on my own essey on Silent Street Music
I'm reading many times on my own paper on Silent Street Music, which has two big characters:
(1)setting definitions
(2)discussing the performance of my own.
http://aratori.com/20120826_The_Theory_of_Silent_Street_Music.htm
(1)An article is composed with definition, logic and theory. One usually consider the completion of the theory. I wrote mainly definition. An entirely new concept need at first to set definitions.
(2)For discussing own performance, method of practices is most important. Relationship between theory and practices will not be clear.
I'm sure that Silent Street Music is needed in the tight society of Japan and will be generalized here in the future.
Japan is a good society for something to practice patiently, but it will be gradually attributed to a person or a place. Concept must be exported once to foreign countries and imported back.
While I have been thinking about that, I started appeals to the world at last.
I got the English ID of Twitter yesterday, and began sending English information.
https://twitter.com/AkiraToshimori
Would you collaborate with me on "The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others"?
Dear a publisher or editor;
My name is Akira Toshimori, living in Kyoto Japan.
I'm a performer or jazz pianist. I would like to let you know my paper:
"The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others:
Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation",
uploaded on my site with video crips:
http://aratori.com/20120826_The_Theory_of_Silent_Street_Music.htm
"Silent street music" which I devised and played from June 2009, is a street musical performance played in a local space in silence, excluding the use of headphones or similar devices and without bothering others. I have experimented it 242 times and wrote the first theory about it.
Human communicate each other from ancient times using language and music in a short distance with real sound, and nowadays do in a long distance with virtual sound (like radio waves). The essential point of mine is the sound communication in a short distance and virtual.
It is a 'lonely and bizarre' performance, as evidenced by my favorite tweet that someone wrote - "He played lonely and got down but in silence without an audience, making a bizarre scene".
However, I firmly believe it's a new experiment and theory that lead to the future town or communication like my pamphlet:
http://aratori.com/wj2012.htm
"Silent street music without bothering others (wireless & mobile) makes the future town".
Silent street music can be played at any place, like station, square, roads, store or crowded town and I'm ready for performing it. If, please, a publisher or editor makes a book about it and plans sales event with me, the new type of performance will spread all over the world.
Sincerely yours,
Akira Toshimori
Kyoto-city Japan
Dear a publisher or editor;
My name is Akira Toshimori, living in Kyoto Japan.
I'm a performer or jazz pianist. I would like to let you know my paper:
"The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others:
Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation",
uploaded on my site with video crips:
http://aratori.com/20120826_The_Theory_of_Silent_Street_Music.htm
"Silent street music" which I devised and played from June 2009, is a street musical performance played in a local space in silence, excluding the use of headphones or similar devices and without bothering others. I have experimented it 242 times and wrote the first theory about it.
Human communicate each other from ancient times using language and music in a short distance with real sound, and nowadays do in a long distance with virtual sound (like radio waves). The essential point of mine is the sound communication in a short distance and virtual.
It is a 'lonely and bizarre' performance, as evidenced by my favorite tweet that someone wrote - "He played lonely and got down but in silence without an audience, making a bizarre scene".
However, I firmly believe it's a new experiment and theory that lead to the future town or communication like my pamphlet:
http://aratori.com/wj2012.htm
"Silent street music without bothering others (wireless & mobile) makes the future town".
Silent street music can be played at any place, like station, square, roads, store or crowded town and I'm ready for performing it. If, please, a publisher or editor makes a book about it and plans sales event with me, the new type of performance will spread all over the world.
Sincerely yours,
Akira Toshimori
Kyoto-city Japan
2012.04
The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others:
Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/2017-09-08.html
The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others:
Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/2017-09-08.html
References:
Toshimori blog
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/
Toshimori, Akira, the author
--------------------------------------
Reports of the author's performances written in his blog, sorted by date.
--------------------------------------
Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51321545.html
[movie01: "2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi" 1:58 http://youtu.be/_wYBUw-cKBo at night, at the northeast corner of Shijo Big Bridge; performing time of about 3 hours, listened to by about 10 people; there were a lot of passers-by and several street performers/vendors, such as a fortune teller, portrait painters and street artists.]
Toshimori 2010.12.08 Dancers
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51740004.html
[movie02: "2010.12.08 Dancers" 0:36 http://youtu.be/w4aatGifoUc 5pm-10pm; located at the aforementioned space (in Section 8.2), listened to by about 50 people.]
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2010.12.22 Subway Performer
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51747878.html
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2011.01.03 Subway Performer
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51770653.html
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2011.04.17 Silverwing
[movie03: "2011.04.17 Silverwing" 0:17 http://youtu.be/mq7nXldX-gs at 12pm-1pm, listened to by about 10 people.]
Silverwing, Zest Oike, Kyoto.
Toshimori 2011.04.24 Oike
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51884402.html
[movie04: "2011.04.24 Oike" 0:19 http://youtu.be/gKw2M1E4qYU 12pm-1pm, 2pm-4pm, around Kyoto City Office, listened to by about 15 people.]
Toshimori 2011.05.18 Hyakumanben
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51893741.html
[movie05: "2011.05.18 Hyakumanben" 1:00 http://youtu.be/li0ZrMavJGw 9:30pm-10:30pm, at the northwest corner of Hyakumanben, listened to by 4 people, during a full moon.]
Toshimori 2011.07.02 Shijo Ohashi
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51908920.html
[July 2, 2011 (Sat), 6pm-0:20am, at the northeast corner of Shijo Big Bridge, listened to by about 50 people, with photos taken by about 30 people.]
Toshimori 2011.08.06 Sanjo Ohashi
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51918687.html
[August 6, 2011, 6:30pm-12:00am, at the southeast corner of Sanjo Big Bridge, listened to by about 40 people in five hours, with photos taken by about 20 people.]
Toshimori 2011.10.01 Museum
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51931808.html
[October 1, 2011, by the side of the entrance to Kyoto International Manga Museum.]
Toshimori 2011.10.02 Sannomiya
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51932049.html
[movie07: "2011.10.02 Sannomiya" 1:49 http://youtu.be/nDdGCFhbaiQ 8:15pm-11:15pm, at Pie Mountain Square in front of Sannomiya Station, Kobe, listened to by about 100 people, with photos taken by about 20 people.]
Toshimori 2011.10.07 University
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51933075.html
Doshisha University, the west gate of the Imadegawa campus.
Toshimori 2011.10.10 Subway Station
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51933782.html
Karasuma Oike Station, on the Kyoto Municipal Subway.
Toshimori 2011.10.13 Temple
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51934566.html
Honnoji Temple, Teramachi Oike, Kyoto.
Toshimori 2011.10.21 Subway Performer
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51936521.html
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2011.11.07 University
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51940543.html
Kyoto City University of Arts
Toshimori 2011.11.09 Museum
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51941105.html
[movie08: "2011.11.09 Museum" 2:00 http://youtu.be/RgW9UODfnOM 11am-12pm, 1pm-2pm, 2:30pm-3:00pm, near Okazaki Kyoto; with no audience for 75% of the time, with photos taken by 5 people.]
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
Toshimori 2011.11.26 University
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51944993.html
Kyoto University
Toshimori 2011.12.07 Kyoto Kaikan
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51947452.html
[movie06: "2011.12.07 Kyoto Kaikan" 0:54 http://youtu.be/rujYKNnrdoc 2:00pm - 3:00pm, on the sidewalk in front of Kyoto Kaikan (a concert hall), with no audience 95% of the time.]
Toshimori 2011.12.13 Kamogawa Kaikan
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51949002.html
Toshimori 2012.01.29 KYOTO artvillage
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51957746.html
[movie09: "2012.01.29 KYOTO artvillage" 1:10 http://youtu.be/GM97vjfW3YY 11am-6pm, at Kawaramachi Square in Zest Oike, with no audience for 93% of the time over a period of four hours.]
--------------------------------------
From the site of The Japanese Association for the Study of Musical IMprovisation (JASMIM)
http://jasmim.net/
--------------------------------------
JASMIM 2010.09.19 performance presentation Toshimori
http://jasmim.net/2010annualmeeting_toshimori.htm
'A method of time processing: circulation of breathing'
JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Toshimori
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_toshimori.htm
The roundtable about musical performance - Improvised music listened to by no one - at the third annual meeting of The Japanese Association for the Study of Musical Improvisation. The latter half of the roundtable was on silent street music by Akira Toshimori.
JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Terauchi
The first half of the roundtable was on Ear Music by Daisuke Terauchi
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_terauchi.htm
JASMIM 2011.09.17 lecture Sasaki
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_sasaki.htm
Sasaki, Atsushi "Deconstruction/conception of improvisation: aporia of musical and theatrical performance"
JASMIM 2011.09.18 lecture Ichida
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_ichida.htm
Ichida, Yoshihiko "'Ritornello' and 'Equality' in Improvised Performance"
--------------------------------------
Researchers
--------------------------------------
Ichida, Yoshihiko
http://web.cla.kobe-u.ac.jp/en/doku.php?id=kenkyuka:departments:modernity_studies:ichida.yoshihiko
Sasaki, Atsushi
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%90%E3%80%85%E6%9C%A8%E6%95%A6
Terauchi, Daisuke
http://dterauchi.com/
--------------------------------------
Tweets
--------------------------------------
@kshoji 2011.01.25 Tweet
https://twitter.com/#!/aratori/status/29881994045292544
--------------------------------------
About the paper (English)
--------------------------------------
Original paper: Silent Street Music English 20120425.txt
Submited: 2012.04.27 (JASMIM)
Rejected: 2012.08.06 (JASMIM)
Uploaded to the Internet: 2012.08.26
While I involved in JASMIM, founded in 2008, I have developed the idea, methods, theory, and activity of ??silent street music. I thank JASMIM a lot.
About the term "flow"
--- about the terms "flow field", "flow date", "flow location", and "flow audience"
------------
4.1 Fixed field and flow field
4.1.1 A fixed field: a field of musical performance with fixed date, fixed locationand fixed audience.
4.1.2 A flow field: a field of musical performance with flow date, flow location and flow audience.
------------
In Japanese, the relationship between subject and object, or between transitive and intransitive is vague. For example, crew of the train has cautioned to passengers,
"Door will close".
Nowadays, their announcement is changing to,
"I will close the door".
However, the former type of expression is originally Japanese. It is not a personification but can be understood as "predicating the state". For another example,
"It is raining. Leaves are falling",
but
"The rain is falling"
is common in Japanese, predicating the state of something vague "the rain". About "to fix",
"Someone fixed the chair. The chair is fixed".
"To fix" is transitive, and the subject and the object are clear. However, in the paper, I want to describe about uncertain existence.
How about "flowing, unfixed, fluid, mobile"?
"Flowing" is from intransitive, which I mean to avoided. "Unfixed" is from transitive, which I mean to avoided. In "mobile something", something is too clear. "Fluid" is the nature of the liquid.
A noun "flow" is the nature of "flowing", and I mean the usage of the adjective noun.
------------------------About the term "flow"(End)
Toshimori blog
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/
Toshimori, Akira, the author
--------------------------------------
Reports of the author's performances written in his blog, sorted by date.
--------------------------------------
Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51321545.html
[movie01: "2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi" 1:58 http://youtu.be/_wYBUw-cKBo at night, at the northeast corner of Shijo Big Bridge; performing time of about 3 hours, listened to by about 10 people; there were a lot of passers-by and several street performers/vendors, such as a fortune teller, portrait painters and street artists.]
Toshimori 2010.12.08 Dancers
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51740004.html
[movie02: "2010.12.08 Dancers" 0:36 http://youtu.be/w4aatGifoUc 5pm-10pm; located at the aforementioned space (in Section 8.2), listened to by about 50 people.]
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2010.12.22 Subway Performer
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51747878.html
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2011.01.03 Subway Performer
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51770653.html
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2011.04.17 Silverwing
[movie03: "2011.04.17 Silverwing" 0:17 http://youtu.be/mq7nXldX-gs at 12pm-1pm, listened to by about 10 people.]
Silverwing, Zest Oike, Kyoto.
Toshimori 2011.04.24 Oike
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51884402.html
[movie04: "2011.04.24 Oike" 0:19 http://youtu.be/gKw2M1E4qYU 12pm-1pm, 2pm-4pm, around Kyoto City Office, listened to by about 15 people.]
