache, sitting on the hard floor was tough for me. If only there had been some cushions, sofas or a mat covering the floor… (20 July 2017)

The venue, 72-13

[Concert] Ryoji Ikeda: concert pieces

3 November 2016

Ryoji Ikeda: concert pieces---from Kyoto Experiment 2016 Autumn, Part 1

Country: France

Location I watched: South Hall, ROHM Theatre Kyoto（ロームシアター京都、サウスホール）

Kyoto Experiment 2016 Autumn: Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival was held last October and November. It is an international festival featuring edgy or experimental theatrical performance and exhibition. Although I missed watching that, “Baling” by Mark Teh from Southeast Asia was also shown for this festival. I went to watch three shows in the first week of November. Booking accommodation was difficult as it was the autumn peak tourist season, but the festival was still worth visiting. The three shows I watched was “Ryoji Ikeda: concert pieces”, “Kanjincho” and “Dance, if you want to enter my country!”.

The venue theatre, ROHM Theatre Kyoto

“Ryoji Ikeda: concert pieces” contains four works of IKEDA Ryoji, an electric composer and visual artist. The audience can buy a ticket per individual work, but I bought a Concert Pass ticket to watch his all four works. I stayed in the venue from 3:30 pm all the way to 9:40pm, watching “C⁴I” (2004-), “datamatics [ver. 2.0]” (2006-), “formula [ver. 2.3]” (2000-) and “matrix” (ver. 2016). The venue is in Okazaki Park where Heian Jingu Shrine, one of Kyoto’s famous sight-seeing spots, is located. After sunset, the tourist crowd has gone away and around the venue, there were not so fun place to spend time between the concerts. However, the whole experience was interesting. After sunset, IKEDA’s installation, “the radar [Kyoto]” also appeared in the courtyard of the venue theatre. The images of space formed by the integration of mapped data was beautiful, even romantic.

IKEDA's "the radar [kyoto]" in the courtyard of the theatre

Explaining abstract images and sound in IKEDA’s works is quite difficult, so I will quote the commentary for each work from the Festival brochure with my impression.

You can get this free beautiful brochure (written in Japanese and English) at the venue

“C⁴I” (2004-)

Direction, Concept, Video, Music: IKEDA Ryoji（池田亮司）

From the brochure:

“The title refers to “Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence”, a system of data communication and data processing for purpose of command and control in military operations. A screen is installed on stage, on which is displayed a montage of powerful graphics, exquisite natural landscapes, and quotations from various texts. These then transform into an abstract data language. The soundtrack synchronizes perfectly with the video images, disclosing an overwhelming fusion of nature, science, and philosophy.”

When I was young, I used to prefer complicated output for a simple theme on art. But when I got older, now what I prefer is simple output for a complicated theme. I do not understand what the intention of this work is, but I felt it was showing off technology and art. It had the sense of a coolness that is out of date. While I was arrogantly thinking, I dozed off… So I am not qualified to offer any opinions, actually.

“datamatics [ver. 2.0]” (2006-)

Direction, Concept, Composition: IKEDA Ryoji（池田亮司）

From the brochure:

“This is an art project that explores the potential to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world, from microscopic DNA and molecules to the macroscopic universe. It is a series of experiments in various forms---including audiovisual concerts, installations, publications, and CD releases---that seek to materialize pure data. This iteration, datamatics [ver. 2.0], is the final version of the series that launched in 2006. Objectively deconstructing original elements that incorporate sound, video, and the source code from the earlier version, the principles of the project are re-executed to create a new part that we might call a kind of “meta-datamatics”.”

Even in Japanese, I cannot understand the meaning of the above commentary. Please laugh at me if you want. But this work was overwhelming, quite interesting and felt completed. I cannot exactly explain why this work was so impressive, though.

That impression reminded me of the impact I felt when I saw the world map displaying real time cyber attack in progress on a website by hundreds of parabolas. Hacking data is visualized there and you can see an attack from which country against which country in a moment. It is like a war on data in systems and we should feel horrible. Nevertheless, it was quite beautiful, even touching. It was because of pure beauty formed by innumerable parabolas. It was probably excitement from the thought of looking at something we cannot see in our daily life. As another simpler example, it was like the impact I felt when I saw the bars of sound moving up and down with music in a stereo for the first time.

The experience of this work can be also said as a pure pleasure of perception beyond any explanations. It is like groove in music. That is why I like such kind of electric sound art, even if I cannot understand it. I want to see, hear or feel what I have not seen or heard, the unknown world.

“formula [ver. 2.3]” (2000-)

Direction, Concept, Composition: IKEDA Ryoji（池田亮司）

From the brochure:

“Produced between 2000 and 2005, formula is a perfect synchronization between sound frequencies and the movements on a screen. It places the viewer in a binary geometry of space and explores darkness in order to amplify perception. Utilizing sound, Ryoji Ikeda’s radical approach with sine waves, pulses, and white noise is extremely precise and intricately integrated with abstract computer graphics and video created out of vast amounts of images played at indecipherable speeds. Together these invite the viewer into an unfamiliar sensory zone.”

This commentary is also difficult to understand both in English or in Japanese. But the point is that this work is designed for sensory perception we have never experienced. The main attraction is a synchronization between the sound and the moving images, I think.

The work was felt to be simple compared with “datamatics”. Although “formula” was created in 2000’s, it has an older atmosphere. It reminds me a little bit of the older works of ITO Takashi, an experimental film maker, which drives the viewer to dazzling illusion by speedy flickering images. But contrary to ITO’s works, this “formula” is tranquil, more geometric and the sound synchronizing with the images is quite important. It felt enjoyable to watch the origin of IKEDA’s methods.

“matrix” (ver. 2016)

Concept, Composition: IKEDA Ryoji（池田亮司）

From the brochure:

“The series of sound installations employ pure sine waves and white noise as sculptural material. Offering a very personal experience, subtle oscillation patterns occur around visitors’ ears as they pass through the sound field, caused by their own movements interfering with the sounds. This is a reconfigured version for 2016, presented in a concert format for the first time in Japan.”

I bought a Concert Pass ticket, but you can buy each ticket for each work. I do not want to say about money very much, but “Concert Pass” is ¥5,000 and if you want to buy a ticket individually, each advance ticket is ¥2,000. Do I want to watch only this work paying ¥2,000? Actually we cannot see anything. The audience sits down in the darkness of the venue theatre. Sometimes we hear and feel the waves of sound. This work is forty minutes long. It means we just sit and wait for “something” coming for forty minutes. At the climax, white light appeared from many spotlights arranged on the stage and pierced us. In this version, the audience is fully seated. I am not sure if the sound experience is the same when the audience is free to move around in the theatre.

“matrix” was a little bit unsatisfying for me, but IKEDA Ryoji never repeats the same idea or the same format on his four works. That point impressed me. Eventually I can say I enjoyed all the works. (23 January 2017)

Taken from the brochure, top, "formula", middle, "C⁴I", bottom, "datamatics"