Experiment Show

Organized by Yotsuya Art Studium, Experiment Show was held on October 7 at the gymnasium of the former Yotsuya Third Elementary School. The three participants, Tadashi Kikuchi, Izumi Tsurusaki, and TARKY Toshima, each recited Kenji Miyazawa’s story “Yamanashi.” Kikuchi recited while attached to a hose, which was also used to water mushrooms and help them grow. Tsurusaki recited in time with the sound of water coming from Kikuchi’s hose. Wearing a blindfold, Toshima recited by interweaving memorized passages of “Yamanashi” with the passages being read aloud by Tsurusaki. The experimental concept at the time was as follows.

Purpose of the Experiment
To bring forth a “whole” as a single system from people who have no common rules and possess mutually different codes (parts with closed systems nevertheless enable the whole to function).

Hypothesis of the Experiment
If we consider the interior of a living organism and its exterior (the environment) as a “field,” we can observe a phenomenon in which parts that have no codes in common nevertheless become interconnected as a whole and form a single “field.” The various entities that weave the network here are not controlled in advance. Precisely because they are not, unpredictable events emerge when their respective behaviors collide. Such events can be described neither as discommunication nor as communication. When individuals with different input-output systems come together in a single “field,” might it be possible to bring about relationships that contain this kind of unpredictability?

Method of the Experiment
A reading session is established as a common setting, or “field.” Each participant’s behavior within it follows that participant’s own rules. Each participant also has a different input-output system, which is conditioned by the situation of the reading. Because these systems are conditioned by that situation, their mutual influences inevitably begin to appear in each system as the reading progresses. This will, in turn, also bring about changes in the situation of the reading itself. Through this kind of method, in which the participants are unrelated to one another yet generate feedback, relationships of the kind described above are constructed.

Participants in the event included Yuji Kitagawa, Yuko Mohri, Yu Nakai + Shinichi Takashima, Satoshi Hashimoto, Yoshiharu Ishioka, Shigeru Matsui, Kei Hirakura, Kenjiro Okazaki, Carl Stone, and Masahiro Miwa, among others (honorifics omitted). The entire performance lasted seven hours.