Toshimori 2011.05.18 Hyakumanben
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51893741.html
[movie05: "2011.05.18 Hyakumanben" 1:00 http://youtu.be/li0ZrMavJGw 9:30pm-10:30pm, at the northwest corner of Hyakumanben, listened to by 4 people, during a full moon.]
Toshimori 2011.07.02 Shijo Ohashi
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51908920.html
[July 2, 2011 (Sat), 6pm-0:20am, at the northeast corner of Shijo Big Bridge, listened to by about 50 people, with photos taken by about 30 people.]
Toshimori 2011.08.06 Sanjo Ohashi
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51918687.html
[August 6, 2011, 6:30pm-12:00am, at the southeast corner of Sanjo Big Bridge, listened to by about 40 people in five hours, with photos taken by about 20 people.]
Toshimori 2011.10.01 Museum
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51931808.html
[October 1, 2011, by the side of the entrance to Kyoto International Manga Museum.]
Toshimori 2011.10.02 Sannomiya
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51932049.html
[movie07: "2011.10.02 Sannomiya" 1:49 http://youtu.be/nDdGCFhbaiQ 8:15pm-11:15pm, at Pie Mountain Square in front of Sannomiya Station, Kobe, listened to by about 100 people, with photos taken by about 20 people.]
Toshimori 2011.10.07 University
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51933075.html
Doshisha University, the west gate of the Imadegawa campus.
Toshimori 2011.10.10 Subway Station
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51933782.html
Karasuma Oike Station, on the Kyoto Municipal Subway.
Toshimori 2011.10.13 Temple
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51934566.html
Honnoji Temple, Teramachi Oike, Kyoto.
Toshimori 2011.10.21 Subway Performer
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51936521.html
Subway Performer, Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.
Toshimori 2011.11.07 University
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51940543.html
Kyoto City University of Arts
Toshimori 2011.11.09 Museum
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51941105.html
[movie08: "2011.11.09 Museum" 2:00 http://youtu.be/RgW9UODfnOM 11am-12pm, 1pm-2pm, 2:30pm-3:00pm, near Okazaki Kyoto; with no audience for 75% of the time, with photos taken by 5 people.]
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
Toshimori 2011.11.26 University
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51944993.html
Kyoto University
Toshimori 2011.12.07 Kyoto Kaikan
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51947452.html
[movie06: "2011.12.07 Kyoto Kaikan" 0:54 http://youtu.be/rujYKNnrdoc 2:00pm - 3:00pm, on the sidewalk in front of Kyoto Kaikan (a concert hall), with no audience 95% of the time.]
Toshimori 2011.12.13 Kamogawa Kaikan
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51949002.html
Toshimori 2012.01.29 KYOTO artvillage
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51957746.html
[movie09: "2012.01.29 KYOTO artvillage" 1:10 http://youtu.be/GM97vjfW3YY 11am-6pm, at Kawaramachi Square in Zest Oike, with no audience for 93% of the time over a period of four hours.]
--------------------------------------
From the site of The Japanese Association for the Study of Musical IMprovisation (JASMIM)
http://jasmim.net/
--------------------------------------
JASMIM 2010.09.19 performance presentation Toshimori
http://jasmim.net/2010annualmeeting_toshimori.htm
'A method of time processing: circulation of breathing'
JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Toshimori
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_toshimori.htm
The roundtable about musical performance - Improvised music listened to by no one - at the third annual meeting of The Japanese Association for the Study of Musical Improvisation. The latter half of the roundtable was on silent street music by Akira Toshimori.
JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Terauchi
The first half of the roundtable was on Ear Music by Daisuke Terauchi
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_terauchi.htm
JASMIM 2011.09.17 lecture Sasaki
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_sasaki.htm
Sasaki, Atsushi "Deconstruction/conception of improvisation: aporia of musical and theatrical performance"
JASMIM 2011.09.18 lecture Ichida
http://jasmim.net/2011annualmeeting_ichida.htm
Ichida, Yoshihiko "'Ritornello' and 'Equality' in Improvised Performance"
--------------------------------------
Researchers
--------------------------------------
Ichida, Yoshihiko
http://web.cla.kobe-u.ac.jp/en/doku.php?id=kenkyuka:departments:modernity_studies:ichida.yoshihiko
Sasaki, Atsushi
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%90%E3%80%85%E6%9C%A8%E6%95%A6
Terauchi, Daisuke
http://dterauchi.com/
--------------------------------------
Tweets
--------------------------------------
@kshoji 2011.01.25 Tweet
https://twitter.com/#!/aratori/status/29881994045292544
--------------------------------------
About the paper (English)
--------------------------------------
Original paper: Silent Street Music English 20120425.txt
Submited: 2012.04.27 (JASMIM)
Rejected: 2012.08.06 (JASMIM)
Uploaded to the Internet: 2012.08.26
While I involved in JASMIM, founded in 2008, I have developed the idea, methods, theory, and activity of ??silent street music. I thank JASMIM a lot.
About the term "flow"
--- about the terms "flow field", "flow date", "flow location", and "flow audience"
------------
4.1 Fixed field and flow field
4.1.1 A fixed field: a field of musical performance with fixed date, fixed locationand fixed audience.
4.1.2 A flow field: a field of musical performance with flow date, flow location and flow audience.
------------
In Japanese, the relationship between subject and object, or between transitive and intransitive is vague. For example, crew of the train has cautioned to passengers,
"Door will close".
Nowadays, their announcement is changing to,
"I will close the door".
However, the former type of expression is originally Japanese. It is not a personification but can be understood as "predicating the state". For another example,
"It is raining. Leaves are falling",
but
"The rain is falling"
is common in Japanese, predicating the state of something vague "the rain". About "to fix",
"Someone fixed the chair. The chair is fixed".
"To fix" is transitive, and the subject and the object are clear. However, in the paper, I want to describe about uncertain existence.
How about "flowing, unfixed, fluid, mobile"?
"Flowing" is from intransitive, which I mean to avoided. "Unfixed" is from transitive, which I mean to avoided. In "mobile something", something is too clear. "Fluid" is the nature of the liquid.
A noun "flow" is the nature of "flowing", and I mean the usage of the adjective noun.
------------------------About the term "flow"(End)
10 Musical improvisation and flow field
In this section, I will set aside consideration of the three practices.
10.1 Improvising to cope with changing circumstances
With regard to the relationship between silent street music and musical improvisation, I initially thought I would be able to train myself to improvise by coping with changing circumstances.
The major difference between silent street music and standard musical performances is the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens.' I am not able to know when an audience member will put on wireless headphones and take them off. To cope with such changing circumstances was an initial aim.
10.2 The JASMIM roundtable on silent street music
I made a presentation on silent street music during the latter half of the roundtable at the third annual meeting of The Japanese Association for the Study of Musical IMprovisation. JASMIM, which was established in September 2008, has members who are interested in musical improvisation and involved in a variety of musical forms. One of the reasons why I started performing silent street music was that the question of what musical improvisation is had been on my mind since the establishment of the association.
(Quote from the website of the association and translated: the author's questions)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Toshimori)
One of the aims of the improvised performance was to cope with a variety of circumstances. As such, the current questions under consideration - being listened to or not being listened to; seen or not seen; to practice or stage - are considered as differing circumstances. To cope with such different circumstances is one of the aims of the improvised performance, isn't it? (End quote)
At the roundtable, to which I was invited by Mr. Daisuke Terauchi who himself presented Ear Music(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Terauchi )(reference Terauchi), I did not reveal an answer to the above question. I thought more deeply about the issue after I received the attention of other participants while on stage during the discussion. Let us proceed while holding back the answers.
10.3 Making a flow field
It results in thinking of how to pursue the flow of the field itself. I will now focus on how to make a flow field (defined in Section 4.4).
10.4 Changing the field itself
September 18, 2011, on the second day of the meeting, during the lecture "'Ritornello' and 'Equality' in Improvised Performance," Mr. Yoshihiko Ichida (reference Ichida), the lecturer, mentioned the following as a concrete method for improvisational performers.
(Quote from the website of the association and translated)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.18 lecture Ichida)
Mr. Ichida: I would hope that improvisational performers would choose an environment by themselves and that they would pursue how to start improvising, taking account of the environment and how to change the field itself. Ultimately, they should go out on the street. As the police will immediately appear, improvisational performers will inevitably have to be revolutionary.
(End quote)
I was encouraged by the comment of Mr. Ichida "You should go out on the street." However, with regard to my silent street music, the police do not immediately appear - they understand the practices of non-noisy (explained in Section 5.1) and non-occupying (explained in Section 5.2) and pass by with just a nod.
During my performances of silent street music, one of the aspects that I feel is a will to dissolve my internal regulation that prohibits me from performing in an inappropriate place. As the three practices were established to avoid external difficulties, this internal regulation became easy for me to recognize.
I went in pursuit of radical practices shown in reports (in Sections 12.3 and 12.4) because I was inspired by the comment of Mr. Ichida.
11 What to log?
11.1 Records of people's reactions
I am going to describe a problem I thought about after the roundtable (cited in Section 10.2), namely, what to log. Until that point, I had reported in my blog after performing about people's reactions, words and tweets. I paid special attention to the reactions of people listening through wireless headphones, as well as my own.
By this time I had become used to people's reactions. Silent street music could be considered as a flow field solely in terms of people's reactions. Below are some examples:
About their eyes: not even looking at; looking at a glance; looking for a while; observing.
About their facial expressions: stiff; surprised; ridiculing; smiling.
About their foot movement: staying away; approaching; stopping for a moment; stopping for a while; remaining.
About their hand movement: pointing; pretending to play the piano; applauding; waving hands.
About their getting information: glancing at the description; reading it a little; reading it carefully.
About wireless headphones: just picking up; wearing them briefly; wearing them and waiting.
About their listening: for a few seconds; for tens of seconds; for a few minutes; for tens of minutes.
I experienced and became familiar with various reactions of people over more than two years to an extent that cannot be experienced in a fixed field. It took a long time to get used to someone pointing at and ridiculing me suddenly, that is to say, to flow audience.
As the documents I brought to the roundtable were mainly related to people's reactions, the discussion was directed toward them. Mr. Atsushi Sasaki (reference Sasaki) was a critic who also attended the roundtable and commented on this during the question and answer session after his lecture.
11.2 Recording a DVD - the music performed and performers' ways of coping with changing circumstances
(Quote from the website of the association and translated)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 lecture Sasaki)
Mr. Sasaki's comment: The second half of the discussion was about audience members' reactions. Mr. Toshimori was looking at the reactions while performing. We are watching the report movie that shows people's eyes while changing angles. His intention is to focus on the reactions. However, I am rather interested in how he himself changed.[...]
I think it is interesting how his music was affected by the behavior of audience members in front of him wearing headphones.
So, I think it's a good way to record a DVD - we can see audience members and the performer's motions through multiple angles and can listen to his music for a certain length of time, such as one hour, in a space with a lot of passers-by. It is, in a sense I think, very interesting research material.
Audience members' reactions are, of course, interesting but can be imagined by us. However, I think it is very interesting that the DVD shows how his music is affected by such parameters, or not affected at all, as it records objective facts external to the performer's consciousness.
(End quote)
Mr. Sasaki was interested in and suggested recording the change of both the music and the improvisational performers' ways of coping with audience members' reactions. As it is impossible to record a field itself, what and how should we record?
I am going to quote from one of my daily reports, which may shed light on this issue. It's about a hot collaboration with a noisy young man who recommended wireless headphones to passers-by while making fun of my performance.
11.3 Recording a document - the bad getting-down breathing and the good getting-down breathing
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.08.06 Sanjo Ohashi)
Next, I'll describe the main event of the day. Three noisy young males approached where I was playing and were carrying on for more than one hour in total. I got tired but learned a lot about breathing in the process.
At first they saw me from a distance and were already clamoring for attention as they approached.
"He's out of order!" the ringleader of the three shouted.
"Silence! silence!" he screamed loudly and danced in a bad getting-down manner.
"Listen to the silence"
"Great!"
