Introduction to Sound Arts

Sound Art in the Japan

• Introduction 

Sounds holds a special place in Japan:

Aural signatures are bound to nature: 

The sound of cicadas without recalling the heat and humidity of summer

The sound of water by the bamboo hitting a rock from shishi-odoshi

Aural signatures are bound to culture:

Urban megalopolises are filled with the commercial aspects

Noises:

Noise music in the 1980s was the antithesis of the electro-pop music of the time.

Aural signatures are bound to history:

Order the Influence of Buddhism & WWII & Inflation

• Summary

These soundscapes can be attributed in part to the influence of Buddhism, and to historical events like World War II and the highly accelerated economic development that followed. They have had a profound influence on the polar opposites of serenity – associated with nature and tradition – and chaotic urban din. They do not pose a contradiction, but reflect two views into the same thing. Noise is not considered an “other” to silence.

• Glossary

Wabi-sabi by Muneyoshi Yanagi-“beauty of irregularity”

The aesthetic grounding of the Japanese reinterpretation of Buddhism, reflecting plainness and simplicity, aged and solitary states

Fluxus-Fluxus is an international avant-garde collective or network of artists and composers founded in the1960s and still continuing today

Sogetsu Hall-This multi-purpose hall with 526 seats is located on the basement floor of Sogetsu Kaikan in Akasaka, Minato Ward. 

It was opened in 1958, and served as base for the activities of “Sogetsu Art Center,” the leader of contemporary avant-garde arts in Japan. Even today, the historic hall is popularly used for various genres of programs including music concerts, dance performances, and stage plays, offering new experiences to the audiences.

Onomatopoeia-symbolic words

• Artist organizations

-Jikken kobo (group)

Founded in Tokyo in 1951, Jikken Kobo was an interdisciplinary group of artists, musicians, choreographers and poets who were inspired by European and American avant-gardes

The group was founded against the backdrop of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and in a time of post-war austerity. Their multi-layered installations embraced sound recording, photography and film, together with artist-designed sets, specially composed music and dance.

-Gutai

Gutai Art Association was formed in 1954 in Osaka by Yoshihara Jiro, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, Shiraga Kazuo and Shozo Shimamoto. The word has been translated into English as ‘embodiment’ or ‘concrete’. Yoshihara was an older artist around whom the group coalesced and who financed it. The art historian Yve-Alain Bois has said that ‘the activities of the Gutai group in the mid 1950s constitute one of the most important moments of post-war Japanese culture’. I can not believe how they made these art pieces in a conceptual and drama way bravely. It was not only essential to the movement’s long term success, but it also represented their rejection of Japanese isolation during World War II and their desire to be a part of a new, liberal-minded Japan.

 The Gutai Art Association was the most significant artist collective of postwar Japan—more intermedia ‘mixedia’ than JK.

The first Gutai exhibition was presented at Ohara Kaikan: dressed in white boxer shorts, dove into and wrestled with a pile of mud in challenging Mud.

Murakami Saburo broken through multiple screens of Kraft paper in violent movements in Six Holes

-NHK studios

The first major period of electronic music production was realized with the establishment in 1954 of the electronic music studio at Nippon Hoso Kyokai

The center also hosts offices of international broadcasters, including KBS of South Korea, China Central Television, the American Broadcasting Company, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

-Group Ongaku

Collective improvisation group begun in 1958 by Takehisa Kosugi and Shukou Mizuno; two students at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. They rejected dodecaphony and the official lineage of classical music, taking inspiration from artists such as Jackson Pollock. They reflected on the politics of everyday life.

• Art Work

Miwa’s work Le Tombeau de Freddie with Nobuyasu Sakonda as the Formant Brothers, received Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica (2009) and re-synthesizes the voice of Freddie Mercury to sing the Internationale in Japanese.