« Fukushima is known worldwide by its stigma. But we do not lose hope of finding Fukushima. Even the fear of not being able to return to our hometowns, we would think about the future of this place for it to stay connected with the rest of the world and also in the hope to continue living in this place.“
The collective Fukushima!
Michiro Endo, Otomo Yoshihide, Ryoichi Wago (May 2011)
A public radio broadcast
airing simultaneously in Maison Laurentine (France) / Fukushima University (Japan)
brought to you by Dominique Balaÿ and Koji Nagahata
July 29th
-> 10:00 to 17:00 (local time in France)
-> 18:00 to 21:00 (local time in Japan),
With the support of the faculty of administration and social sciences, Fukushima University
Since 2011, Koji Nagahata has engaged in documentary work to chronicle the upheavals, resulting from Fukushima’s nuclear catastrophe, in the city where he lives and works.
After a similar first edition (also organized by La Maison Laurentine and the University of social sciences of Fukushima, march 2013), the mission of this current project is to correlate the significant archives composed by Koji Nagahata with the contributions of the project “Meanwhile, in Fukushima” which brings together more than 60 original pieces.
This simultaneous & public radio broadcast aims to give a meaning to the reality of both works. Each brings their unique qualities through their particular approaches, with the reinforced desire of opening the (sonic) windows in order to further encourage exchange and dialogue.
We are not giving up… the disaster is still going on…
Playing, a selection of the audio recordings of Koji Nagahata with the project’s contributors.
Initial playlist and presentation for ABC/Soundproof.
Many thanks to Julie Shapiro and Miyuki Jokiranta for this great radio opportunity.
And special thanks to Aurélie Lierman for her precise and kind attention to the english text below !
The podcast is here : http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/meanwhile-in-fukushima/5839298
« Meanwhile In Fukushima » is an audio collaborative project led by Dominique Balaÿ. It aims above all to throw a life line between here and there. Since 2011, more than 50 contributions have added sense to this project that met the interest of radio channels (such as France Musique, France Culture, RTS, RTBF, Radia network…) and different artistic programs, mainly in France and Japan, but also in more than 20 other countries … and today Australia !
WHO AM I?
I live in the South of France (in Provence precisely) and I am the founder and artistic director of WebSYNradio. I am also involved in various editorial and artistic projects in which I each time search for open and collaborative forms.
In all those different projects, I am preoccupied by an investigation of ‘media’ in itself: what to focus on? what listening experience should be created, evoking what kind of dialogue? how to engage the outside world ?
I do like to use the medium radio in particular, and sonic phenomena in general. Radio is for me a refined and autonomous tool: perfect for international investigation and in the best case also a translation of the in-timely. I hope that I always maintain enough liberty and openness in this approach.
THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR DISASTER
At the moment of Fukushima 3/11 I already was in touch with some Japanese artists, as I had had the opportunity to produce programs for WebSynradio. But, though it was my childhood dream, I had never had the chance to go to Japan myself.
One of my ancestors had been a counselor of the Shogun. He built the arsenal of Yokohama, and his epos at the dawn of modern Japan has nourished our humble « family legend ». There’s even a small museum dedicated to him over there. On top of this quasi atavism, I have gotten a political sensibility about certain rather ecological subjects.
So back in 2011 I was instantly worried about what was happening over there, first the tsunami, then the explosions in the nuclear power plant of Fukushima Daiichi. I have lived those events in realtime like every one else in that time. I felt like we were getting close to something terrifying beyond human scale. Including the media’s approach about the catastrophe and everything else that happened in terms of political errors and bad decision making in the management of the crisis. It was pretty overwhelming for days in a row. But luckily I found a way to not be emotionally crushed by what was happening. Right in that moment I was actually finishing a broadcast for webSYNradio with John Zorn who told me he was going to organize a benefit in his club in New York. John Zorn invited me to record the event and to broadcast it on webSynradio. Me going to New York to that unforgettable benefit event back in summer 2011 was the actual starting point of the project « Meanwhile, in Fukushima ».
THE PROJECT
After broadcasting the benefit event at The Stone I felt more and more involved and I wanted to continue to be available. « To help » is a maybe too big word, but at least to not remain passive, as was the case with Tchernobyl where I was too young to fully understand what was happening. Even if I am not a militant, I just really wanted to do ‘something’. And that’s how the idea of going to Fukushima City took shape.