"He's getting down"
"It's fun"
"He satisfies just himself"
"It's foolish to listen to"
He appealed to passers-by, clamoring for attention, but only to girls (laughs). He also stood directly in front of me. I closed my eyes and brought my face close to his while breathing. He, of course, quickly avoided me so as not to touch my face.
A young female began to take photos. She took them in a serious manner from in front of me for quite a long time. I wondered if she really was trying to help me. In the meantime, the noisy young men kept quiet and stayed to the side.
After a little while, the digital piano's batteries ran out of power. I told them about this while bowing respectfully, and they left. After changing the batteries, I began to perform again.
However, the young men returned after a while. And this time they were even louder than initially. Whew! (Laughs). I changed the pattern of my breathing: breathing in a cold manner; holding my breath for a little while; and sighing. The ringleader, who was close to me, really reacted to these changes in my breathing.
"He's wild; risky!"
"Oh, he's got a bad face"
His breathing followed only one pattern. It was simple bad getting-down. I changed between five patterns of breathing. He just tensed himself up when breathing.
"Tired, tired," he said many times.
My getting-down breathing is complex. You are not able to continue to breathe in a simple way while you're performing. In the end, the three never did listen at all to my performance by wearing the wireless headphones (laughs). However, I am sure that my breathing was somehow transmitted to the ringleader. It may come out in his dreams tonight (laughs).
Finally, they left and headed toward the entrance to the Keihan Line, waving at me as they went. I kept my eyes away from them, instead looking at my equipment.
"Hey. Hey! We've done so much. Hey, we're leaving now!"
I waved my hand, too. Indeed, he had done so much, that noisy young man (laughs). He must have been very tired. I realized one thing: I should be ready to use as wide a range of breathing as possible from the beginning of the collaboration.
(End quote)
In fact, the effect of the noisy young man's recommending the wireless headphones to passers-by was almost zero. In this situation, 50% of my mind said "Go home soon" (to him) while the other 50% said "Collaboration is fun," and in sum, "This is the very field of my performance." I realized that a flow field of musical improvisation had been made.
The report cited above is mainly concerned with aspects of breathing. I place a lot of importance on the method of breathing, about which the co-performer not listening to my music and I had a hot collaboration. Such co-performers not listening to my music could quickly cope with my method of breathing, so I thank him very much!
The noisy young man and the female dancers (described in Section 8.3) are co-performers not listening to my music that I met in town while performing. A multiple angled DVD recording with the music of this session would be difficult to record. If possible, it would be very interesting.
But remember - my co-performers have not listened to my music at all. Therefore, it can be said that my music does not seem to play a central role in the field. If my music were put on a DVD, it would be like background music. This is the point of that the music performed is held back (mentioned in Section 4.3).
11.4 Breathing out and in, and breathing in and out
With regard to the method of breathing, at the second annual meeting of the JASMIM association, I made a presentation on breathing out and in and breathing in and out.
"A method of time processing: circulation of breathing," by Akira Toshimori, from the performance presentation "Demonstrating and commentary of (my) musical improvisation."
(reference JASMIM 2010.09.19 performance presentation Toshimori)
The purpose of this method is for 'music and breathing to be free from each other.' Also in the hot collaboration (described in Section 11.3), it is important that 'music and circumstances are free from each other.' I can say that attaining freedom was successful as the collaboration lasted for an hour. The center of the interaction between me and the noisy young man is clearly not my music but the breathing of both performers.
I, of course, have noticed that the argument above contains circular reasoning. It is a claim on the assumption of a certain experimental method - the music performed is held back within the internal field (mentioned in Section 4.3). It may not be a valid claim when placed against the suggestion to record and analyze the music held back.
11.5 I end reporting about being listened to
After I had thought deeply for a month about the new problem that was brought up at the roundtable, I came to think that silent street music may be misunderstood if focusing on the previous point (made in Section 11.1).
"I will today end reporting about being listened to."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.21 Subway Performer)
I stopped writing stories about audience members listening. I shall focus on how performers cope with the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens,' or flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
So I gave up collecting tweets at the end of 2011. I have cited only one tweet (cited in Section 1) in this paper.
12 Establishing Practice 3: the internal field being acknowledged by the external field
I will once again return to the three practices (explained in Section 5).
12.1 Re the roundtable
(The case of no mediator)
Let us once again return to Section 10.2. At this time, I had not yet found the method of presentation in fixed date and fixed location. So I performed without notice during break times.
(Quote from the website of the association and translated)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Toshimori)
The author's comment: Here, I did not feel like performing silent street music on stage. It's not a street at all. Street live music is such that it may be heard by chance by passers-by. It was better, I thought, for me to perform during break times than on stage. One person listened a little by chance.
(End quote)
If you ask someone to listen within a fixed date and fixed location, someone may listen. If so, the flow field of silent street music will disappear, like in Section 8.4. This is because in this situation there is neither flow date nor flow location. In addition to these factors, there is no flow audience wherein someone or no one listens and, therefore, no flow audience. Again, a flow field needs flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
Speaking frankly, it becomes just like having fun among friends within the internal field. In fact, when I explain to people about silent street music, they often misunderstand it as having fun among friends. I thought about how I could avoid this type of misunderstanding.
12.1.1 Mediating the internal field and the external field
After that experience, in order to keep the flow field of silent street music, I noticed that it is necessary to mediate the internal field and the external field. The field of silent street music has three types of participants (performers, audience members, and people not listening). Next, we will examine who the mediator is.
12.2 Audience becomes performer
(The case of the audience acting as mediator)
(embed "movie07")
I am going to cite two events (in Sections 12.2.1 and 12.2.2) from the reports of October 2, 2011.
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.02 Sannomiya)
12.2.1 Two young cool men (listened to the performance through wireless headphones ???madded by the authorn). Their voices and gestures were very clear and big. A lot of attention from people was directed toward them, but not me (laughs).[...]Their shouts caused quite an impact.
12.2.2 [...]The last notable event was when some young male and female band members came by after performing/practicing[...]After one young bassist began to listen through the wireless headphones, he took out his bass guitar and began to play air bass guitar, really getting down. He got a lot of attention. I also laughed.
A group of about ten girls came along. They took turns listening through the wireless headphones.
"He's really playing! Amazing!"
I pointed to the bassist, saying, "I'm playing with him."
Everyone laughed (laughs).
(End quote)
Two young cool men and the young bassist, the audience, became my fellow performers, and the internal field (both they and I) got attention from the external field. The method of being a participatory audience member of the bassist hit the target in the center. He said he liked jazz, and he instinctively wanted to play his bass along with me.
Similar cases often occur when 5- to 6-year-old children listening through the wireless headphones move their bodies naturally. People in the external field watch the internal field (the children and me), and many of them pass by smiling. 5- to 6-year-old children and the Sannomiya cool boys act as mediator, which enable the internal field being acknowledged by the external field. I felt that a flow field had been made.
12.3 Greetings as a radical action
(The case of performers acting as mediator)
I am going to quote from my report of a day when I performed without permission at the entrance of an event.
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.01 Museum)
Today, my silent street music progressed (laughs). It may sound ridiculous, but it's referring to greetings. Simply to say "Good evening" is very radical.
[...]Why are greetings radical? They confront something. I am a street musician without invitation or permission.
"Good evening; welcome,"
While saying this, I perform in silence, and I am able to break the boundaries between the event organizers and other people.
(End quote)
This method has the effect of allowing me to perform more easily without permission. As I made use of this effectiveness, I established Practice 3 - the internal field being acknowledged by the external field. I, the performer, was able to act as mediator through the method of greeting without the help of others, especially without an audience.
Other examples of this method are as follows:
- While greeting people in front of the gate of a university by saying "Good evening."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.07 University)
- While greeting people at a subway entrance by saying "Thank you very much for your use of the subway."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.10 Subway Station)
- While greeting people by the side of the gate of a temple by saying "Thank you very much."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.13 Temple)
There were a lot of instances of 'being acknowledged inside the internal field,' that is, normal reactions from audience members. I got a lot of tweets about my performances. Of course, I would like to thank all of those reactions, whether favorable or not, for my lonely and bizarre performance (cited in Section 1). I think of them a lot. However, I suspect that even if I got many evaluations from audience members, I would not be able to reach my goal of making a flow field.
12.4 No [You are noisy], but [It's an air piano (laughs)]
(The case of performer acting as mediator)
Below are quotes from my report of going to a university festival and performing without permission. I proceeded by myself with the aim of the internal field being acknowledged by the external field.
12.4.1 (Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.11.07 University)
Prior to going to university festivals, I spent a lot of time thinking about this assumption. I did this in order to get more attention at these festivals.
[You are noisy!]
(Often at university festivals, there are several music performances using large-volume PA systems that are very noisy [added by the author].)[...]If I perform in silence with the sign [You are noisy!], I'm bound to get a lot of attention.
[...]However, after consideration, I decided against it. Silent street music is not a concept of that type. If externalizing the word noisy, the concept itself would diminish. Being noisy is a relative term - a state of mind. I gave up my attempts to get attention (laughs).
(End quote)
After thinking about it, I replaced the concept of [You are noisy!] with that of [It's an air piano (laughs)]. I placed a laminated sign on the piano. Because a lot of people took the sign to be true, about 90% of the time no one listened to my performance, which was my intention. If many audience members wait to use the wireless headphones, the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens' disappears. If the circumstances wherein someone listens continue, it is necessary to devise ways so as to increase the circumstances wherein no one listens.
12.4.2 Three friends divided
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.11.26 University)
A group of three friends gathered around my silent street music. One of them listened through the wireless headphones; the other two did not. One member of the group recognized my playing. However, something strange occurred - this fact was not transmitted to the other two. Those two were convinced it was an air performance and started doing an air dance with me. The other audience member listened while keeping still (laughs). Even when he said that I was really playing, it was not transmitted to the other two.
(I pushed the division further by saying "Thank you for your air collaboration" and "We are air brothers." [added by the author])
[...]They left with their recognition divided.
(End quote)
Of course, performers should make a big deal of an audience member; for example, by putting on a hot show.
In this case, the external field recognizes the performance as air piano, while the internal field does not. As both fields divided with respect to the music performed, each type of recognition is naturally different from the other.
I also discovered what I should be radical against. It is to push the division between the internal field and the external field and to mediate them. It is not fraudulent for performers to enjoy this; rather, it is the typical laughter and tears of performers dating from long ago.
12.5 A street art performance without permission
(The case of both performer and audience as mediator)
(embed "movie08")
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.11.09 Museum)
This Okazaki Park area is a place of recreation and cultural facilities.[...] When I greeted people with "Hello" while performing, almost everyone returned the "Hello," often smiling.
[...]Near the end of today's performance, two nearby elementary school boys said to me,
"What are you doing? I can't hear your sound."
[...]After I played the piano while talking to them, they played the instrument (laughs). To try anything by oneself is important (laughs), so I gave the role of performer to them.
(End quote)
I was very hesitant to present a cultural performance without invitation or permission in such a cultural zone. However, I dared to hold an 'experience school' with those interested boys. People around looked on while smiling. Of course, I would have left there immediately while continuing to perform on the mobile piano if there had been an external difficulty.
12.6 People not listening acting as mediator
In summary, the case of the audience acting as mediator is outlined in Sections 12.2 and 12.5. The case of performer acting as mediator is discussed in Sections 12.3, 12.4 and 12.5.
Another case is that of people not listening in the external field acting as mediator, as demonstrated by the dancers (in Section 8.3) and the noisy young man (in 11.3).
In addition, a different case - the possibility of no mediator - is discussed below (Section 13.2).
12.7 The mediator and the flow field
Section 12 has been described by using the term mediator, but what is the relationship between the mediator and the flow field? To reiterate, a flow field is a field of musical performance of flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
As seen in the case of Sections 12.2-12.5, we can replace flow audience with mediator between the internal field and the external field because flow audience is defined by my eyes as a performer. From the perspective of audience members' eyes, performers may flow; that is flow performer. Moreover, in many instances, there is no audience.
We can further replace mediator between the internal field and the external field by the internal field being acknowledged by the external field as the result of this mediation. As a practice, performers aim at being acknowledged.
