YAMAMAYU night wanderings
⎮sound walk, deep listening processes
How can we listen to the invisible? How
do we perceive beings that do not want to be heard?
executed via walking and listening postures, written scores of deep listening practices, YAMAMAYU composition via FM silent disco transmission in the field
YAMAMAYU night wanderings are rooted in the artist's ongoing poetic exploration of the Japanese silk moths (Antheraea yamamai), echolocation, modalities of moving/still states and the sophistication of the personal aural field via territorial perception/connection and deep listening.
With the deprivation of the visual field, the human auditory spectrum exponentially sharpens. The postulates of the self and clear boundaries of identity begin to gradually soften in the night of the forest, dissolving.
YAMAMAYU creates an environment for the experience of metamorphosis, transformation. ... I vanish, dissolve into the ethereal field of space, in the safe environment of community, I disappear into the trees, submerge into the space of the night, consciousness expands to the edges of the cosmos and beyond...
The sound walk focuses on listening to (almost) inaudible presences in the forest. It starts with a collective fine tuning exercise, and then, in silence and guided by poetic listening scores, participants take a night walk through specific territory (meadows, forest). This auditory journey into the seemingly inaudible, as we gently move through the nocturnal landscapes delves into the sonority of the (un)audible silence of nocturnal butterflies. Antheraea yamamai, inhabitants of tall deciduous forests who reside high in the treetops, become the focus of our exploration.
More about the YAMAMAYU night moth here.
Listening to seemingly inaudible sounds and wandering through nocturnal landscapes (which can also be a reduction of the visible field and listening to subtle impulses of one's own body and nature) addresses the sound of the apparent silence of nocturnal moths. Jamamaji are inhabitants of deciduous forests and live high in the tree canopies. They are nocturnal moths that leave behind large bright green silk webs. Displaced nocturnal newcomers managed to escape into the freedom of the surrounding treetops about a century ago during attempts at local silk farming. They originate from the mountainous environment of the Japanese island of Honshu, and through an open window, they spread across the continental belt of forests in southeastern Europe.
By observing the everyday sound as a means to degrade human perceptual potential, especially the narrowing of the auditory field, the purpose of the sound walk and the series of listening scores is to intervene in the prevailing perceptual agenda and emphasize the potential of aural perception. Hearing is closely intertwined with the ability to complexly understand reality and empathy, which is the foundation for inclusive resonance.
In 2020, as part of MFRU, the artist created YAMAMAYU / planetary garden of fluid harmony / sonority of the Japanese oak silk moth, an 8-channel sound composition at TONSPUR. The sound walk YAMAMAYU night wanderings premiered as a part of theTO/pot 2022 festival, produced by CONA, Ljubljana.
Sound walk performances:
premiere: TO)pot festival Ljubljana, 2022-2023: https://www.steklenik.si/en/or-poieseis-yamamayu/
MFRU 2023: https://www.mfru.org/events/yamamayu-night-wanderings
LIPS#1. Deep speech. Inter-species dialogues, Chapelle Venel et Parc du Val de l’Arc, Aix-en-Provence
Organizacija Lab Gamerz, Aix-en-Provence, France, 12. - 14. april 2024