I wrote an intention declaration in which I explained my project: collecting recordings from Fukushima City and to invite artists to work on those recordings. That invitation was going around in France and that’s how I got the support from INA/GRM, that historical institution where electro acoustic music has been invented and developed throughout the twentieth century. It’s studio’s are in the headquarters of the national radio broadcasting corporation in Paris. INA/GRM and it’s co-director Christian Zanesi offered me the possibility to organize residencies for 4 artists. The project had been launched!
In the wake of all these activities I took off for Japan and resided one month in Tokyo and Fukushima City. I collected nearly 30 hours of field recordings and lots of interviews. I met so many people, and some of them became good friends. Those friendships have inspired me up till today. They give me the faith and confidence to continue « Meanwhile, in Fukushima » even if in terms of finance it is a precarious project.
A SELECTION FOR ABC/SOUNDPROOF
Tomoko Momiyama (JP), Carl Stone (US), Bérangère Maximin (FR) and Joachim Montessuis (FR) are the four artists who have been part of the artist residencies at INA / GRM.
Their participation offered me a variety of approaches: as I felt on the spot, there is not a single way to react and respond to the Fukushima nuclear disaster Daiichi, but a multiplicity.
I am pleased that the listeners of Soundproof and more generally the Australian public can discover the sonic contribution they have created especially for the project.
I have selected three other contributions to expand the panorama: by Aurélie Lierman (BE/RW), Roxanne Turcotte (CA) and Cristian Vogel (UK), all three are very different.
These last three pieces of the selection are spontaneous contributions, and I want to take this opportunity to say that the call for contributions to the project is still open!
1/
TOMOKO MOMIYAMA
I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree (electro acoustic, 17’30)
This piece was created by Tomoko Momiyama partly at INA / GRM during her artist residency, summer 2012.
Carl Stone introduced me to Tomoko Momiyama, a young composer, riding on a set of artistic practices and cultures (she lives in Japan and studied musicology at Stanford University USA) ). We met several times in Tokyo. She gave me some valuable contacts (especially Koji Nagahata, a professor from the University of Fukushima, whom we still regularly work with). Tomoko and me had even planned a trip to Fukushima together, which in the end didn’t take place (unfortunately). So we each visited Fukushima separately. She took the opportunity to make her own field recordings which she used in her work. With great sensitivity and great modesty, her contribution translates corruption and profound change in the relationship with Nature caused by the nuclear disaster.
Here you have Tomoko in her own words about her approach and her contribution to the project: « I went to ask the trees in Paris what they thought about the situation in Fukushima. It was in the summer of 2012, over a year after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. “I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree” uses voices of these Parisian trees, as well as sound recordings from Fukushima, Tokyo, Aix-en-Provence, Geneva, and Paris. In Fukushima, I visited Bakkamiki in Minami-Soma, which is believed to be the birthplace of an old and mysterious children’s song called “Kanchororin.” Deep in a foggy mountain by a steep river, the forest of Bakkamiki is now too highly radiated for people to enter. Even in the rest of Minami-soma, and in many other parts of Fukushima, children cannot play outdoors for too long now due to high radiation. “I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree” quotes this folksong, as well as a poem of the same title I wrote in Japanese. »
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/geomedia/i-saw-time-under-a-cherry-tree-une-piece-detomoko-momiyama/
2/ CARL STONE
Threnody, for the victims of Fukushima (electro acoustic, 10’23)
This piece was created by Carl Stone at INA / GRM during his artist residency, in September 2012.
The first artist that I invited to INA / GRM was Carl Stone, American composer, pioneer of electro acoustic since the 70s, and Japan lover who also lives there six months a year.
Prior to our Fukushima collaboration, we had worked together on two programs for webSYNradio. In 2012, Carl got convinced he had to take a position towards this catastrophe that generated a lot of trouble in Japan. A catastrophe that was arousing an amazingly strong reaction from a community that is usually reluctant to protest. It is those protests and the profound changes in Japanese society as a consequence that got Carl interested to take action too. His piece is dedicated to the victims of the disaster, and clearly depicts the events that took place in Tokyo as a response to the inertia and also the manipulation of the population by the Japanese politics and mass media.
However, in several interviews conducted together (and available on the project website), Carl Stone recalls that this nuclear disaster has extraordinarily complex impacts, and it would be a mistake to judge too hastily the peoples’ reactions.
