Variation III

Question to Max Eastley

EM: Could you please explain your investigation "the resonant potential of materials in chaotic systems" in your sculptural work? My understanding of it that you use the motoric power for a dynamic movment in your sculptural work. What is thereby a chaotic system? And what is the resonant potential of materials? I think that

the context of your inverstigation is from the aspekt of musical composition, such as ‘happening’, is it right?


ME: The resonant potential of materials refers to my investigation of the sound properties of some basic materials such as metal, wood, stone, paper, leaves, sand. Some of these are commonly used in sculpture and some are used for making musical instruments. I am making sculptures that make sound but they are not musical instruments and so my

choice of materials is wider.


I want to create chaotic systems of movement and sound to emulate the unpredictable timings that occur in the complexity of natural systems. I start with the regular timed precision of motors; I then build elements into my installations that interfere with that regular and absolute movement, either causing anything attached to the motor to deviate

from its course or creating inertia that produces tension or torsion in the system that releases unpredictably.


The context of my investigations is not only from the aspect of musical composition. The words ‘musical composition’ are sometimes applicable to my work but it is usually concerned with chance happenings of sound. Once the installations are operating, they are autonomous and not in my control and always surprising. I am equally concerned with the sounds of my installations, with the movement of all the elements and the formal visual aspects, as one always is with sculptures. I am sorry but I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘happening’, but ‘things happening’ is what my installations are about!

*********************************************************************

EM: To the Japanese concept of spatiality MA (間): Did you use MA (間) - interstitial space - as a resonating body or mute as negative space for the sounds of your installation? And if so, how do you know about MA (間) ?


ME: MA is both the presence of air, which is the invisible medium through which sound istransmitted and which can be used to amplify or make sounds resonate and MA is also　the space between sounds. As an artist I have always been aware of the concept of the blank space in, for example, the empty areas of paper in a drawing. Empty space is negative space or nothing, but it has potential and is contained by structures.


EM: I agree with your idea in your catalogue “(...) It was an extension of the idea of circular motion producing sound and exploration of a very early instruments.” p.42 The sounds of early instruments are not only for amusement. Could you please explain a background of your this exploring?


ME: The idea of using circular motion in my sculptural work was extended into performance through research into early instruments. The instruments are inert and silent until moved in a circle and activated by the performer who is at the centre of the movement and the sound circles them. They are a variously described as noise makers or toys but in older cultures they were often associated with the underworld and the supernatural. Often these relics lose their earlier connections and become toys of amusement for children.


A reissue of Whirled Music on vinyl on the Black Truffle label:

https://www.lowcompany.co.uk/products/whirled-music

 

EM: I find your work as well as your approaches mathematical. Could you please explain to me your compositional idea of rotation, especially materiality and its timbres in a systematic movement?


ME: My use of number/ mathematics is intuitive not based on formulae.

Subject: MA (間), Randomness (Zufall)

REFLECTION ON THE AUDITORY AND VISUAL ASPECTS OF 'SITE-SPECIFIC' IN ARTS

Short explanation

Variation I:

Subject on Simultaneous


I have great respect for historical Belgian symbolism, which was a reflection in mind.

The work Corona-STEMS-GALAXYOMEGA (May 2020) by Lukas Huisman (pianist) and Patric Housen (sound artist) for "corona" (1962) for pianist(s) by Toru Takemitsu consists of a new interpretation by Lukas Huisman. Simultaneously, it is simulated the sound composition by Patric Housen, I mention that Housen's expression is a musical Belgian symbolism. In Japanese, there is a word "Shin-sho (心象)" which is a mental image such as impression traditionally, which is a term in Japanese aesthetics.

Today's understanding of simultaneous is simulation or synchronization in the audiovisual production generally, which makes narrativity for the viewers.

In Variation I, I perform with them, simultaneously, with noise in the spatial installation, for another way of musical narrativity as a performance, is a new artistic approach.

 

Variation II:

Subject on Spontaneous



I dealt with the doctoral thesis of Valerio Sannicandro (music composer, conductor) on Spatialization, which is composed by the computer software MAX and its sound analysis.

 

"(...) Stockhausen or Berio, Xenakis was one of the firsts to compose electroacoustic music in the historical sense of the word, filling the gap between the two antagonistic trends of the early fifties: the concrète and the electronic approach. Second, unlike Berio, who after some early works stopped composing for tape, Xenakis continued to do so; and unlike Stockhausen who did follow the dramatic evolution of this relatively new musical genre, Xenakis also significantly contributed to its technology." (Analysing the First Electroacoustic Music of Iannis Xenakis, Makis Solomos, 2002.)