12.8 Re flow field
According to our new definition, now a flow field is considered to be a field of musical performance of flow date, flow location and the mediator between the internal field and the external field.
The dancers (in Section 8.3), the noisy young man (11.3), the Sannomiya cool boys (12.2) and the greeting performer (12.3) are mediators between the internal field and the external field, thus making a flow field.
13 Changing practices
Before the conclusion of this paper, I am going to describe examples of changing practices (mentioned in Section 5.4) in order to cope with the prevailing circumstances.
13.1 Jazz mobile stand (with real sound)
I developed a new performance method while moving with real sound in August 2011. It is Jazz Yatai (Jazz mobile stand), performed in Gokomachi Square in Zest Oike. Yatai has the meaning of a quasi-mobile shop on the street.
There are only some passers-by in the square. I move and perform while watching audience members moving. I approach audience members showing certain reactions, and greet or talk to them while performing. I perform sometimes while playing hide-and-seek around big pillars with children. The following is how to change the three practices.
13.1.1 Because of real sound, it's noisy.
13.1.2 Because of being mobile, it's non-occupying of space; because of not gathering a fixed audience, it's non-occupying of humans; because of permission to perform in the square, it's occupying of space.
13.1.3 Because people around smile while observing me playing hide-and-seek with children, it's almost being acknowledged.
13.2 Playing the piano in silence at an art festival, while facing backward with my eyes closed
I performed silent street music while coexisting (described in Section 8.3) with artists. The performer became like a piece of installation art.
(embed "movie09")
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2012.01.29 KYOTO artvillage)
I did not know people's reactions at all.[...]Later I found by watching recorded video after my performance that when I played the piano facing backward with my eyes closed, people sometimes stared at me.
(End quote)
13.2.1 It's non-noisy.
13.2.2 Because performed in a fixed small area, it's occupying of space; because of not gathering a fixed audience, it's non-occupying of humans.
13.2.3 Because of the sign [It's an air piano (laughs)], people's suspicion of a 'flow performer' leads to being acknowledged.
14 Conclusion
The above discussion is focused on the subtitle of this paper: Three practices make a flow field of musical improvisation. I carefully chose its subject and reconfigured the description to represent the initial theory it propounds. I, as a performer, have in my mind a mixture of despair, adventurous spirit, concrete considerations, chance discoveries, imaginary sociology, future planning and hypotheses of musical improvisation.
They are the food for my performance. In other words, they help me to go to town to perform alone. However, in this research paper, I focused from among them on one hypothesis - the flow field - and restricted my comments to this as much as possible.
(End)
In this section, I will set aside consideration of the three practices.
10.1 Improvising to cope with changing circumstances
With regard to the relationship between silent street music and musical improvisation, I initially thought I would be able to train myself to improvise by coping with changing circumstances.
The major difference between silent street music and standard musical performances is the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens.' I am not able to know when an audience member will put on wireless headphones and take them off. To cope with such changing circumstances was an initial aim.
10.2 The JASMIM roundtable on silent street music
I made a presentation on silent street music during the latter half of the roundtable at the third annual meeting of The Japanese Association for the Study of Musical IMprovisation. JASMIM, which was established in September 2008, has members who are interested in musical improvisation and involved in a variety of musical forms. One of the reasons why I started performing silent street music was that the question of what musical improvisation is had been on my mind since the establishment of the association.
(Quote from the website of the association and translated: the author's questions)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Toshimori)
One of the aims of the improvised performance was to cope with a variety of circumstances. As such, the current questions under consideration - being listened to or not being listened to; seen or not seen; to practice or stage - are considered as differing circumstances. To cope with such different circumstances is one of the aims of the improvised performance, isn't it? (End quote)
At the roundtable, to which I was invited by Mr. Daisuke Terauchi who himself presented Ear Music(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Terauchi )(reference Terauchi), I did not reveal an answer to the above question. I thought more deeply about the issue after I received the attention of other participants while on stage during the discussion. Let us proceed while holding back the answers.
10.3 Making a flow field
It results in thinking of how to pursue the flow of the field itself. I will now focus on how to make a flow field (defined in Section 4.4).
10.4 Changing the field itself
September 18, 2011, on the second day of the meeting, during the lecture "'Ritornello' and 'Equality' in Improvised Performance," Mr. Yoshihiko Ichida (reference Ichida), the lecturer, mentioned the following as a concrete method for improvisational performers.
(Quote from the website of the association and translated)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.18 lecture Ichida)
Mr. Ichida: I would hope that improvisational performers would choose an environment by themselves and that they would pursue how to start improvising, taking account of the environment and how to change the field itself. Ultimately, they should go out on the street. As the police will immediately appear, improvisational performers will inevitably have to be revolutionary.
(End quote)
I was encouraged by the comment of Mr. Ichida "You should go out on the street." However, with regard to my silent street music, the police do not immediately appear - they understand the practices of non-noisy (explained in Section 5.1) and non-occupying (explained in Section 5.2) and pass by with just a nod.
During my performances of silent street music, one of the aspects that I feel is a will to dissolve my internal regulation that prohibits me from performing in an inappropriate place. As the three practices were established to avoid external difficulties, this internal regulation became easy for me to recognize.
I went in pursuit of radical practices shown in reports (in Sections 12.3 and 12.4) because I was inspired by the comment of Mr. Ichida.
11 What to log?
11.1 Records of people's reactions
I am going to describe a problem I thought about after the roundtable (cited in Section 10.2), namely, what to log. Until that point, I had reported in my blog after performing about people's reactions, words and tweets. I paid special attention to the reactions of people listening through wireless headphones, as well as my own.
By this time I had become used to people's reactions. Silent street music could be considered as a flow field solely in terms of people's reactions. Below are some examples:
About their eyes: not even looking at; looking at a glance; looking for a while; observing.
About their facial expressions: stiff; surprised; ridiculing; smiling.
About their foot movement: staying away; approaching; stopping for a moment; stopping for a while; remaining.
About their hand movement: pointing; pretending to play the piano; applauding; waving hands.
About their getting information: glancing at the description; reading it a little; reading it carefully.
About wireless headphones: just picking up; wearing them briefly; wearing them and waiting.
About their listening: for a few seconds; for tens of seconds; for a few minutes; for tens of minutes.
I experienced and became familiar with various reactions of people over more than two years to an extent that cannot be experienced in a fixed field. It took a long time to get used to someone pointing at and ridiculing me suddenly, that is to say, to flow audience.
As the documents I brought to the roundtable were mainly related to people's reactions, the discussion was directed toward them. Mr. Atsushi Sasaki (reference Sasaki) was a critic who also attended the roundtable and commented on this during the question and answer session after his lecture.
11.2 Recording a DVD - the music performed and performers' ways of coping with changing circumstances
(Quote from the website of the association and translated)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 lecture Sasaki)
Mr. Sasaki's comment: The second half of the discussion was about audience members' reactions. Mr. Toshimori was looking at the reactions while performing. We are watching the report movie that shows people's eyes while changing angles. His intention is to focus on the reactions. However, I am rather interested in how he himself changed.[...]
I think it is interesting how his music was affected by the behavior of audience members in front of him wearing headphones.
So, I think it's a good way to record a DVD - we can see audience members and the performer's motions through multiple angles and can listen to his music for a certain length of time, such as one hour, in a space with a lot of passers-by. It is, in a sense I think, very interesting research material.
Audience members' reactions are, of course, interesting but can be imagined by us. However, I think it is very interesting that the DVD shows how his music is affected by such parameters, or not affected at all, as it records objective facts external to the performer's consciousness.
(End quote)
Mr. Sasaki was interested in and suggested recording the change of both the music and the improvisational performers' ways of coping with audience members' reactions. As it is impossible to record a field itself, what and how should we record?
I am going to quote from one of my daily reports, which may shed light on this issue. It's about a hot collaboration with a noisy young man who recommended wireless headphones to passers-by while making fun of my performance.
11.3 Recording a document - the bad getting-down breathing and the good getting-down breathing
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.08.06 Sanjo Ohashi)
Next, I'll describe the main event of the day. Three noisy young males approached where I was playing and were carrying on for more than one hour in total. I got tired but learned a lot about breathing in the process.
At first they saw me from a distance and were already clamoring for attention as they approached.
"He's out of order!" the ringleader of the three shouted.
"Silence! silence!" he screamed loudly and danced in a bad getting-down manner.
"Listen to the silence"
"Great!"
"He's getting down"
"It's fun"
"He satisfies just himself"
"It's foolish to listen to"
He appealed to passers-by, clamoring for attention, but only to girls (laughs). He also stood directly in front of me. I closed my eyes and brought my face close to his while breathing. He, of course, quickly avoided me so as not to touch my face.
A young female began to take photos. She took them in a serious manner from in front of me for quite a long time. I wondered if she really was trying to help me. In the meantime, the noisy young men kept quiet and stayed to the side.
After a little while, the digital piano's batteries ran out of power. I told them about this while bowing respectfully, and they left. After changing the batteries, I began to perform again.
However, the young men returned after a while. And this time they were even louder than initially. Whew! (Laughs). I changed the pattern of my breathing: breathing in a cold manner; holding my breath for a little while; and sighing. The ringleader, who was close to me, really reacted to these changes in my breathing.
"He's wild; risky!"
"Oh, he's got a bad face"
His breathing followed only one pattern. It was simple bad getting-down. I changed between five patterns of breathing. He just tensed himself up when breathing.
"Tired, tired," he said many times.
My getting-down breathing is complex. You are not able to continue to breathe in a simple way while you're performing. In the end, the three never did listen at all to my performance by wearing the wireless headphones (laughs). However, I am sure that my breathing was somehow transmitted to the ringleader. It may come out in his dreams tonight (laughs).
Finally, they left and headed toward the entrance to the Keihan Line, waving at me as they went. I kept my eyes away from them, instead looking at my equipment.
"Hey. Hey! We've done so much. Hey, we're leaving now!"
I waved my hand, too. Indeed, he had done so much, that noisy young man (laughs). He must have been very tired. I realized one thing: I should be ready to use as wide a range of breathing as possible from the beginning of the collaboration.
(End quote)
In fact, the effect of the noisy young man's recommending the wireless headphones to passers-by was almost zero. In this situation, 50% of my mind said "Go home soon" (to him) while the other 50% said "Collaboration is fun," and in sum, "This is the very field of my performance." I realized that a flow field of musical improvisation had been made.
The report cited above is mainly concerned with aspects of breathing. I place a lot of importance on the method of breathing, about which the co-performer not listening to my music and I had a hot collaboration. Such co-performers not listening to my music could quickly cope with my method of breathing, so I thank him very much!
The noisy young man and the female dancers (described in Section 8.3) are co-performers not listening to my music that I met in town while performing. A multiple angled DVD recording with the music of this session would be difficult to record. If possible, it would be very interesting.
But remember - my co-performers have not listened to my music at all. Therefore, it can be said that my music does not seem to play a central role in the field. If my music were put on a DVD, it would be like background music. This is the point of that the music performed is held back (mentioned in Section 4.3).
11.4 Breathing out and in, and breathing in and out
With regard to the method of breathing, at the second annual meeting of the JASMIM association, I made a presentation on breathing out and in and breathing in and out.
"A method of time processing: circulation of breathing," by Akira Toshimori, from the performance presentation "Demonstrating and commentary of (my) musical improvisation."
(reference JASMIM 2010.09.19 performance presentation Toshimori)
The purpose of this method is for 'music and breathing to be free from each other.' Also in the hot collaboration (described in Section 11.3), it is important that 'music and circumstances are free from each other.' I can say that attaining freedom was successful as the collaboration lasted for an hour. The center of the interaction between me and the noisy young man is clearly not my music but the breathing of both performers.
I, of course, have noticed that the argument above contains circular reasoning. It is a claim on the assumption of a certain experimental method - the music performed is held back within the internal field (mentioned in Section 4.3). It may not be a valid claim when placed against the suggestion to record and analyze the music held back.
11.5 I end reporting about being listened to
After I had thought deeply for a month about the new problem that was brought up at the roundtable, I came to think that silent street music may be misunderstood if focusing on the previous point (made in Section 11.1).