His composition reflects this complexity, while always keeping the victims of the disaster in mind, even though the government’s official position is that this nuclear disaster has made no victims at all.
http:// fukushima-open-sounds.net/geomedia/threnody-open-for-the-victims-of-Fukushima-carl-stone/
3/ BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN & COLIN JOHNCO
Le fléau (electro acoustic, 9’44)
This piece was created by Berengere Maximin & Colin Johnco at INA / GRM during artist residency, summer 2012.
Bérangère Maximin is an electroacoustic music composer and performer, based in Paris. « She creates landscapes that pull you in and hold your attention with a keen sense of detail and a subtle sense of surprise. One of the most personal and passionate new voices in electroacoustic music » – John Zorn
I got Bérangère Maximin involved thanks to John Zorn (again !): Being French I already knew her work and we even once worked together for a program at webSynradio. A few years earlier, she had released her first album at Tzadik, John Zorn’s label, we talked together about this album and her work and that’s how we connected! For me, it was appropriate to invite an artist who had not expressed an opinion on this subject (Fukushima), and in her work rather reflects a form of musicality very cheerful, non-discursive, almost dancing.
Bérangère (who brought Colin Johnco in the project) did not give me the recipe of her composition, but this is a composition that probably only works on a musical and abstract level. She didn’t make any use of my field recordings that were available on the Fukushima website.
Johnco and Maximin borrowed the words of Edward Bond functioning as a perfect counterpart of their own commitment and, conversely, as a reflection of public opinion, especially in France, who chooses to know nothing and ignore :
« Act as if nothing Happened. The end of the world, nothing is more abstract. We are here, smug, fat, tired. Choose to ignore, IGNORE. «
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/Bérangère-maximin-colin-johnco
4/ JOACHIM Montessuis
The glowing tree (electro acoustic, 19 ‘)
This piece was created by Joachim Montessuis at INA / GRM during his artist residency, summer 2012.
Since 1993 Joachim Montessuis has been developing a transversal sonic poetry praxis focused on experimental voice processing and immersive concert installations.
With Joachim, my idea was to solicit input from a poet.
I love his work for a very long time, he is very active (even as an activist !) with sound poetry(just like electro acoustic music, another French tradition). His experimentations with noise music are very interesting. Through these experimentations, he questions the concept of the inaudible/ audible. Which for me strongly echoes this particular aspect of the nuclear disaster: its invisibility and our difficulty to perceive the reality of a still ongoing disaster.
For his contribution, Joachim borrowed a large amount of material from the open sound library from the Fukushima website, and processed them till the different samples become indistinguishable. The result is very expressive and poetic, I expected no less from him!
« We Need music, poetry and art that could show us a possible point of view as well as a way of approaching reality. » Otomo Yosihide, Ryoichi Wago and Michiro Endo (Fukushima manifesto!)
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/carte/joachim-montessuis/
5/ AURELIE LIERMAN
The Girl, the Turtle and the Earthquake (electro acoustic, 14’07)
composition: Aurélie Lierman
viola: Maya Felixbrodt
voice: Toshie Takeuchi
original story: Lay Sion/ Reiko Ng
Aurélie Lierman (BE/RW) is an award winning composer, radio artist and vocal artist. She had two album releases in collaboration with the British cult-group Nurse With Wound ( [SIC] 2013, “Santoor Lena Bicycle” 2014). Field recordings and human speech are the backbone of her work.
I discovered Aurélie Lierman’s work half a year ago at Monophonic 2014, a radio art festival and competition in Brussels (Belgium). I was part of the jury there and I was literally blown away by « Anosmia », her radio piece about the Rwandan genocide: very hybrid and very open towards many horizons, with an incomparable strength and power. « Anosmia » actually won at Monophonic the first prize in unanimity.
Aurélie has discovered my project about Fukushima during that Monophonic festival and wanted to contribute with an idea that would be true to her main artistic focus by exploring the sonic qualities of Japanese voices.
« The Girl, the Turtle and the Earthquake » (October 2014) is Aurélie’s first work in her new series of many more compositions and installations for « Meanwhile, in Fukushima ». She created an abstracted interpretation of the story of Lay Sion (a 3/11 survivor from Fukushima). The result is fascinating: the speaking voice is embedded in an electronic maze. You even get the impression that the electronic maze is becoming the voice’s soil, and that from that sonic material it starts to sprout like an “ecology of the voice » with an awareness for radio activity, without being destroyed or allowing to be destroyed. There’s voice, even there, even now …
The version proposed here is the electronic tape version. In a live concert situation there’s also a violist playing along and reacting to the electronic soundtrack. Aurelie has conceived the composition as a piece of land art. So ideally the performance is not on the radio, not in a concert hall, … but in full nature at night next to a big water mass so that the composition can intertwine with the sound of natural elements such as wind, water and other accidental environmental events.