 

Stochastic processes:

In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that appear to vary in a random manner.

 

How explored the music composers in the 20th century with stochastic processes for using the technology in their music compositions, or how explored the music composers in the 20th century with stochastic processes for their music compositions through the technology.

 

Valerio Sannicandro had dealt with composers methods in his doctoral thesis, which is a non-typical combination. Especially, on Lucier's, which is from the point of my view is in minimalism.

Thereby, I have the question for metaphor in Western contemporary music, also in the Non-Western contemporary music today. I grasped that is a core of Sannicandro's musical creation, probably, it is a naturalization of music composition after Xenakis and Stockhausen.

 

From this confusion between tradition and contemporary, I explore "a.o.i. - lasting memories" in Variation II. -> Artistic research "Silence surrounds us, silence around us - X", Sound composition

 

Conclusion of this artistic research on spatial figure, that is a kind of love which makes sense in music, and which is unculturable. As a reflection, it relates to musical ethics. Benjamin's unfinished account "aura" is not so far from it, was Benjamin's critical theory in the 20th century.

 

Music centered joint artistic research:

Transdisciplinary artistic research in music and visual art, on sound as material in musical and non-musical narrativity* and its performativity


* Musical narrativity is based on metapher in terms of the music composition, hereby I explre a new metaper on Wind.

After romanticism in music composition, in contemporary music "pure music" means the computer music, that sine wave as well as radio wave is managed by the composers and/or performers generally. How people can perceive this music through the loudspeakers. Thereby the computer and the loudspeakers are the sound source. Today there are many devices to listen the sound wave  for the creating music.

Music centered joint artistic research:

Interdisciplinary artist research in music and visual art, in the Western and Non-Western music tradition, on homogenous and heterogenous in musical narrativity and its performativity

The starting point of the artistic research Variations is "Corona (1962) for pianist(s) by Toru Takemitsu, that is a multi-layered score for clavier(s).

My idea on wind was in the sound for the video transformation#1 and #2, it was a sound collage (composed) through the recorded surrounding noise for creating a narrative from real occasion (sonic arrativity). It was made up a new sound sense for the video more than designed sound, which we can buy the CD, generally it is called ocean and wind sound.

Gye-joon's idea on wind in his current video work is at the visual level, and his artistic approach is metaphisical toward post-materiality and its society.

Max's idea on wind is neither materiality or post-materiality, as well as not the traditional way of Pythagoras. He developed his unique idea and its system for his installation and music performance. He is not one of, it was a kind of cultural wave in the UK, is sympathetic for Asian culture.

Variation III:

Subject on MA, Randomness 

Randomness in Schoenberg's and its reflection


Reflections on Schoenberg, George Rochberg

Perspectives of New Music
Published By: Perspectives of New Music
 
 
Problems of Harmony, Arnold Schönberg and Adolph Weiss
Perspectives of New Music
Published By: Perspectives of New Music
 

-> There is the sound composition piece in the project of Rasenjo no Jikan - deflection by Antonis Anissegos and Niklas Schmincke, was from my request "The sound of the wind 100 million years ago" for the video installation. I would like to introduce this sound together with the video installation. It was composed from their image, but it is an interesting sound composition piece. The sound is very far from the moving image, but it is crossed in the sense deeply, which is in terms of cognitive linguistics. We mentioned these works of art by OIO as a visual- and audio poem.

Between 1 and 2 is infinity, between each number is infinity. MA is in-between, so we can explore it profoundly. In this artistic research, the research addresses the subject from two perspectives, one is European and another one is Asian literary. Thereby the gaps are between natural science and literature (art and humanities).

Philosophy vs. Mind in the Western Traditional Music and Western Contemporary Music from the point of Non-Western in the music, was started from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. 

Current tasks of the instrumentalists (performer) as knowledge are embodiment, enact, and so on. Therefore, I have three different aspects in each artistic research of Variations.

Today's philosophy is  such as philosophy of mind, empirical philosophy.

What is empirical knowledge in philosophy?
 
 
1. in philosophy, knowledge gained from experience rather than from innate ideas or deductive reasoning. 2. in the sciences, knowledge gained from experiment and observation rather than from theory.