"I will today end reporting about being listened to."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.21 Subway Performer)
I stopped writing stories about audience members listening. I shall focus on how performers cope with the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens,' or flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
So I gave up collecting tweets at the end of 2011. I have cited only one tweet (cited in Section 1) in this paper.
12 Establishing Practice 3: the internal field being acknowledged by the external field
I will once again return to the three practices (explained in Section 5).
12.1 Re the roundtable
(The case of no mediator)
Let us once again return to Section 10.2. At this time, I had not yet found the method of presentation in fixed date and fixed location. So I performed without notice during break times.
(Quote from the website of the association and translated)
(reference JASMIM 2011.09.17 roundtable Toshimori)
The author's comment: Here, I did not feel like performing silent street music on stage. It's not a street at all. Street live music is such that it may be heard by chance by passers-by. It was better, I thought, for me to perform during break times than on stage. One person listened a little by chance.
(End quote)
If you ask someone to listen within a fixed date and fixed location, someone may listen. If so, the flow field of silent street music will disappear, like in Section 8.4. This is because in this situation there is neither flow date nor flow location. In addition to these factors, there is no flow audience wherein someone or no one listens and, therefore, no flow audience. Again, a flow field needs flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
Speaking frankly, it becomes just like having fun among friends within the internal field. In fact, when I explain to people about silent street music, they often misunderstand it as having fun among friends. I thought about how I could avoid this type of misunderstanding.
12.1.1 Mediating the internal field and the external field
After that experience, in order to keep the flow field of silent street music, I noticed that it is necessary to mediate the internal field and the external field. The field of silent street music has three types of participants (performers, audience members, and people not listening). Next, we will examine who the mediator is.
12.2 Audience becomes performer
(The case of the audience acting as mediator)
(embed "movie07")
I am going to cite two events (in Sections 12.2.1 and 12.2.2) from the reports of October 2, 2011.
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.02 Sannomiya)
12.2.1 Two young cool men (listened to the performance through wireless headphones ???madded by the authorn). Their voices and gestures were very clear and big. A lot of attention from people was directed toward them, but not me (laughs).[...]Their shouts caused quite an impact.
12.2.2 [...]The last notable event was when some young male and female band members came by after performing/practicing[...]After one young bassist began to listen through the wireless headphones, he took out his bass guitar and began to play air bass guitar, really getting down. He got a lot of attention. I also laughed.
A group of about ten girls came along. They took turns listening through the wireless headphones.
"He's really playing! Amazing!"
I pointed to the bassist, saying, "I'm playing with him."
Everyone laughed (laughs).
(End quote)
Two young cool men and the young bassist, the audience, became my fellow performers, and the internal field (both they and I) got attention from the external field. The method of being a participatory audience member of the bassist hit the target in the center. He said he liked jazz, and he instinctively wanted to play his bass along with me.
Similar cases often occur when 5- to 6-year-old children listening through the wireless headphones move their bodies naturally. People in the external field watch the internal field (the children and me), and many of them pass by smiling. 5- to 6-year-old children and the Sannomiya cool boys act as mediator, which enable the internal field being acknowledged by the external field. I felt that a flow field had been made.
12.3 Greetings as a radical action
(The case of performers acting as mediator)
I am going to quote from my report of a day when I performed without permission at the entrance of an event.
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.01 Museum)
Today, my silent street music progressed (laughs). It may sound ridiculous, but it's referring to greetings. Simply to say "Good evening" is very radical.
[...]Why are greetings radical? They confront something. I am a street musician without invitation or permission.
"Good evening; welcome,"
While saying this, I perform in silence, and I am able to break the boundaries between the event organizers and other people.
(End quote)
This method has the effect of allowing me to perform more easily without permission. As I made use of this effectiveness, I established Practice 3 - the internal field being acknowledged by the external field. I, the performer, was able to act as mediator through the method of greeting without the help of others, especially without an audience.
Other examples of this method are as follows:
- While greeting people in front of the gate of a university by saying "Good evening."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.07 University)
- While greeting people at a subway entrance by saying "Thank you very much for your use of the subway."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.10 Subway Station)
- While greeting people by the side of the gate of a temple by saying "Thank you very much."
(reference Toshimori 2011.10.13 Temple)
There were a lot of instances of 'being acknowledged inside the internal field,' that is, normal reactions from audience members. I got a lot of tweets about my performances. Of course, I would like to thank all of those reactions, whether favorable or not, for my lonely and bizarre performance (cited in Section 1). I think of them a lot. However, I suspect that even if I got many evaluations from audience members, I would not be able to reach my goal of making a flow field.
12.4 No [You are noisy], but [It's an air piano (laughs)]
(The case of performer acting as mediator)
Below are quotes from my report of going to a university festival and performing without permission. I proceeded by myself with the aim of the internal field being acknowledged by the external field.
12.4.1 (Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.11.07 University)
Prior to going to university festivals, I spent a lot of time thinking about this assumption. I did this in order to get more attention at these festivals.
[You are noisy!]
(Often at university festivals, there are several music performances using large-volume PA systems that are very noisy [added by the author].)[...]If I perform in silence with the sign [You are noisy!], I'm bound to get a lot of attention.
[...]However, after consideration, I decided against it. Silent street music is not a concept of that type. If externalizing the word noisy, the concept itself would diminish. Being noisy is a relative term - a state of mind. I gave up my attempts to get attention (laughs).
(End quote)
After thinking about it, I replaced the concept of [You are noisy!] with that of [It's an air piano (laughs)]. I placed a laminated sign on the piano. Because a lot of people took the sign to be true, about 90% of the time no one listened to my performance, which was my intention. If many audience members wait to use the wireless headphones, the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens' disappears. If the circumstances wherein someone listens continue, it is necessary to devise ways so as to increase the circumstances wherein no one listens.
12.4.2 Three friends divided
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.11.26 University)
A group of three friends gathered around my silent street music. One of them listened through the wireless headphones; the other two did not. One member of the group recognized my playing. However, something strange occurred - this fact was not transmitted to the other two. Those two were convinced it was an air performance and started doing an air dance with me. The other audience member listened while keeping still (laughs). Even when he said that I was really playing, it was not transmitted to the other two.
(I pushed the division further by saying "Thank you for your air collaboration" and "We are air brothers." [added by the author])
[...]They left with their recognition divided.
(End quote)
Of course, performers should make a big deal of an audience member; for example, by putting on a hot show.
In this case, the external field recognizes the performance as air piano, while the internal field does not. As both fields divided with respect to the music performed, each type of recognition is naturally different from the other.
I also discovered what I should be radical against. It is to push the division between the internal field and the external field and to mediate them. It is not fraudulent for performers to enjoy this; rather, it is the typical laughter and tears of performers dating from long ago.
12.5 A street art performance without permission
(The case of both performer and audience as mediator)
(embed "movie08")
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.11.09 Museum)
This Okazaki Park area is a place of recreation and cultural facilities.[...] When I greeted people with "Hello" while performing, almost everyone returned the "Hello," often smiling.
[...]Near the end of today's performance, two nearby elementary school boys said to me,
"What are you doing? I can't hear your sound."
[...]After I played the piano while talking to them, they played the instrument (laughs). To try anything by oneself is important (laughs), so I gave the role of performer to them.
(End quote)
I was very hesitant to present a cultural performance without invitation or permission in such a cultural zone. However, I dared to hold an 'experience school' with those interested boys. People around looked on while smiling. Of course, I would have left there immediately while continuing to perform on the mobile piano if there had been an external difficulty.
12.6 People not listening acting as mediator
In summary, the case of the audience acting as mediator is outlined in Sections 12.2 and 12.5. The case of performer acting as mediator is discussed in Sections 12.3, 12.4 and 12.5.
Another case is that of people not listening in the external field acting as mediator, as demonstrated by the dancers (in Section 8.3) and the noisy young man (in 11.3).
In addition, a different case - the possibility of no mediator - is discussed below (Section 13.2).
12.7 The mediator and the flow field
Section 12 has been described by using the term mediator, but what is the relationship between the mediator and the flow field? To reiterate, a flow field is a field of musical performance of flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
As seen in the case of Sections 12.2-12.5, we can replace flow audience with mediator between the internal field and the external field because flow audience is defined by my eyes as a performer. From the perspective of audience members' eyes, performers may flow; that is flow performer. Moreover, in many instances, there is no audience.
We can further replace mediator between the internal field and the external field by the internal field being acknowledged by the external field as the result of this mediation. As a practice, performers aim at being acknowledged.
12.8 Re flow field
According to our new definition, now a flow field is considered to be a field of musical performance of flow date, flow location and the mediator between the internal field and the external field.
The dancers (in Section 8.3), the noisy young man (11.3), the Sannomiya cool boys (12.2) and the greeting performer (12.3) are mediators between the internal field and the external field, thus making a flow field.
13 Changing practices
Before the conclusion of this paper, I am going to describe examples of changing practices (mentioned in Section 5.4) in order to cope with the prevailing circumstances.
13.1 Jazz mobile stand (with real sound)
I developed a new performance method while moving with real sound in August 2011. It is Jazz Yatai (Jazz mobile stand), performed in Gokomachi Square in Zest Oike. Yatai has the meaning of a quasi-mobile shop on the street.
There are only some passers-by in the square. I move and perform while watching audience members moving. I approach audience members showing certain reactions, and greet or talk to them while performing. I perform sometimes while playing hide-and-seek around big pillars with children. The following is how to change the three practices.
13.1.1 Because of real sound, it's noisy.
13.1.2 Because of being mobile, it's non-occupying of space; because of not gathering a fixed audience, it's non-occupying of humans; because of permission to perform in the square, it's occupying of space.
13.1.3 Because people around smile while observing me playing hide-and-seek with children, it's almost being acknowledged.
13.2 Playing the piano in silence at an art festival, while facing backward with my eyes closed
I performed silent street music while coexisting (described in Section 8.3) with artists. The performer became like a piece of installation art.
(embed "movie09")
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2012.01.29 KYOTO artvillage)
I did not know people's reactions at all.[...]Later I found by watching recorded video after my performance that when I played the piano facing backward with my eyes closed, people sometimes stared at me.
(End quote)
13.2.1 It's non-noisy.
13.2.2 Because performed in a fixed small area, it's occupying of space; because of not gathering a fixed audience, it's non-occupying of humans.
13.2.3 Because of the sign [It's an air piano (laughs)], people's suspicion of a 'flow performer' leads to being acknowledged.
14 Conclusion
The above discussion is focused on the subtitle of this paper: Three practices make a flow field of musical improvisation. I carefully chose its subject and reconfigured the description to represent the initial theory it propounds. I, as a performer, have in my mind a mixture of despair, adventurous spirit, concrete considerations, chance discoveries, imaginary sociology, future planning and hypotheses of musical improvisation.
They are the food for my performance. In other words, they help me to go to town to perform alone. However, in this research paper, I focused from among them on one hypothesis - the flow field - and restricted my comments to this as much as possible.
(End)
Title:
The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others:
Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation.
Abstract:
Silent street live music without bothering others is generally defined as a street musical performance played in a local space with a radius of about 10 meters - in silence, excluding the use of headphones or similar devices and without bothering others - through which both the performer(s) and audience members listen to a performance.
I, the author, have been putting on such a performance, playing by myself on the street while using a mobile digital piano and wireless headphones. I have experimented with this form of music in different locations mainly within Kyoto City, Japan, many times over two and a half years. In order to make it easier to perform in public spaces without permission, I have established three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged (these terms will be explained later in Section 5).
In this paper, the music performed is not in question; the music performed is held back within the internal field (to be mentioned later in Section 4.3). Rather, I focus on the concept that the performance of musical improvisation makes a flow field, or a field of musical performance with flow date, flow location and flow audience (these terms will be defined later in Section 4.1.2).
I am going to describe how the performance, helped by these three practices, makes a flow field - citing reports of my performances, including video clips. Flow field includes flow audience, which is detailed in the climax of the description of this paper (in Section 12). Finally, flow audience is generalized as mediator between the internal field and the external field.