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/carte/aurelie-lierman/
6/ ROXANNE TURCOTTE
Zone d’exclusion (electro acoustic piece, 3’57)
Roxanne Turcotte, is a canadian artist and brilliant composer. According to her, the Fukushima disaster is an event to think together and that should not be left to the sole discretion of experts. She has created a beautiful composition based on compositional structures of Japanese traditional music.
Here is how she describes her composition:
» The Shakuhachi », representing Japan, is used through out the piece. There’s a melodic line played by multi instrumentalist Michel Dubeau. The low pitches give a dramatic structure. I integrated a system where a sample has been looped to get a continuous rhythmic structure. Each little sound is live manipulated, automated and then played back to the audience – All of them symbolizing evolution on earth, as a representation of its fragility. The sound of Shakuhachi is derived from a multi-track creating a polyphony via several samples. This symbolizes the human multiplication. Some sounds illustrate the tsunami, the environmental and the human tragedy: water, layered tones representing explosive effects, then the disintegration of the Shakuhachi by disparate sound sections. This represents the memory of a time before human error: its own destruction, the nuclear.«
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/roxanne-turcotte/
7/ CRISTIAN VOGEL
Candle song (electronic piece, 9’39)
Cristian Vogel is a world renown music producer – especially for his electro music from the 90’s, check out his remixes of Radiohead, Maximö Park, Thom Yorke or B.O of Black Swan … Nowadays he’s into creating electro acoustic and experimental compositions. He wanted to participate in the project to show his empathy towards the Japanese people.
The starting point of his composition is very original: it was generated by oscillator banks tracking the infra-red heat radiation emitted by the flame of two candles and tracked using Nintendo WiiMote IR camera. We thank him deeply for his enlightening contribution!
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/carte/cristian-vogel/
L’Autre Musique Magazine
COMMITMENT, RESISTANCE, SOCIAL BENEFIT
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Dominique Balaÿ tells us how and why he wanted to take part in Project Fukushima!, launched by Yoshihide Otomo. he explains about his creation, « open sounds », a library of sounds collected during his trip to Japan, as well as his proposal to invite artists respond to this material in the form of sound.
Translation Robert Murphy
First published here (in french) : http://www.lautremusique.net/lam3/funambule/meanwhile-in-fukushima/jeter-une-ligne-br-de-vie.html
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Can you tell us something about the origin of the collaborative project now under way, called « Meanwhile, in Fukushima »?
The project got going in 2011. In April that year, i.e. a month after the triple catastrophe (earthquake, tsunami and explosion of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility), the American musician John Zorn, with whom I was in the process of preparing a programme for webSYNradio, shared with me his intention to react to what was happening at the nuclear site. We remained in touch, and, some time later, he invited me « officially » to take part in an evening he was expecting to organise at his club in New York. That evening was in tandem with a group of Japanese artists whose origins were in Fukushima and who were themselves planning a kind of « festival » for the month of August in Fukushima City. So I packed my bags for the first time to go and make a direct transmission of this evening of support, and warning, that was bringing together musicians from both Japan and the US. And a very beautiful occasion it was, technically stressful, but full in terms of emotion, and a record of connections for webSYNradio!
Following that evening, I got in touch with the organisers of the « Fukushima Festival! ». I already knew at least one of them, in his capacity as an artist – Yoshihide Ōtomo (1) – and I shared with him my wish to remain available for them to use me, both in their project and also as a participant in their manifesto. In the course of these exchanges, I soon got it into my head to actually head out there to Fukushima to join in the second stage of the « Fukushima Festival! » that they were already thinking about. However, I would have to fulfil a number of conditions, particularly concerning the legitimacy of the step I was taking by involving webSYNradio and the magazine, Droits de Cité, ended up doing what everyone does in cases such as this: I conducted a self-reflection, writing up a collection of notes (on my intentions, budget, etc.), and I went to check things out with everyone in Paris and the region.
