Today, we have a lecture and performance of Johannes S. Sistermans in the main hall of University of Shiga Prefecture. Unfortunately the connection between laptop PC and AV control was not good and we had to give up his PC presentation, but soon I noticed that the accident turned to be lucky. In his performances, Johannes used his voice, a desk and papers without any PC or hi-techs, and he turned these vernacular things magically to the enterance of the new acoustic world.
When Johannes came on the stage, he moved a desk on the platform slightly. First I thought he was just trying to change the location to talk, but it was already the beginning of his performance. The sound amplified through the microphone on the desk frightened me like the horn of the starship in "War of the world", and the way he put his arms on the desk was like he was controlling the virtual ship. I tried to imagine what kind of the world has such style of ship.
The most amazing performance was the one using white papers. Johannes said that he got the idea of the performance yesterday, so it was the world premiere, and he named it "White papers in Hikone".
First Johannes held white papers in his hands. Then, he made all audience sit side by side with no blank seat, and gave a paper to the person at the end. The person passes the paper to the next, then Johannes gives another paper to the person at the end. Every person must pass the paper to the next (or the behind) just after he/she has received. First the sound of papers was very slight, but it gradually became big, and the hall sounds like the Japanese house filled silk worms eating leaves. At another end I received papers without passing, so the papers among the audience gradually became less. We can feel the quality of the sound was changing, from a cluster to the detail of fluttering, and finally, the silence came.
In Another short piece, Johannes instructed that the audience must pass the words like the paper in the previous performance. He said some words like "Roku (6 in Japanese", "Hikone" to the ear of the person at the end. To my surprise, some students hesitated to say the words clearly, and some students were too shy to say and gave up to pass to the next. On the first trial, they could not pass even one of the 6 words! Johannes used only 4 words on the second trial, and they could pass only one word. I amazed that such a simple task reveal our invisible tendency of communication. Making a voice itself would be a pressure under some context, even when the task is only saying a word to the next person. I think the result would be different in other cultures, and this performance would reveal some cultural difference of communication.
(Hiromichi Hosoma)
I got feedbacks from the students, and here are some excepts.
In "White paper in Hikone", I felt like all human beings disappear, and only the papers remain.
His performance uses vernacular tools, but he turned them into quite new. When he turned all the air condition system off, I felt like every whispering sound could be heard, and the simple words he instructed sounded totally different from the words of our daily life.
I wondered how I feel if I can play the sound in my brain (not the sound in my ear) with audio speakers.
I play in a brass band and have experienced various styles of sounds, but the sound in the lecture was totally different. I was very conscious of the state of listening, which I neglect in my daily life.
We listen to the sound not only with ears but skins and eyes. When I saw white papers fluttering among the people and coming close to me, I felt as if some unknown things coming. I felt wind of papers crossing with my skin, the distance of papers with ears. Whole process was like one story. I imagined another story when Mr. Sistermans moved his desk with his voice performance. It was only the sound of the desk and his breath, but I imagined that a rabbit was killed in a night of snowstorm, though I have no experience of a snowstorm nor killing a rabbit.