Abstract

Collective artistic research on "Corona"(1962) for pianist(s) by Toru Takemitsu. The starting point of this artistic research is an artwork Corona-STEMS-GALAXYOMEGA (May 2020) by Lukas Huisman who is a pianist and Ph.D. artistic researcher. He started to interpret "Corona" (1962) for pianist(s) by Takemitsu together with a composer Patrick Housen. I collaborate with him as a visual artist for a sound installation in this artistic project. Thereby the joint research subject is on the ‘transculturality of sounds’. As a visual artist, I research the subject of time and space in "Corona"(1962) for pianist(s) by Toru Takemitsu to explore new interpretations. Thus, theoretical exploration is in terms of ongoing artistic research in the philosophy of sound. Thereby I attempt to explore human nakedness in sound. To do so, I research listening from the aspect of cognition, that is the importance of this artistic research on Klänge (sounds).

A research collaboration with Niklas Schmincke:
Niklas Schmincke studied sound engineering at the UdK Berlin. He has taken part of the art project still/silent as a composer of OIO. OIO is an artist group that consists of collective form, was established by a composer and a pianist Antonis Anissegos and a visual artist and a performer Erika Matsunami in Germany, 2006, so that we have the authorship as collective shared in a compostion, that is as an artistic style "geistig (compositional) assemblage" which I conceived. For the artistic practice by OIO, "" is the important core in OIO statement, which was the foundation of the notion by Cage. Therefore, OIO has been exploring (...). He worked as a sound engineer for music recording and editing at the Sound Studio in Berlin, as well as being a film music composer. 
In 2012, he was employed as a sound engineer at BMW in Munich. Today, he is the director of the sound lab at the Japanese company of Chrysler Group in Germany. He gives practical internship training to university students (MA program) at this sound lab.

The material and the work process are different, but to work for the sound installation, which is for me the same as to work for sculpture, however, a time-based. This time-based art medium belongs to the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
-Time, Space and Body.

Why is the sound installation the same as working with sculpture?

- Today, we can virtual sound construction which consists of time and space. Thereby, we have to know about ‘listening’ –  this is most important for us to study with sound. We must always consider the ‘body’ on earth.

The sound is controlled by the speaker with the standard norm at the output of the sound. If one has complicated sound construction, one cannot actually listen. We are always under the law and democratically with the individual sense.

At the same time, the sound’s output will be alienated (verfremden) through the sound phenomena in the space, it is up to the space condition. We know what virtual sound construction is, it is the same as other virtual constructions that are just calculated models, that is not ‘reality’. 

- To know about ‘listening’:  There are two paths of research, one is from the aspect of medical research, such as music therapy. The other is from the aspect of epistemology, as well as aesthetics and neuro-aesthetics (musicology, linguistics, phenomenology, and so on).

I am hugely thankful to Lukas Huisman for his suggestion "Corona"(1962) for pianist(s) by Takemitsu by Lukas Huisman and Patric Housen in this collective artistic research project. "Corona“(1962) for pianist(s) by Takemitsu is the most important core theme in my artistic research, together with Cage's Idea. I think that "Corona"(1962) for pianist(s) was for Takemitsu himself the most important starting point of his artistic research; at the same time, it was a starting point for the 21st century. Today, we have arrived in the 21st century, and we are now standing at the gap to the 22nd century. Time does not go backwards.

This collective artistic research project is between a pianist, Ph.D. in performing arts/clavier, and artistic researcher Lukas Huisman and an independent composer Patrick Housen in Ghent, Belgium, and an independent visual artist and artistic researcher Erika Matsunami in Berlin, Germany.

The research method is work in progress independently.

- To explore the subject of "Klänge" for the philosophy of sound. "Corona" (1962) for pianist(s) by Takemitsu from the aspect of iconography, in collaboration with Niklas Schmincke in Germany, for the construction of the 4 ch mono-discrete sound installation for a real space.

- The exploration by Lukas Huisman is probably for his new interpretation of "Corona" (1962) for pianist(s) by Takemitsu, together with the complement composition by Patrick Housen in Ghent, Belgium.

- Variation l: For the development of the dynamic of ‘time and space’ on a new interpretation of "Corona"(1962) for pianist(s) by Takemitsu in 2020. This Variation l is the research conclusion of the collective artistic research project with Lukas Huisman.

„Corona“ (1962), Toru Takemitsu :

- Roger Woodward

- From John Cage „Shock Vol. 1“

- Corona 1 Jim O'rourke

- Dirección: Antonio Pérez Díaz

- Corona, Study for vibration

„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

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