Contents:
1 Introduction
2 The performer and his motive
3 The definition of silent street music
4 Field
4.1 Fixed field and flow field
4.2 The internal field and the external field
4.3 The music performed is held back
4.4 To make a flow field
4.5 To keep the flow field
5 Three practices
5.1 Practice 1: non-noisy
5.2 Practice 2: non-occupying
5.3 Practice 3: being acknowledged
5.4 Changing practices
6 Outline of the description
7 The process of implementing the three practices
7.1 Preparation and equipment
8 Establishing Practice 1 - non-noisy
8.1 The first performance - welcomed by street artists
8.2 Subway Performers
8.3 Coexisting with Dancers
8.4 In an open door shop
9 Establishing Practice 2 - non-occupying
9.1 Performing legally on public roadsides
9.2 The first outdoor and mobile silent street music
9.3 At Hyakumanben
9.4 The issue of the reconstruction of Kyoto Kaikan
9.5 Non-occupying of humans
10 Musical improvisation and flow field
10.1 Improvising to cope with changing circumstances
10.2 The JASMIM roundtable on silent street music
10.3 Making a flow field
10.4 Changing the field itself
11 What to log?
11.1 Records of people's reactions
11.2 Recording a DVD
11.3 Recording a document
11.4 Breathing out and in, and breathing in and out
11.5 I end reporting about being listened to
12 Establishing Practice 3 - being acknowledged
12.1 Re the roundtable
12.2 Audience becomes performer
12.3 Greetings as a radical action
12.4 No [You are noisy], but [It's an air piano (laughs)]
12.5 A street art performance without permission
12.6 People not listening acting as mediator
12.7 The mediator and the flow field
12.8 Re flow field
13 Changing practices
13.1 Jazz mobile stand (with real sound)
13.2 Playing the piano in silence at an art festival
14 Conclusion
Article:
1 Introduction
Silent street live music without bothering others, hereafter referred to as silent street music (to be defined later in Section 3), which I, the author, have been putting on, is a street musical performance played by myself while using a mobile digital piano - in silence, excluding the use of wireless headphones and without bothering others - through which both the performer and audience members listen to a performance. I have experimented with this form of music in different locations mainly within Kyoto City, Japan, many times over two and a half years. A sign reading "Silent street music without bothering others - Please listen through wireless headphones" is placed on the piano (reference Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi). Three sets of wireless headphones are available. The range of the radio waves covers about 10 meters.
I performed in June 2009 for the first time (reference Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi). After 18 performances in less than 18 months, I began to perform more frequently from October 2010, doing 147 shows in underground spaces with permission and 95 shows in outdoor spaces without permission, resulting in a total of 242 performances over two and a half years from inception until November 2011 (shows in several locations in one day are counted as one performance). The largest audience was while playing for five hours, watched by about half of the approximately 20,000 passers-by and listened to by about 200 audience members (reference Toshimori 2011.01.03 Subway Performer). The smallest audience was while playing for 40 minutes, watched by every one of about 30 passers-by and listened to by no audience members (reference Toshimori 2011.12.13 Kamogawa Kaikan).
Recently, people, and especially young people, use Twitter to tweet to their friends about interesting events that they encounter around the city. I have discovered a lot of tweets about my performance by searching for keywords such as 'silent street.' It is a 'lonely and bizarre' performance, as evidenced by my favorite tweet that someone wrote - "He played lonely and got down but in silence without an audience, making a bizarre scene" (reference @kshoji 2011.01.25 Tweet).
2 The performer and his motive
As I, the author, am the performer in this paper, to introduce him is to introduce myself. I was forced to learn piano (using music scores) from age 3, and quit of my own accord at 10. I began to play jazz piano at 15, became a professional jazz pianist at 19 and retired at 27. In addition, I graduated from the Mathematics Department of Kyoto University at 28. After retiring, I practiced jazz piano by myself for about 20 years, initially while building my log house and living close to mountains from ages 29 to 39. When I was 36, I began to play the piano only in atonal, quitting chord progression, at a fixed tempo. I resumed chord progression and my musical activities at 48. I'm now 55 and an amateur jazz pianist living in Kyoto City.
My life's work of researching musical improvisation has been primarily to clarify jazz swing. I have been thinking for many years about the relationship of swing and improvisation and the mathematical analysis of timing (a series of timing fluctuations of several tens of milliseconds constitutes bounce)(milli=0.001). However, I have not understood the problem in depth. It is because my perception of bounce may not be sufficiently developed. I hope to achieve this understanding in the near future.
Apart from this hope, I determined in this paper to only write about that which I have already completed by myself. The reason for writing is that silent street music (to be defined later in Section 3) does hold back the music performed (to be mentioned later in Section 4.3), but I would like to emphasize that it does not throw away the music performed.
The following outlines my very simple motive and the process of two and a half years of silent street music: I want to play in public; and let me do so on the street in front of a lot of people; moreover, let me play in silence without bothering others, providing wireless headphones through which audience members may listen to my performance (Practice 1: non-noisy). Let me be able to move in order to perform legally on public roadsides (Practice 2: non-occupying). Also, let me get smiles from people without having cold water thrown at me so that I can continue my activity (Practice 3: being acknowledged). I have determined these three practices, one by one (to be explained later in Section 5).
3 The definition of silent street music
Silent street music is generally defined as a street musical performance played in a local space with a radius of about 10 meters - in silence, excluding the use of headphones or similar devices and without bothering others - through which both the performer(s) and audience members listen to a performance. Below, I will classify it.
3.1 All of the following elements should abide by the condition of 'without bothering others.'
3.2 In a real and local space:
Performers play in a local space - on a street, or in a square or a building, etc. - with a radius of about 10 meters.
3.3 Actually playing:
Performers play for real.
3.4 Silent instruments:
Performers use digital instruments, or voice/instruments that are virtually silent (e.g. solid guitar). Performers may emit a small external sound depending on surroundings.
3.5 Mobile instruments:
Performers use instruments that can be moved, if possible, in order to have flexibility.
3.6 Playing in silence:
Performers play silent instruments (Section 3.4) in silence, apart from the use of headphones, etc.
3.7 Transmitting the music, but not through sound waves:
Performers can transmit the music through cables but, instead, do it through radio waves in order to have more flexibility.
3.8 Radio waves and transmitters:
Types of transmission systems of radio waves employed include a short-range FM transmitter, a 2.4GHz wireless headphone system (my current system) or a 2.4GHz Bluetooth; all without the need for license or registration. The Internet is a global network, with a different concept to this local network, but using it is possible if the quality of sound and miniscule time delays are acceptable.
3.9 Receivers:
Both performers and audience members listen to the music through headphones, etc. The music is received via FM radio in the case of the short-range FM transmitter. As a 2.4GHz transmitter possesses neither a flexible nor easy way of pairing (setting the connection), performers must prepare receivers or headphones etc. by setting this pairing in advance.
3.10 Number of performers:
Many performers can play. Multiple performers transmit the resulting sounds of the multiple instruments through a transmitter, consolidated by cables and a mixer.
3.11 Three practices:
The above points (Sections 3.1-3.10) form a list of general definitions of silent street music; I aim to realize it through three practices (to be explained later in Section 5).
4 Field
I am going to give definitions of terms, such as field etc. A field of musical performance consists of all those involved in a musical performance, such as performers, audience members and performance space etc. in addition to the music performed.
The field of silent street music involves people who are not listening to the music performed.
4.1 Fixed field and flow field
4.1.1 A fixed field: a field of musical performance with fixed date, fixed location and fixed audience.
4.1.2 A flow field: a field of musical performance with flow date, flow location and flow audience.
Flow audience includes the flow wherein someone or no one listens as well as the flow of who the audience is. Flow audience is generalized to mean mediator between the internal field and the external field, and the explanation of flow field will later be changed (in Section 12.8).
4.2 The internal field and the external field
With silent street music, people who are listening to the music through wireless headphones constitute the internal field, while people who are not listening to it make up the external field. The internal field and the external field share the performance space but are clearly divided concerning the music performed.
4.3 The music performed is held back
In this paper, the music performed is not in question; The music performed is held back within the internal field.
4.4 To make a flow field
To make a flow field is to satisfy the conditions in Section 4.1.2 or 12.8.
4.5 To keep the flow field
As a flow field tends to be fixed and to disappear, it is necessary to keep the flow field. To keep the flow field is also expressed as to 'make a flow field' in this paper. Terms that have the nuance of fixed, such as to 'complete the flow field,' are not used for flow field.
5 Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged
5.1 Practice 1: non-noisy
Only people wearing headphones can listen to the music. So, the performance is silent apart from the use of the headphones. It leads not only to the effect of 'without bothering others' but also to the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens,' depending on whether an audience member wears wireless headphones or not, and leading to flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
5.2 Practice 2: non-occupying
There exists a practice of non-occupying of space that performers play in, while moving or being able to move immediately, and that of non-occupying of humans, meaning that performers do not occupy audience members according to a fixed schedule or human relations. It leads to flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2), in addition to the effect of 'without bothering others.'
5.3 Practice 3: being acknowledged
Being acknowledged means that the external field (people who are not listening to the music) acknowledge the internal field (performers and audience members). It shall hereafter be referred to as the internal field being acknowledged by the external field. (As mentioned in Section 2), my aim is getting smiles without having cold water thrown at me by the surrounding people (the external field). The external field acknowledges the internal field not through the music performed.
5.4 Changing practices
I shall not only play performances that satisfy the three practices but shall also change them in various ways and perform in order to cope with changing circumstances. I shall provide examples of these changes later (in Section 13).
6 Outline of the description
What follows is a description of the subtitle of this paper: Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation; citing reports of my performances, including video clips (in Sections 8-12). The outline of the description is as follows.
(Sections 8-9): Practice 1 - non-noisy - results in flow audience, and Practice 2 - non-occupying - leads to flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2). Thus, Practices 1 and 2 make a flow field (defined in Section 4.4). However, it's important to note that this flow field tends to disappear.
(Section 10): I will focus on the fact that a performance of musical improvisation copes with changing circumstances so as to make a flow field.
(Section 11): The music performed is held back. The relationship between the music performed and circumstances is not a question to be addressed.
(Section 12): Practice 3 - being acknowledged - in addition to Practices 1 and 2 allows the flow field to be kept.
7 The process of implementing the three practices
I have written a report and posted it on my blog (reference Toshimori blog) every night after a performance of silent street music for a period of two and a half years. I will quote reports below (Sections 8-13) as well as video clips of less than 2 minutes - movie01 - movie09 - which are component parts of the description as opposed to just references.
7.1 Preparation and equipment
I hit upon the idea before 2009 that a method of silent street music without bothering others was a worthy concept, even if it meant playing the piano on the street. I prepared the equipment for such a performance in 2009.
Model and number of transmitter and receivers:
1 unit of SONY MDR-RF5000K (transmitter and wireless headphones) and 3 units of MDR-RF5000 (wireless headphones).
Digital Piano:
Roland FP-4.
Power:
SANYO eneloop Rechargeable Ni-MH Battery. 1.2V*8=9.6V.
8 Establishing Practice 1 - non-noisy
8.1 The first performance - welcomed by street artists
(embed "movie01")
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi)
A fortune-teller guided me to the best place to avoid other street musicians performing loudly. Street artists have difficulty talking with their audience if loud musicians are playing nearby. I was welcomed by street artists.
Several young men giving out flyers to passers-by for a host club were standing right next to the piano within one meter. It's unusual for anybody to stand so close to standard musical performances. I found that silent street music results in much less of a barrier to keep people at a distance than standard musical performances do.
(End excerpt)
8.2 Subway Performers
I began to perform daily from October 2010 in the allocated space for Subway Performers at Kyoto City Subway. Registered musical performers are able to play in the space after making a reservation. At peak times, more than 2,000 people an hour walk through the passage in front of the space.
8.3 Coexisting with Dancers
(embed "movie02")
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2010.12.08 Dancers)
Young female dancers entered the space (mentioned in Section 8.2) and practiced dancing to CD music adjacent to my performance. The space is a favorite among dancers because it has a wall resembling a mirror. The dancers and I performed side by side for more than one hour. I found that the territory of silent street music is much smaller than for standard musical performances.
(End excerpt)
I discovered the reason on another day.