 
 
In philosophy, empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views of epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empiricism emphasizes the role of empirical evidence in the formation of ideas, rather than innate ideas or traditions.

This historical high art such as church music is the ethnological arts of the world cultures today. That is the same in Japan also. -> Anthropology

 

The art today is the contemporary art mainly. And contemporary art includes Non-Western art.

-> If I mention these problems of harmony in music briefly, that is nothing to hear of any musical contents in modernism. Probably, it is for a sort of mood. In Schoenberg's generation, film production was started, so musical expression and its recognition would change. - Sociology in music

Schoenberg's problems were the conflicts such as between Catholics and others, as well as Judaism. - Cultural xenophobia (It is a complex issue, such as When arguing in terms of fiction at the level of truthfulness between different cultures. For example, a controversy at the level of whether the saviour will come or not. Is it true or not? In my interpretation, the saviour is the metaphor of great knowledge, which is heterogeneous in homogenous. In the fact historically, it was the launch of a new civilisation of humankind in the new age. How is different two stories (fiction), in my interpretation, one is "X" where, for going back to the future (going back to the origin of human nature in fiction), another one is, at the end of humankind, "X" will come for future (hope), are from two different perspectives?


The issues of capitalism are contracts, rights and guarantees, how variables "x" would be calculated into value "y". It would be unfair in the law of tradition, due to traditional formalism as the law. Thereby the question is for human-right and human-being. The idea for the value "time is the money" (such as the idea "money is worth, save time, and makes more money.") in capitalism as an aphorism, was like slang in modernism, and it is not the knowledge. - The gap between knowledge and sub-culture.


Harmony refuses to be broken its perfect form, which was mentioned homogeneous and pure. - Aesthetic competition

„Possibility of experimentation in/between electro-acoustic music and other arts, after the digital revolution", 

EMS18 (Electroacoustic Music Studies Network) - 14th Conference, Electroacoustic Music: Is it Still a Form of Experimental Music?, Villa Finaly, Florence, Italy, 20 – 23 June

 

Erika Matsunami

 

Abstract

 

This paper is a contemplation about the contemporary aesthetics in/between auditory and visual experiences, and about the possibility of experimentation in/between experimental music and other arts, after the digital revolution.

At the beginning as background the “perception” of human ability and the medium "digital" are considered, and in the process the medium “digital” is compared with the analogue medium as well as the magnetic tape from the point of view of aesthetics. For this, three artistic projects are considered. The first is Symphonie pour un homme seul (Symphony for a Man Alone) , an early masterpiece of musique concrète  by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, which was composed in 1950, and as a ballet version, choreography by Maurice Béjart, that was first performed in 1955 at the Théâtre de l'Etoile in Paris.

The second is the sound installation Rotations 2  (2016) by Max Eastley, a visual and sound artist, which was represented in the exhibition of two British sound artists (with Martin Riches) “Two Measures of Time” at the Stadtgalerie in Saarbrücken, September 2016 – January 2017. The third is the piece of music Constellations for Koto and electronic sounds  composed by Marc Battier, a composer and musicologist, that was played with a koto (a traditional Japanese stringed instrument) by Naoko Kikuchi and electroacoustic sounds at the “Nacht Klang” concert at St. Elisabeth Church in Berlin, August 2012. 

   Simultaneously, materiality and performativity are reviewed with regard to experimental music and visual arts.

 

 

A CONTEMPLATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY AESTHETICS IN/BETWEEN AUDITORY (INVISIBLE) AND VISUAL (VISIBLE) EXPERIENCES

 

Visual information processing is the ability to interpret what “I” see (interpretation), namely a vision to direct the action, such as the effect that is the experience of emotion or feeling. In this experience we have another ability, namely auditory perception. Hearing (audition) is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations. Hearing a sound (in the auditory system) draws the attention to something, evokes emotion. The auditory information will be memorized, recognized, and so on, as is also the case in the two distinct visual systems. The sense of sight (vision) and hearing (audition) belong to the five traditionally recognized senses, the other three being taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), and touch (somatosensation); they are a multitude of senses.1 

   The metacognitive ability is the awareness and understanding of one’s thinking and cognitive processes; thinking about thinking. Metacognition refers to the knowledge in the cognitive processes, in other words the capacity to reflect on our thoughts and behaviors. The perceptional abilities depend on the personal level of perceptual experience. We can reflect those perceptual experiences of the self. This self-reflection is described in the Cambridge dictionary as follows: “The activity of thinking about your own feelings and behaviour, and the reasons that may lie behind them.” The high level of human self-reflection is related to or referred to as the philosophy of consciousness, the topic of awareness, and the philosophy of mind.

