Decryptopattern in the Exhibition “ubiquitous oscillations” at General Public, Berlin, Germany 09-16.01.09

Decryptopattern in ubiquitous oscillations

The exhibition is from the 9th to 16th of January at General Public, Schönhauser Allee 167c, 10435 Berlin
Opening is at 9th of January, 0700 p.m
Open hours: Daily from 1400 to 1830

9th – 16th January 2009, General Public, Schönhauser Allee 167c, 10435 Berlin

with Shingo Inao, Daisuke Ishida + Noriko Yamaguchi, Stephane Leonard, Hirofumi Matsuzaki, Satoshi Morita and Seiji Morimoto.

The exhibition is committed to art, technology, society and sound. Different artistic positions of contemporary (media)art will be shown. They work with and reflect both digital and analog-electronic as well as mechanic technology and their processual dynamics.

Since the end of the 18th century the world view in physics, mathematics and science changed from a static one to a temporal-dynamic one. Things which were before incalculable like vibrations, oscillations, energy and heat became soon afterwards calculable.

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768 – 1830) played the role of an accelerator in this process, since he has mathematically established that it is possible to down-calculate the most complex oscillations and their waveforms – which means also complex sounds – to simple sine waves. All possible waveforms are composed of simple sine waves.

As a result complex natural phenomena can be analyzed, this means decomposed in individual parts and again synthesized, means put together as a whole. This is the theoretical foundation of the sound synthesizer. Soon after Fourier Hermann von Helmholtz (1821 – 1894) invented around 1860 the first acoustic-mechanical resonator, which could analyze and synthesize sound phenomena. The first Proto-Synthesizer was constructed.

The scientific world view is since then kind of musically influenced. Therefore music, science and technology mix up since then at the backyard of world’s history and produce via several affairs many new media and audio technologies like the phonograph, radio, the phone, the magnetic band, the synthesizer, computed music, modems, mobile phones, mp3-players and the latest portable mini computers so called handhelds like PDA, smartphone and iPhone or Android.

Today we are in the epoch of mobile communication, wireless lan, bluetooth, RFID, where we are surrounded by digital media technology, which becomes more and more smaller and invisible. The important point is that they are still ubiquitous due to wireless telecommunication technology, which became a main part of our everyday life. This means that our everyday life is traversed by invisible electro magnetic waves and oscillations. Oscillations, which can be made audible. Thereby we arrived during our quest for mobility at a state of inaudible cacophonia of electromagnetic dissonances.

Shingo Inao, Daisuke Ishida + Noriko Yamaguchi, Stephane Leonard, Hirofumi Matsuzaki, Satoshi Morita, Seiji Morimoto and their curator Shintaro Miyazaki had occupied themself artistically and conceptually with this “condition humana” and show a part of their work in this exhibition.

“Ubiquitous oscillations” or “Fourier changed our world” is part of “la-condition-japonaise” a curatorial project and network for promotion of young contemporary japanese arts and music in Berlin and Europe.

Fourier’s mathematical terms enabled us the synthsis and analysis of sound by the method of decomposing a complex sound into its simpler components. This inspired Shingo Inao (*1980) on a meta-level. With Onyx (2009) he shows a Soundinstallation, which consists of 49 small ticking watches. Simple rhythms (60 beats per minute) produce a complex ever shifting polyrhythmic structure. Onyx refers to a mineral stone, which is composed by many beautiful layers. Similar to the multi-layered stone onyx the sound of Onyx (2009) consists of many diverse layers of sound and rhythm.

Seiji Morimoto (*1971), who was in Tokyo in the early nineties a performer of “Water Music” or “Cartridge Music” by John Cage, works on the sonification of the electromagentic emission of the cathode ray tube of the television. His version of the current exhibitions works with headphones. In a similar fashion Stephane Leonard (*1979) reflects with AES256 (2005-2007) the sound of Skype. He called the mobile phones of several of his friends all over the world via Skype and asked them to look inward for a moment and just place down their phones for making a recording of their environmental sounds.

With their brand new installation Decryptopattern (2009), which will be exhibited in a separate darkened room Daisuke Ishida (*1980, member of sine wave orchestra) and Noriko Yamaguchi attempt to figure out artistically the reality behind the pretences of the contemporary information society. “The idea is to be able to grasp the truth behind the vast vortical information around us. I believe that the facts about world incidents are not possible to be received without some form of filtering through newstellers, their thoughts, their experiences, their constraints and the incidents contexts. We want to present a possibility to understand media and to discover the abstract raw truth through aggregate information, Chladni patterns and Noriko Yamaguchi’s twisting papers as a direct physical phenomena.” (Daisuke Ishida)

Hirofumi Matsuzaki (*1979) works with acryl, paintbrush and computer. His spiral shaped flowers seem to appear from nowhere. With his Serie: “Studies on Flow-ers” (2008/9) he is reflecting the flow-phenomenon. We seem to get more and more sucked into the world of the virtual nowadays. Faraway places get connected via telecommunication. Matsuzaki’s decorative flowers, which look like they are made of cable-like-material, connect the here with the there.

Satoshi Morita (*1974), who holds a Honorary Mention of Ars Electronica, presents his Klanghelm / Sonic Helmet (2008) a platform for audio-tactile sound perception. Physically considered sound is a sonic motion through a medium (usually air). The sonic waves will be perceive not only as sounds, but also as vibrations via the surface of the sonic helmet. This multi-sensorial sound experience will provide a new horizon of sound reception and new methods of composition.