People received me more or less well (more rather than less, I have to say), but no-one committed to anything really concrete, and, as I went on, a number of reasons were building up for not being able to take me up on my idea. Nuclear power, that was a risky, shocking topic, on slippery ground, especially in the wake of the 2012 presidential election and the mixed, charged emotions around « ecological » topics, but one of the few to see an interest, both artistic and political, in getting involved with what I was doing was Christian Zanesi (2), who gave his all. This was how the principle of artistic residencies at INA-GRM became a central and a structural factor. All that remained for me to do was to invite artists and get them to think out and to articulate how their contributions might work in together with my own job, which was to undertake « field recording » on the spot.
I sent out initial invitations to 4 artists, the maximum number that INA-GRM was able to handle. For the record, the first artist I invited refused to take part, which indicated that the venture was not sufficiently solid or comprehensible. Fortunately, however, the other artists replied that they would take part: the composer, Bérangère Maximin (who, along the way, invited Colin Johnco), the poet, Joachim Montessuis, the American composer, Carl Stone, and the Japanese composer, Tomoko Momiyama. The project was starting to take shape, to find some kind of design (literally so, with the contribution of the artist Seb Jarnot, who did the artwork on the website).
So, I started gathering material on the project, starting in France, building and expanding the sonic database by phone or via Skype. Then, in May 2012, I took off for 4 weeks in Japan, two of them in Fukushima City, where I succeeded in doing everything I’d planned with the Fukushima Festival team, and also with other people I encountered there, in particular Kōji Nagahata, professor of ‘sound design’ at Fukushima University’s Social Sciences Faculty, who opened the door to a
rich and beneficial partnership with Fukushima University.
The artistic residencies took place during the summer of 2012, based on all this initial material, which already amounted to well over 20 hours of recordings and sounds.
In the meantime, appeals for artistic contributions had been circulating, the first sonic items started arriving, and they were broadcast straight away. This has not only been on the site of the project, but also in radio programmes such as the one by Carine Demange on Radio Campus Brussels, where broadcasts went out virtually every week from the very first contributions onwards. There has also been the broadcast by Thomas Baumgartner on France Culture, which has maintained an interested and a well-disposed audience from the outset – and, in addition to France, there has also been a variety of artistic programmes in Japan, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
Since then, I’ve taken part in the 2013 Fukushima Festival, which remains an essential visit and get-together, and I’m now working on keeping the project and the subject alive, in all possible ways, relying on a variety of supports and friendships. Today we’ve reached a total of some fifty contributors, and over a hundred people from far and near have taken part to some degree in the development of this project. That’s impressive, I find it really beautiful!
How do you choose the artists who take part in the project? Why?
As I said earlier, I only issued formal invitations to the 4 artists who benefited from artistic residence at INA-GRM. The project is open to everyone, and the site offers free downloading to participants without requiring any authorisation! It is not even necessary to be an artist who deals in sound, contributions can be of all kinds, from the moment when they make sense regarding the reality of the situation in Fukushima, and also if they stand a chance of being intelligible to our Japanese friends over there. I haven’t had to reject any propositions, though I might have asked for greater clarification, not in the way a producer might ask, steering the work in one direction rather than another. My role in this project is rather one of bringing and fitting together the constituent elements of a dialogue, a dialogue between artists, between the very items of creative work, bridging one side of the world with the other…
In order to satisfy these conditions and preserve the possibility of dialogue, it is essential for me to ensure that each contribution is signed, entitled, dated and localised geographically. This enables everyone to say who (s)he is, and also how (s)he sees things, and, if need be, answer for them.
I have to say that participation in that dossier, L’Autre musique (Other Music), shared very soon in exchanges I had with contributors, allowed me to obtain from them elements of context and welcome clarifications of their own approaches. Some participants even went so far as to tell me this added effort I was putting them to had allowed them to see their work with somewhat greater clarity and to impose some kind of emotional distance, which, incidentally, was the title of one of the contributions.
With regard to the theme of our present edition, how would you rate this project? Committed? Resistant? Socially beneficial?
