Is the world that we see only a single one? This work consists of three different, overlapping worlds: the real, physical world of a rotating mobile made from tools and commodities; the world of electromagnetic fields emerging from the connection between radios and motors; and the world of light and shadow, created by way of illumination. The motion of the mobile makes the sounds of the radio audible, while its shadows change according to that movement and the illumination. The work helps us understand how the world we live in, is always made up of layers of several different worlds.
suzueri engages in live performances and the creation of artworks in which she combines or modifies existing objects in self-built devices. Concerned about the gap between performers using tools, and the tools themselves, and the correlation with the spectators, she stages improvised musical performances, and creates installation works.
The title was borrowed from M. C. Escher’s lithograph “Three Worlds” (1955), referring to a nested structure of three worlds that are either perceptible or imperceptible. Here, they are represented by the physical world of a rotating mobile and an audience; the world of electromagnetic fields generated by the oscillation of AM radios and driving motors; and the world of light and shadow, produced by illuminating a mobile made from tools and commodities. These three worlds affect each other, while at once establishing some sort of harmony.
Photo: KIOKU Keizo
“For the Birds / Bird’s Notation” 2022
A small piano is played to a video of birds flying in the sky, which is shown on a display. The birds’ movements almost seem like a visual musical score for a piano concert. Mechanical musical devices, such as automatic pianos or musical boxes, operate based on musical scores in the form of punch cards—sound patterns punched into slips of paper. The mechanism of the punch card once used to be applied for recording computer data, and it is still utilized in today’s digital technologies. If you think of an airplane as a present-day mechanical bird, can you imagine what kind of melody it would compose?
MIDI sequencers, which are frequently used in today’s music software, were originally based on the mechanism of the punch card that has been applied in player pianos or musical boxes.
The mechanism of the musical box, where each hole in a punch card that is fed in from the side, corresponds to one sound, was translated into a “Jacquard loom” in the times of the Industrial Revolution, or into the “Analytical Engine” mechanical general-purpose computer. Today, it is applied in the “Frequency-hopping spread spectrum” that wireless LAN works with.
This work is a player piano into which a punch card is fed from the side, whereas each hole is represented by one of the flying birds, and one note played on the little piano. Now think of a flying airplane, and imagine what kind of melody it would possibly compose.
