Tomoe (巴)

University of Hawai’i at Manoa Gallery, used with permission

In March of 2014, international artist Beili LIU created a work specificially for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa art gallery, entitled Yuan / 原. More information about Beili Liu and her installation can be found at her site.

Choreographer Mitsuko HORIKAWA and I collaborated to mount a 20-minute multimedia performance inside the gallery space around Liu’s artwork; we called our work Tomoe which is the Japanese term for a certain circular geometric design, seen below, that is found in several East Asian cultures. The symbol has no specific meaning but may have local meanings in the various cultures and circumstances in which it is used; here we use it to refer to a blending of concepts and efforts by diverse artists from a variety of cultures, and for its similarity to the circular shape of Liu’s Yuan—the name of which itself means circle, in Chinese.

via wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Regrettably, I am having trouble recovering a usable audio/video recording from the performance.

Aside from two dancers, choreographed by Horikawa, the musicians included two shakuhachi (one with interactive electronics), one shamisen, and one vocalist doubling to saxophone.

The lead shakuhachi player had a small motion-sensing device (we used a Wii remote) strapped to the flute, between the blowing hole and the first finger hole. The device communicated via bluetooth to a computer running the PureData software platform which output two-channel audio to a pair of speakers set up at the back of the gallery. The PureData patch generated “clouds” of sound out of a library of about five dozen pre-recorded staccato notes played on a variety of bamboo flutes, including both of the shakuhachi used in the performace as well as four other bamboo instruments – the use of bamboo, and the pointilistic nature of the sound clouds, connects to the hundreds of bamboo segments arranged on the floor as part of the art installation.

During the performance, the shakuhachi player could then adjust the angle of the instrument (and the attached motion sensor) to control aspects of the sound cloud, including the density and the relative dissonance. The motions of the shakuhachi player were then echoed by the dancers. The mood during this first section was one of increasing confusion and tension.

University of Hawai’i at Manoa Gallery, used with permission

One low-quality recording, from a rehearsal, is the best audio I can provide at this time:

 

In the second half of the performance, the timbre of the sound cloud changed to short, decaying, electronically generated sounds—now, instead of blending in, the live instruments were timbrally distinct from the electronics. One performer now sat at the computer, using an on-screen interface in PureData to control the harmonic content of the poitilistic clouds, while two wind players, one transverse bamboo flute and one soprano saxophone, moved around the outsides of the artwork, improvising over the selected harmonies. The clouds and live performers slowly grew quieter and more sparse, and the dancers more calm, as the performance reached its peaceful conclusion.

University of Hawai’i at Manoa Gallery, used with permission