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2010.12.22 Subway Performer)
Concerning the dancers, I confirmed an interesting fact. The next performer to occupy the space was a singer/songwriter. Just after I left the space, the performer and dancers entered it. The dancers left immediately upon seeing the performer with his guitar. They show consideration to standard musical performances but not to mine.
(End excerpt)
If I were to maintain the usual ego and pride of musical performers, the ignorance of the dancers would have got into my head. However, as I held these thoughts back, I discovered another interesting characteristic of silent street music - the ignorance of the dancers and the welcoming from the street artists both belong to a certain category, i.e., silent street music has a high capacity for co-existence.
Returning to the day 2010.12.08, several audience members listened to me through wireless headphones for some time during a period of more than an hour. Some of these applauded me after they had listened. They might have been wondering if the two performances were in some way related but mostly watched the dancers (showed in movie02).
Even if ignored (welcomed) by adjacent performers, I maintained my performance as well as my relationship to audience members. The dancers and silent street music coexisted as independent or related performances, with each musical performance (mine in external silence) existing in a small space.
8.4 In an open door shop
(embed "movie03")
(reference Toshimori 2011.04.17 Silverwing)
From January 2011, I began to perform at an accessories shop, SILVERWING STUDIO, in the underground town Zest Oike, to which the Subway Performers' space is adjacent, for a short time on weekends. Many shops in underground towns have their doors wide open. It is essentially impossible to perform music there as the sound travels, but performing silent street music is possible.
However, as can be seen in movie03, two girls were told to look and listen to it, but just listened to it; the fun of silent street music is not enough. There is limited flow audience because of a lack of the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens.'
I became accustomed to performing 125 times in the busy streets (mentioned in Sections 8.2 and 8.4) or fixed locations with permission for about six months from October 2010 until April 2011.
9 Establishing Practice 2 - non-occupying
9.1 Performing legally on public roadsides
When, in the spring of April 2011, I began to perform at public roadsides, I thought about performing legally in addition to being sufficiently careful enough - without bothering others. If performing at public roadsides, traffic police will get rid of street performers according to the following scenarios.
9.1.1 The police receive a complaint from neighboring residents about noise.
9.1.2 By way of reason of no permission having been granted for occupancy of roadsides as outlined in Road Traffic Law, the police will either arrest performers or order them to desist from performing and leave the area.
9.1.3 The police will follow the same procedure (as in Section 9.1.2) if they deem an audience is so large that it is interfering with traffic, according to Road Traffic Law.
The scenario (Section 9.1.1) does not apply due to Practice 1 - non-noisy. Section 9.1.3 can be avoided by unknown performers due to the fact that there is little or no audience. Of course, performers should be careful so as not to interfere with traffic. Section 9.1.2 provides the legal basis to arrest unknown street performers. Therefore, in order to overcome Section 9.1.2, I devised a mobile system and added Practice 2 - non-occupying. I made a portable frame on which a digital piano and its stand can be carried. Moreover, I play the piano in silence while moving or being able to move immediately.
9.2 The first outdoor and mobile silent street music
(embed "movie04")
(reference Toshimori 2011.04.24 Oike)
9.3 At Hyakumanben (embed "movie05")
(reference Toshimori 2011.05.18 Hyakumanben)
9.4 The issue of the reconstruction of Kyoto Kaikan: Music can be performed without any concrete box.
(embed "movie06")
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.12.07 Kyoto Kaikan)
In opposition to the city's plan of building an opera house to replace Kyoto Kaikan at a cost of about 10 billion yen, I presented a completely different perspective. The present civilization's practice of building big concrete boxes until now has been predicated on fixed field, but the foundation of the next civilization will be based on flow field.
(End excerpt)
9.5 Non-occupying of humans: performers and friends do not stick together.
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.07.02 Shijo Ohashi)
Six old friends of mine suddenly arrived at the location.[...]From the viewpoint of passers-by, these friends and I appeared to stand close to each other. I asked them to stand a little bit away[...]because I felt an instinctive fear of not being able to see the entire surrounding area.
(End quote)
As 'occupying of humans' makes performers and audience members stick together, the flow field is lost and becomes a fixed field. A fixed field requires a security guard, but I gave up any barrier guard (described in Section 8.1), so I felt an instinctive fear.
The first theory of silent street live music without bothering others:
Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation.
Abstract:
Silent street live music without bothering others is generally defined as a street musical performance played in a local space with a radius of about 10 meters - in silence, excluding the use of headphones or similar devices and without bothering others - through which both the performer(s) and audience members listen to a performance.
I, the author, have been putting on such a performance, playing by myself on the street while using a mobile digital piano and wireless headphones. I have experimented with this form of music in different locations mainly within Kyoto City, Japan, many times over two and a half years. In order to make it easier to perform in public spaces without permission, I have established three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged (these terms will be explained later in Section 5).
In this paper, the music performed is not in question; the music performed is held back within the internal field (to be mentioned later in Section 4.3). Rather, I focus on the concept that the performance of musical improvisation makes a flow field, or a field of musical performance with flow date, flow location and flow audience (these terms will be defined later in Section 4.1.2).
I am going to describe how the performance, helped by these three practices, makes a flow field - citing reports of my performances, including video clips. Flow field includes flow audience, which is detailed in the climax of the description of this paper (in Section 12). Finally, flow audience is generalized as mediator between the internal field and the external field.
Contents:
1 Introduction
2 The performer and his motive
3 The definition of silent street music
4 Field
4.1 Fixed field and flow field
4.2 The internal field and the external field
4.3 The music performed is held back
4.4 To make a flow field
4.5 To keep the flow field
5 Three practices
5.1 Practice 1: non-noisy
5.2 Practice 2: non-occupying
5.3 Practice 3: being acknowledged
5.4 Changing practices
6 Outline of the description
7 The process of implementing the three practices
7.1 Preparation and equipment
8 Establishing Practice 1 - non-noisy
8.1 The first performance - welcomed by street artists
8.2 Subway Performers
8.3 Coexisting with Dancers
8.4 In an open door shop
9 Establishing Practice 2 - non-occupying
9.1 Performing legally on public roadsides
9.2 The first outdoor and mobile silent street music
9.3 At Hyakumanben
9.4 The issue of the reconstruction of Kyoto Kaikan
9.5 Non-occupying of humans
10 Musical improvisation and flow field
10.1 Improvising to cope with changing circumstances
10.2 The JASMIM roundtable on silent street music
10.3 Making a flow field
10.4 Changing the field itself
11 What to log?
11.1 Records of people's reactions
11.2 Recording a DVD
11.3 Recording a document
11.4 Breathing out and in, and breathing in and out
11.5 I end reporting about being listened to
12 Establishing Practice 3 - being acknowledged
12.1 Re the roundtable
12.2 Audience becomes performer
12.3 Greetings as a radical action
12.4 No [You are noisy], but [It's an air piano (laughs)]
12.5 A street art performance without permission
12.6 People not listening acting as mediator
12.7 The mediator and the flow field
12.8 Re flow field
13 Changing practices
13.1 Jazz mobile stand (with real sound)
13.2 Playing the piano in silence at an art festival
14 Conclusion
Article:
1 Introduction
Silent street live music without bothering others, hereafter referred to as silent street music (to be defined later in Section 3), which I, the author, have been putting on, is a street musical performance played by myself while using a mobile digital piano - in silence, excluding the use of wireless headphones and without bothering others - through which both the performer and audience members listen to a performance. I have experimented with this form of music in different locations mainly within Kyoto City, Japan, many times over two and a half years. A sign reading "Silent street music without bothering others - Please listen through wireless headphones" is placed on the piano (reference Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi). Three sets of wireless headphones are available. The range of the radio waves covers about 10 meters.
I performed in June 2009 for the first time (reference Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi). After 18 performances in less than 18 months, I began to perform more frequently from October 2010, doing 147 shows in underground spaces with permission and 95 shows in outdoor spaces without permission, resulting in a total of 242 performances over two and a half years from inception until November 2011 (shows in several locations in one day are counted as one performance). The largest audience was while playing for five hours, watched by about half of the approximately 20,000 passers-by and listened to by about 200 audience members (reference Toshimori 2011.01.03 Subway Performer). The smallest audience was while playing for 40 minutes, watched by every one of about 30 passers-by and listened to by no audience members (reference Toshimori 2011.12.13 Kamogawa Kaikan).
Recently, people, and especially young people, use Twitter to tweet to their friends about interesting events that they encounter around the city. I have discovered a lot of tweets about my performance by searching for keywords such as 'silent street.' It is a 'lonely and bizarre' performance, as evidenced by my favorite tweet that someone wrote - "He played lonely and got down but in silence without an audience, making a bizarre scene" (reference @kshoji 2011.01.25 Tweet).
2 The performer and his motive
As I, the author, am the performer in this paper, to introduce him is to introduce myself. I was forced to learn piano (using music scores) from age 3, and quit of my own accord at 10. I began to play jazz piano at 15, became a professional jazz pianist at 19 and retired at 27. In addition, I graduated from the Mathematics Department of Kyoto University at 28. After retiring, I practiced jazz piano by myself for about 20 years, initially while building my log house and living close to mountains from ages 29 to 39. When I was 36, I began to play the piano only in atonal, quitting chord progression, at a fixed tempo. I resumed chord progression and my musical activities at 48. I'm now 55 and an amateur jazz pianist living in Kyoto City.
My life's work of researching musical improvisation has been primarily to clarify jazz swing. I have been thinking for many years about the relationship of swing and improvisation and the mathematical analysis of timing (a series of timing fluctuations of several tens of milliseconds constitutes bounce)(milli=0.001). However, I have not understood the problem in depth. It is because my perception of bounce may not be sufficiently developed. I hope to achieve this understanding in the near future.
Apart from this hope, I determined in this paper to only write about that which I have already completed by myself. The reason for writing is that silent street music (to be defined later in Section 3) does hold back the music performed (to be mentioned later in Section 4.3), but I would like to emphasize that it does not throw away the music performed.
The following outlines my very simple motive and the process of two and a half years of silent street music: I want to play in public; and let me do so on the street in front of a lot of people; moreover, let me play in silence without bothering others, providing wireless headphones through which audience members may listen to my performance (Practice 1: non-noisy). Let me be able to move in order to perform legally on public roadsides (Practice 2: non-occupying). Also, let me get smiles from people without having cold water thrown at me so that I can continue my activity (Practice 3: being acknowledged). I have determined these three practices, one by one (to be explained later in Section 5).
3 The definition of silent street music
Silent street music is generally defined as a street musical performance played in a local space with a radius of about 10 meters - in silence, excluding the use of headphones or similar devices and without bothering others - through which both the performer(s) and audience members listen to a performance. Below, I will classify it.
3.1 All of the following elements should abide by the condition of 'without bothering others.'
3.2 In a real and local space:
Performers play in a local space - on a street, or in a square or a building, etc. - with a radius of about 10 meters.
3.3 Actually playing:
Performers play for real.
3.4 Silent instruments:
Performers use digital instruments, or voice/instruments that are virtually silent (e.g. solid guitar). Performers may emit a small external sound depending on surroundings.
3.5 Mobile instruments:
Performers use instruments that can be moved, if possible, in order to have flexibility.
3.6 Playing in silence:
Performers play silent instruments (Section 3.4) in silence, apart from the use of headphones, etc.
3.7 Transmitting the music, but not through sound waves:
Performers can transmit the music through cables but, instead, do it through radio waves in order to have more flexibility.
3.8 Radio waves and transmitters:
Types of transmission systems of radio waves employed include a short-range FM transmitter, a 2.4GHz wireless headphone system (my current system) or a 2.4GHz Bluetooth; all without the need for license or registration. The Internet is a global network, with a different concept to this local network, but using it is possible if the quality of sound and miniscule time delays are acceptable.
3.9 Receivers:
Both performers and audience members listen to the music through headphones, etc. The music is received via FM radio in the case of the short-range FM transmitter. As a 2.4GHz transmitter possesses neither a flexible nor easy way of pairing (setting the connection), performers must prepare receivers or headphones etc. by setting this pairing in advance.
3.10 Number of performers:
Many performers can play. Multiple performers transmit the resulting sounds of the multiple instruments through a transmitter, consolidated by cables and a mixer.
