Ferry Pier sound performance

On the 26^th January, I have been to the Kwun Tong Ferry Pier. I was confused as I didn’t think I would see art work there.

     Actually, that was a sound performance. First, Mr. Akio (the performer) took a rope on the floor and put the wood on it like the picture. The wood was very long. Then he started to nail some big and small nails on the wood slowly and randomly. It had “pop” sounds. I was really confused that I didn’t know what that means. Did we need to see him just nailing the whole wood? Then I discovered that there was a woman sitting in under the wood and she did some movements. Then her movements became faster when Mr. Akio had almost finished nailing. I expected that there was more amazing performance. Really, then Mr. Akio took two chopsticks and started to sweep the nails. Unexpectedly, different speed of sweeping created an amusing song. The woman came out from the wood and danced like a butterfly. At the moment, I realized that the woman’s movements were based on the sounds that Mr. Akio created. Then the woman finally stopped when Mr. Akio stopped.

This performance really impressed me. I think it told us a story of a butterfly’s life. First, the nailing means that the larva was growing slowly and didn’t move a lot. That was a bit boring. Then, the larva became a butterfly pupa. After nailing, the chopsticks swept on the nails means that it then became imago and flew freely to have a wonderful life. The size difference of nails and the speed of sweeping create different musical scales. I haven’t thought that nails and chopsticks do have a relationship. They can cooperate to be a piano! (haha)

Then they went to another place and stood oppositely. The woman took up the glass bottle on the floor and then started moving. The water in the bottle flowed out. She looked at Mr. Akio. Then, Mr. Akio took the bottle and hit the ground with “knock” sounds. Then, she knocked two bottles and continued to move with bottles, which were like to communicate to him. Then Mr. Akio blew from the bottle, which was like piping.

    I have different feeling of this part of performance. I think that they use sound to talk and communicate without using words. It was like alien language. However, when I listened indeed with heart, I found that the sounds were crisp and sweet-sounding. There were many ways to create sounds by glass bottles: a bottle hitting the ground, hitting two bottles, blowing a bottle and water in bottle flowing out. These sounds were common in our life but I have never listened them carefully. The best part was that Mr. Akio blew the bottle. He was very talented as that was not easy and the sounds were unique.

Performing sound art, the location is very important. Mr. Akio chose ferry pier because there is an open area with the sound of the waves, the sound of nature. Therefore, we can listen to the reflected sounds of nature through the performance and that makes perfect performance. In fact, I think it is true that the sound of nature is better than the sound that people made. Although pop music is pleasant to hear, it may let you be hyper instead of relaxing. Industrial sound is even noise. Therefore, the sound of nature, such as singing bird, moving wave and blowing leave, is more suitable for people to listen more, to relax then be energetic.

From this performance, I found that Mr. Akio is good at using objects close at hand to create pleasant rhythms and interesting sounds. He lets me know that sound art can be diversity and with different formats. Also, I have noticed more about the sounds around me, such as breaking glass bottles and hitting two metals, which may be also interesting.