Artistic environments: A new chapter in environmental creation opened up by a mixture of fog, light and sound
This exhibition showcased a collaboration between artist Fujiko Nakaya, known for her original "fog sculptures", and Shiro Takatani, an artist and member of Dumb Type.
A large-scale installation themed around new environmental creation by a fusion of art and information technology was set up in three different public spaces in and around YCAM. The installation of artificial fog and sound, elaborately built using information technology, facilitated a dialogue between visible and invisible things, and between natural and artificial environments, in a recurring cycle of generation, penetration and reflection. Rather than addressing "environmental" issues only from an ecological point of view, the exhibition focused on the mutual interaction between natural, social, mental, and most topically, informational environments, to present the visitor with a new "environmental sphere" defined by the mutual permeability that arises from this interaction.
CLOUD FOREST - PatioA, PatioB (Commissioned by YCAM)
Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani
Interfaces of fog, light and sound
Large-scale installation combining fog and sound.
Surrounded by glass walls, the patios in which this work was set up are penetrated by sunlight, wind and rain, resulting in the spaces' characteristic co-existence of exterior (natural environment) and interior (artificial environment). This work attempts to create a new form of spatial art by way of interaction between these aspects of exterior and interior.
Within the work, artificial fog is released from various directions and at varying intervals. As the work itself is affected by the environment inside and outside the venue, it continually changes its appearance. It incorporates a special sound system with superdirective speakers generating a soundscape to accompany the visitor's discovery of delicate movements of fog and light as it can't usually be observed in daily life.
As the respective artificial fog generator, layout of the sound system, and control algorithm were adjusted to the two patios' different shapes and sizes, the resulting sceneries looked completely different.
While walking in the patios wrapped in fog, visitors who became "parts of the environment" of sorts could discover the nature of "environments" as interfaces combining notions of exterior and interior, natural and artificial.
(Aug, 2011)
Credit
Sound design: Takuya Minami (softpad)
Programming: Ken Furudate
Design of electronic board, Programming for DMX control: Ryota Kuwakubo
Recording support: Tetsujiro Suita
Soundscape defined by an intense mixture of sound and light
Sound installation focusing on repercussions of light and sound.
This work based on the "Island Eye Island Ear" project conceived by E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) members Fujiko Nakaya and David Tudor in 1974 marks the realization of a totally novel kind of soundscape.
Nine superdirective speaker poles are arranged in a 3 x 3 grid pattern on the venue's 10x10m mirrored floor. While rotating autonomously, these poles shoot "sonic beams" - carefully composed of environmental sounds recorded in Yamaguchi and a variety of other places, as well as noises picked up in real-time in a different part of the building - across the exhibition space.
These sonic beams bounce back as soon as they hit the surrounding walls, and weave a complex "carpet of sounds" inside the exhibition space. While perceiving the locally generated and immediately shifting or disappearing sounds, the visitor can experience a spectacular setting of sound and light that integrates the natural exterior environment.
(Aug, 2011)
Credit
Sound design: Takuya Minami (softpad)
Programming: Ken Furudate
Design of electronic board, Programming for DMX control: Ryota Kuwakubo
Recording support: Tetsujiro Suita
CLOUD FOREST - Fog Installation #47784 (Commissioned by YCAM)
Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani
“Fog sculptures” flowing and merging with the environment
Large-scale installation utilizing artificial fog.
After 40 years of attracting attention around the world since being introduced at the Pepsi Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo 1970, Fujiko Nakaya's original "fog sculptures" resurfaced in the vast public space of the Central Park in front of YCAM. A unique sort of environment combining changeable natural fog and modeled artificial fog was realized with an original system controlling the amount and direction of emitted artificial fog according to wind conditions, and an artificial fog generator built after Shiro Takatani's structural design exclusively for this work. Along with an impression of the fog's overwhelming volume, the visitor could experience fog as an objet d'art that merges and flows with the environment.
(Aug, 2011)
Artists involved in the main exhibition - Shiro Takatani, softpad (sound design) and Ken Furudate (programming) - appeared in a live performance celebrating the opening of the exhibition. The live performance was based around the actual displays of the piece "Cloud Forest" in the Patios A and B, and in the Foyer respectively, whereas visitors could walk around freely inside the exhibition space, and experience the constantly transforming constellation of fog, light and sound wherever they wanted.
In this talk event moderated by critic Akira Asada, and featuring architect Arata Isozaki as a special guest, Fujiko Nakaya and Shiro Takatani illustrated their work's background and creation process. While referring to the work of E.A.T. at the 1970 Osaka Expo's Pepsi Pavilion, which inspired this project in the first place, the artists took this occasion to review such trailblazing achievements as Nakaya's "fog sculptures" and David Tudor's soundscapes, which were originally presented at the Osaka Expo.
Through the tours, participants discovered together with YCAM educational staff, most attractive features of the exhibition. (15 times during the event period)