3.11 Three practices:
The above points (Sections 3.1-3.10) form a list of general definitions of silent street music; I aim to realize it through three practices (to be explained later in Section 5).
4 Field
I am going to give definitions of terms, such as field etc. A field of musical performance consists of all those involved in a musical performance, such as performers, audience members and performance space etc. in addition to the music performed.
The field of silent street music involves people who are not listening to the music performed.
4.1 Fixed field and flow field
4.1.1 A fixed field: a field of musical performance with fixed date, fixed location and fixed audience.
4.1.2 A flow field: a field of musical performance with flow date, flow location and flow audience.
Flow audience includes the flow wherein someone or no one listens as well as the flow of who the audience is. Flow audience is generalized to mean mediator between the internal field and the external field, and the explanation of flow field will later be changed (in Section 12.8).
4.2 The internal field and the external field
With silent street music, people who are listening to the music through wireless headphones constitute the internal field, while people who are not listening to it make up the external field. The internal field and the external field share the performance space but are clearly divided concerning the music performed.
4.3 The music performed is held back
In this paper, the music performed is not in question; The music performed is held back within the internal field.
4.4 To make a flow field
To make a flow field is to satisfy the conditions in Section 4.1.2 or 12.8.
4.5 To keep the flow field
As a flow field tends to be fixed and to disappear, it is necessary to keep the flow field. To keep the flow field is also expressed as to 'make a flow field' in this paper. Terms that have the nuance of fixed, such as to 'complete the flow field,' are not used for flow field.
5 Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged
5.1 Practice 1: non-noisy
Only people wearing headphones can listen to the music. So, the performance is silent apart from the use of the headphones. It leads not only to the effect of 'without bothering others' but also to the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens,' depending on whether an audience member wears wireless headphones or not, and leading to flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2).
5.2 Practice 2: non-occupying
There exists a practice of non-occupying of space that performers play in, while moving or being able to move immediately, and that of non-occupying of humans, meaning that performers do not occupy audience members according to a fixed schedule or human relations. It leads to flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2), in addition to the effect of 'without bothering others.'
5.3 Practice 3: being acknowledged
Being acknowledged means that the external field (people who are not listening to the music) acknowledge the internal field (performers and audience members). It shall hereafter be referred to as the internal field being acknowledged by the external field. (As mentioned in Section 2), my aim is getting smiles without having cold water thrown at me by the surrounding people (the external field). The external field acknowledges the internal field not through the music performed.
5.4 Changing practices
I shall not only play performances that satisfy the three practices but shall also change them in various ways and perform in order to cope with changing circumstances. I shall provide examples of these changes later (in Section 13).
6 Outline of the description
What follows is a description of the subtitle of this paper: Three practices - non-noisy, non-occupying, being acknowledged - make a flow field of musical improvisation; citing reports of my performances, including video clips (in Sections 8-12). The outline of the description is as follows.
(Sections 8-9): Practice 1 - non-noisy - results in flow audience, and Practice 2 - non-occupying - leads to flow date, flow location and flow audience (defined in Section 4.1.2). Thus, Practices 1 and 2 make a flow field (defined in Section 4.4). However, it's important to note that this flow field tends to disappear.
(Section 10): I will focus on the fact that a performance of musical improvisation copes with changing circumstances so as to make a flow field.
(Section 11): The music performed is held back. The relationship between the music performed and circumstances is not a question to be addressed.
(Section 12): Practice 3 - being acknowledged - in addition to Practices 1 and 2 allows the flow field to be kept.
7 The process of implementing the three practices
I have written a report and posted it on my blog (reference Toshimori blog) every night after a performance of silent street music for a period of two and a half years. I will quote reports below (Sections 8-13) as well as video clips of less than 2 minutes - movie01 - movie09 - which are component parts of the description as opposed to just references.
7.1 Preparation and equipment
I hit upon the idea before 2009 that a method of silent street music without bothering others was a worthy concept, even if it meant playing the piano on the street. I prepared the equipment for such a performance in 2009.
Model and number of transmitter and receivers:
1 unit of SONY MDR-RF5000K (transmitter and wireless headphones) and 3 units of MDR-RF5000 (wireless headphones).
Digital Piano:
Roland FP-4.
Power:
SANYO eneloop Rechargeable Ni-MH Battery. 1.2V*8=9.6V.
8 Establishing Practice 1 - non-noisy
8.1 The first performance - welcomed by street artists
(embed "movie01")
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2009.06.12 Shijo Ohashi)
A fortune-teller guided me to the best place to avoid other street musicians performing loudly. Street artists have difficulty talking with their audience if loud musicians are playing nearby. I was welcomed by street artists.
Several young men giving out flyers to passers-by for a host club were standing right next to the piano within one meter. It's unusual for anybody to stand so close to standard musical performances. I found that silent street music results in much less of a barrier to keep people at a distance than standard musical performances do.
(End excerpt)
8.2 Subway Performers
I began to perform daily from October 2010 in the allocated space for Subway Performers at Kyoto City Subway. Registered musical performers are able to play in the space after making a reservation. At peak times, more than 2,000 people an hour walk through the passage in front of the space.
8.3 Coexisting with Dancers
(embed "movie02")
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2010.12.08 Dancers)
Young female dancers entered the space (mentioned in Section 8.2) and practiced dancing to CD music adjacent to my performance. The space is a favorite among dancers because it has a wall resembling a mirror. The dancers and I performed side by side for more than one hour. I found that the territory of silent street music is much smaller than for standard musical performances.
(End excerpt)
I discovered the reason on another day.
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2010.12.22 Subway Performer)
Concerning the dancers, I confirmed an interesting fact. The next performer to occupy the space was a singer/songwriter. Just after I left the space, the performer and dancers entered it. The dancers left immediately upon seeing the performer with his guitar. They show consideration to standard musical performances but not to mine.
(End excerpt)
If I were to maintain the usual ego and pride of musical performers, the ignorance of the dancers would have got into my head. However, as I held these thoughts back, I discovered another interesting characteristic of silent street music - the ignorance of the dancers and the welcoming from the street artists both belong to a certain category, i.e., silent street music has a high capacity for co-existence.
Returning to the day 2010.12.08, several audience members listened to me through wireless headphones for some time during a period of more than an hour. Some of these applauded me after they had listened. They might have been wondering if the two performances were in some way related but mostly watched the dancers (showed in movie02).
Even if ignored (welcomed) by adjacent performers, I maintained my performance as well as my relationship to audience members. The dancers and silent street music coexisted as independent or related performances, with each musical performance (mine in external silence) existing in a small space.
8.4 In an open door shop
(embed "movie03")
(reference Toshimori 2011.04.17 Silverwing)
From January 2011, I began to perform at an accessories shop, SILVERWING STUDIO, in the underground town Zest Oike, to which the Subway Performers' space is adjacent, for a short time on weekends. Many shops in underground towns have their doors wide open. It is essentially impossible to perform music there as the sound travels, but performing silent street music is possible.
However, as can be seen in movie03, two girls were told to look and listen to it, but just listened to it; the fun of silent street music is not enough. There is limited flow audience because of a lack of the 'flow wherein someone or no one listens.'
I became accustomed to performing 125 times in the busy streets (mentioned in Sections 8.2 and 8.4) or fixed locations with permission for about six months from October 2010 until April 2011.
9 Establishing Practice 2 - non-occupying
9.1 Performing legally on public roadsides
When, in the spring of April 2011, I began to perform at public roadsides, I thought about performing legally in addition to being sufficiently careful enough - without bothering others. If performing at public roadsides, traffic police will get rid of street performers according to the following scenarios.
9.1.1 The police receive a complaint from neighboring residents about noise.
9.1.2 By way of reason of no permission having been granted for occupancy of roadsides as outlined in Road Traffic Law, the police will either arrest performers or order them to desist from performing and leave the area.
9.1.3 The police will follow the same procedure (as in Section 9.1.2) if they deem an audience is so large that it is interfering with traffic, according to Road Traffic Law.
The scenario (Section 9.1.1) does not apply due to Practice 1 - non-noisy. Section 9.1.3 can be avoided by unknown performers due to the fact that there is little or no audience. Of course, performers should be careful so as not to interfere with traffic. Section 9.1.2 provides the legal basis to arrest unknown street performers. Therefore, in order to overcome Section 9.1.2, I devised a mobile system and added Practice 2 - non-occupying. I made a portable frame on which a digital piano and its stand can be carried. Moreover, I play the piano in silence while moving or being able to move immediately.
9.2 The first outdoor and mobile silent street music
(embed "movie04")
(reference Toshimori 2011.04.24 Oike)
9.3 At Hyakumanben (embed "movie05")
(reference Toshimori 2011.05.18 Hyakumanben)
9.4 The issue of the reconstruction of Kyoto Kaikan: Music can be performed without any concrete box.
(embed "movie06")
(Excerpted and edited from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.12.07 Kyoto Kaikan)
In opposition to the city's plan of building an opera house to replace Kyoto Kaikan at a cost of about 10 billion yen, I presented a completely different perspective. The present civilization's practice of building big concrete boxes until now has been predicated on fixed field, but the foundation of the next civilization will be based on flow field.
(End excerpt)
9.5 Non-occupying of humans: performers and friends do not stick together.
(Quote from the author's blog and translated)
(reference Toshimori 2011.07.02 Shijo Ohashi)
Six old friends of mine suddenly arrived at the location.[...]From the viewpoint of passers-by, these friends and I appeared to stand close to each other. I asked them to stand a little bit away[...]because I felt an instinctive fear of not being able to see the entire surrounding area.
(End quote)
As 'occupying of humans' makes performers and audience members stick together, the flow field is lost and becomes a fixed field. A fixed field requires a security guard, but I gave up any barrier guard (described in Section 8.1), so I felt an instinctive fear.
2012.06.09 "Jazz Mobile Stand"
"What is improvisation? with mother and daughter"
"Collaboration with Jun Suzuki"
Today's video was taken by a photographer Tonari. Because of removing the front posture of passers-by, sometimes the music was cut off.
In the second half of the video, a girl and her mother came. They seemed to participate somehow. I talk to them while playing the bass by my left hand and having gesture with my right hand.
"Do you know a word, improvisation?"
"Playing without a music score"
While indicating square by my hand, I played casually, by chance.
The mother showed her finger turning round her head like thinking out of her head. Because I'm not thinking at all in this actual playing, I said,
"But, you are talking on improvisation".
Now, a reggae keyboardist Jun Suzuki began to play keyboard harmonica. It's cool in this concrete box,
while the piano sound is not so good for echoing much. Blowing-instruments is good.12
Now the mother and daughter participated in something playing with their percussions Shaka-shaka. Why they had them? Mom got down and the girl embarrassing.
After a while, two went back with mom waving hands.
It's OK with the sign to upload the movie.
Data:
2012.06.09 Aratori Jazz Yatai with Jun Suzuki and more
Aratori (Akira Toshimori) plays blues at Jazz Yatai (mobile) in the Gokomachi square, Zest Oike, Kyoto.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51982243.html
"What is improvisation? with mother and daughter"
"Collaboration with Jun Suzuki"
Today's video was taken by a photographer Tonari. Because of removing the front posture of passers-by, sometimes the music was cut off.
In the second half of the video, a girl and her mother came. They seemed to participate somehow. I talk to them while playing the bass by my left hand and having gesture with my right hand.
"Do you know a word, improvisation?"
"Playing without a music score"
While indicating square by my hand, I played casually, by chance.
The mother showed her finger turning round her head like thinking out of her head. Because I'm not thinking at all in this actual playing, I said,
"But, you are talking on improvisation".
Now, a reggae keyboardist Jun Suzuki began to play keyboard harmonica. It's cool in this concrete box,
while the piano sound is not so good for echoing much. Blowing-instruments is good.12
Now the mother and daughter participated in something playing with their percussions Shaka-shaka. Why they had them? Mom got down and the girl embarrassing.
After a while, two went back with mom waving hands.
It's OK with the sign to upload the movie.
Data:
2012.06.09 Aratori Jazz Yatai with Jun Suzuki and more
Aratori (Akira Toshimori) plays blues at Jazz Yatai (mobile) in the Gokomachi square, Zest Oike, Kyoto.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/aratori/archives/51982243.html