NELO AKAMATSU / CHIJIKINKUTSU
Sodobna umetnost (Aljoša Abrahamsberg),
30. oktober 2016
― 'Chijikinkutsu' is a coinage especially created for the title of this work by combining two Japanese words: ‘chijiki’ and ‘suikinkutsu’. Chijiki means geomagnetism: terrestrial magnetic properties that have always existed and affect everything on Earth, though it cannot be perceived by the human senses. Some scientific research reports that the behavior of migratory birds, as well as the cause of beautiful aurora, are all related to geomagnetism. A ‘suikinkutsu’ is a sound installation for Japanese traditional gardens, invented in the Edo period. The sounds of drops of water falling through an inverted earthenware pot buried under a stone washbasin resonate through hollow bamboo tubes. Since ancient times, the Japanese have been sensitive to perceiving nature as it is, from the sound of the wind through pine trees or singing of insects. While the artist carefully listened to the profound sound from underground in the garden of his favorite Kyoto temple, he noticed that his work coincidentally sounded similar to the ‘suikinkutsu’. The concept of the work 'Chijikinkutsu' is not derived from the experimentalism of science and technology on which media arts rely, nor from architectonic theory of western music on which some sound arts are based. While utilizing the action of geomagnetism, which is normally treated as a subject of science, this sound installation expands the subtle sounds of ‘suikinkutsu’ in the context of the Japanese perspective on nature. 'Chijikinkutsu' is made using water, sewing needles, glass tumblers and coils of copper wire. The needles floating on the water in the tumblers are magnetized in advance, so they are affected by geomagnetism and turn themselves in a north-south direction. When electricity is supplied to the coil attached to the outside of the tumblers it creates a temporary magnetic field that draws the needle to the coil. And the faint sound of the needle hitting the glass resonates in the space all around. A MIDI is used to control