 

- THE MEDIUM “DIGITAL” COMPARED WITH THE ANALOGUE MEDIUM AS WELL AS THE MAGNETIC TAPE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF AESTHETICS


Magnetic recording systems have been in existence since 1898, when the Danish scientist Valdemar Poulsen invented what he called a telegraphone, where a magnetic recording is made on thin steel wire. After the end of the Second World War, the rapid advances in technology as a result of the war, an upsurge of interest from many quarters in new sound techniques, and a generally expansionist economic climate provided sufficient incentives for institutions to provide support.2 Schaeffer has started to experiment in his compositions that he has served the sound as auditive material, and therefore he developed the technique and the method of montage with everyday natural sounds recorded on tape (Schaeffer termed these everyday natural sounds “sound fragments”3 and they were engraved into a spiral groove which was transformed into an auditory and time-based medium) and the recorded sound also included historically and representable archived sounds (fragment of history). For this he developed a unique concept through his research – acousmatic music, which aimed for the auditive rendition in the performative representation. 

   "Acousmatic listening" was indicated by musique concrète composers as listening without seeing – without knowing (to require auditory attention and perception rather than recognition of seeing), and Schaeffer termed the process “reduced listening”. Hamilton claims, “Strictly, reduced listening should not be equated with listening without seeing; rather, it is listening that is enhanced by listening without seeing. The object of acousmatic or reduced listening is what Schaeffer calls a sound-object (objet sonore), apparently discounting the commonsense assumption that sounds are temporal processes rather than things.”4


(...)

-> I explore my research Variaitons in the artistic research "Silence surrounds us, silence around us - X" for the transforming into the knowledge practically and theoretically. In doing so, step by stepy, I will issue it as an artwork (the contribution). -> the representational theories in the arts.

-> Sound composition I


An artistic approach for post-feminism. -> Soundpainting composition system and its performance

Nechvatal's robotic arm painting is the "noise" (for a viral concept of time and space without body) sound painting using AI, is a continuation of surrealism.  His painting brush level is probably a (under) dot level, in oder words, how the world consists of elementally. Maybe it's as small as a cell, as active as an activity, and it will take some time before it becomes for us a visible "image." -> Using noise sounds as the concept of painting. -> Generative art

 

We cannot generate everything with the computer, which is an issue in visual arts currently, especially for "colour" digitally, as well in sound.

My idea is different from his idea, which is rather based on Bauhaus's. such as by Itten. - Transforming from colour to timbre, for the musical modes.I explore a visual score for the describing of a musical mode in music and visual arts. -> a continuation of Klee's on Sound. Practically, I started to work with a german Cellist Krischa Weber. She is also a teacher for the cello and she can teach the Suzuki Method for beginners.

 


Nechvatal's idea is also toward post-feminism.

Question for biological gender and social gender in the social context of the 21st century.

 

-> What is male sensibility in art?  What is female sensibility in art?  What is masculinity in art?  What is feminine in art? Is that important for art and in art?

Probably, there are perspectives from females and males at the individual level in the arts within the social context. But there is no expression of male and female in art because there are no second and third personal pronouns in art, second and third personal pronouns in the art are objective.

 

Is it the law, blue is the color of boy and red is the color of girl? it was the idea in the context of patriarchy education in modernism. Today's education has no gender difference. So, there are many professional females Military personnel.

The original idea of feminism was based on "against sexual violence". People have the right to participate in society, regardless of gender, is based on human-right.

Cognitive dissonance happens rather forced intervention through the ideological level into sense.

This collaboration with Krischa is not by chance. I knew her work before. We worked in a symposium program at a nonprofit Gallery, which was a part of the program of an academic event in Hamburg, was organised by this nonprofit Gallery in 2015. It was through the German women's council.

I was invited for a presentation on my project and research.

"In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the real world. A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance. They tend to make changes to justify the stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance (rationalization) or by avoiding circumstances and contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance (confirmation bias).[2]"

Festinger's theory is after the Second World War, however, it is similar to Today's. due to the 20-years war.


Contrary to the new organization that began in 2000, the conflict between north, south, east and west, especially since 2014, has become more serious politically, economically and in terms of the destruction of the natural environment.