Seeing and Hearing Contemporary Art: A.A. MURAKAMI's 'Floating World'

I visited the 'Roppongi Crossing' contemporary art exhibition in Roppongi and experienced the much-talked-about immersive installation 'Floating World' by A.A. MURAKAMI.

In a very dark space, soft, white spherical bubbles drift quietly.
They are born, float, and eventually disappear.

That is all that happens, but
I wanted to stay there for a while.

There is a brief 'pause' between the birth of one sphere and the next.
This 'pause,' or 'waiting time,' felt like a moment for dialogue with my inner self, and it was also a rare time to savor a faint sense of tension and concentration within the silence.

In a sense, the experience was similar to listening to music.

Contemporary art that appears like music

Generally, I think many dynamic installation-type artworks place more emphasis on 'feeling' than 'understanding,' and music is also an art form that allows us to 'feel' the flow of time in a way that words cannot fully express.

So, for example, how about trying to connect art and music through themes like the following?

・Sound as a generative system
・Sound like flickering, drifting light
・Sound that strongly evokes spatiality
・And, music without sound

By using the imaginative and intellectual technique of 'connecting,' perhaps art can be felt as an extension of music, and music as an extension of art, as if they were one and the same.

Sound as a generative system

Johann Sebastian Bach: 'The Art of Fugue'

This work from Bach's later years feels as though it prioritizes the 'order of time' over 'emotional fluctuations.'
It unfolds quietly and steadily, with its form changing little by little.
The process by which A.A. MURAKAMI's spherical bubbles are generated had something in common with this work.

Sound like flickering, drifting light

Claude Debussy: 'Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune'

Debussy's music is not just beautiful;
it contains 'flickering.'
The light in 'Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune' is not solid, but possesses a brilliance with a fragility that seems as if it might vanish.
That instability overlapped with the unique fragility of A.A. MURAKAMI's spherical bubbles.

Sound that strongly evokes spatiality

Toru Takemitsu: 'Rain Tree Sketch'

I think Toru Takemitsu's music also has an aspect of being a work that listens to the space between sounds.
Each note is not just flowing aimlessly, but is carefully placed into the space, and it feels as if it fills the space in sync with the listener's breathing; this was the sensation that overlapped most deeply with my experience of A.A. MURAKAMI's work.

And, music without sound

John Cage's "4'33""

By "playing nothing," Cage changed the very way we listen to music.
The sound of air conditioning, the noise of equipment, the presence of people, the flow of air.
All of these become "music" in real time.
Inside the exhibition space of A.A.MURAKAMI's installation,
I was experiencing exactly that.

The experience of "seeing and hearing" art

I think many people feel that "contemporary art" is somehow difficult.
At such times, if you try experiencing art as if you were listening to music, the door to a new world might suddenly open.

Instead of trying hard to find meaning, savor the entire "time and space to see and hear art."

When I placed myself in that rare time and space where I could experience ultimate silence in the middle of the city, a fundamental wish—the ability to even forget the fixed idea of "myself"—was fulfilled. A.A.MURAKAMI's artwork had that kind of power.

Today's bonus: Cats and ping-pong balls

My article was added to a magazine! Thank you very much.