« Beneficial », yes, I would hope so. I have had feedback from Japan that would indicate this. Over there, the situation of weariness and near-blackout (especially after the last decree in December 2013 placing considerable limits on freedom of expression so as to preserve the interests of those with a stake in the Olympic Games in 2020) is such that any sign of friendship from overseas is welcome. Yes, « useful », like a sound or a ray of light that gets through under the door, it is definitely of benefit…
As for « resistance », yes, there is no doubt that it is resistant, too, especially now, after 3 years of activity, when it is no longer emotion or anger driving the motor, but something of the order of resistance, a resistance which is both rather organised but also, at the same time, very precarious. If I did not maintain interest, remain attentively in charge of this project, it would disappear. Even though the works have a life of their own, could exist independently of this project, this whole undertaking itself is simultaneously very fragile (and I’m not even referring to the economics of such a project) and « larger than life ». One of the hardest aspects (by which I mean the resistance it attracts) is to do with its long-term nature: it is hard to calculate how long this thing we are involved in will take. This, of course, is due to the nature of the catastrophe, to which no satisfactory solution is possible in a normal time framework, as the harmful effects are said to require thousands of years to be broken down and rendered harmless. So, yes, « resistance » means contending with this temporal aspect of the breakdown of harmful substances. Similarly, we are already being called to resist that insane project which is diluting enormous quantities of contaminated water by releasing them into the Pacific, and this is one of the major tasks in the coming years for all with a stake in life.
In a response you yourself addressed to the Autre musique laboratory, you wrote that your approach was not that of a militant. Can you come back to this position you took and explain just what is your level of « engagement », of commitment, in this project?
What I mean (and what I meant in that very first note outlining my intention) is precisely this: I am not a card-holding member of any party or any organisation of any kind, and neither am I affiliated to any. This allows me to meet and to talk with anybody and everybody, and to avoid theoretical difficulties when adopting critical positions vis-à-vis the themes or the project itself: these are eventual points of departure in dialogues I have succeeded in having with such and such a contributor who asks about the legitimacy of the project, the effectiveness of the project, and so on.
I’ve immediately made this point clearly, but not to point a finger at or to stigmatise any truly militant approach. I’ve encountered many militant people since I’ve been working on this subject, and there are many remarkable and noble aspects in their militancy. However, putting it simply, it does not correspond to reality as I see it, as I live it, the way I do things. It neither corresponds to my initial stance, nor is it a stance that I would want to adopt.
Similarly, if I am seen to be detaching myself, marking myself off from an enterprise that aims to inform, to communicate, it is so that people can clearly focus on the project’s initial field, the thing that gave birth to it, which is more clearly visible as its symbolic terrain. It is very much concerned with art, and with reminding us of the manifesto of the people who organised the « Fukushima Festival! », a manifesto which they are at pains to keep vibrant and supplied with life and energy. Let me emphasise here:
« Fukushima is known world-wide for its stigma. But we have not lost the hope of refinding Fukushima. Even though we fear that we are unable to return to our hometowns, we would like to think of the future of this region so that it can remain connected with the rest of the world, and equally we maintain the hope that we can continue to live in this region. » Then there is this response: « We need music, poetry and art capable of showing us a possible point of view along with a way of approaching reality. » Michirō Endō, Yoshihide Ōtomo, Ryōichi Wagō (May 2011)(3)
Where are the next meeting places, rendezvous, for « Meanwhile, in Fukushima »?
As I’ve said, I’m trying to keep this project alive in several ways. And so I try to respond as much as possible to every invitation, the main limit being lack of time.
Among our next big rendezvous, I’ll be participating in the Monophonic Festival in Brussels next May (from the 22nd to the 25th), where the project has been invited to put on a public performance that I will present.
This summer, from 6th July, the project will be welcomed at the Maison Laurentine in the framework of the performance of L’Oubli, La Trace (Oblivion, Tracks), and it will entail rendering in terms of sound the sculpture by Aurèle, LostDog NoMoreFukushima.
Still more, this summer, on 15th August, the project will take part in the 4th edition of the Fukushima Festival, organised in Fukushima City.
For later in 2015, something is in the making from Venezuela.
And you can find other activities on our website: http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/
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Dominique Balaÿ is the founder of webSYNradio.
He is active in a number of projects (editorial, web, sounds) that form the bases of an exploration of the world perceived and grasped at its point of balance.
He favours open and collaborative forms.
Recent works:
NSA: creative magazine (2008–2012)
Et pendant ce temps-là à Fukushima / And meanwhile, in Fukushima… : creation in sound
(2011– )
webSYNradio : web radio (2009– )
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NOTES:
(1) Cf. the note written on the occasion of the 2nd edition of the festival : http://www.pauljorion.com/blog/?p=40447
(2) Composer, assistant manger of the GRM-INA, co-founder of the association Ars Sonora, and initiator / pioneer of outstanding projects in the fields of radio, publications and musical events, notably the Electromania programme on France Musique, the electronic festival, Présences, and the CD box-sets, Archives GRM, Bernard Parmegiani, musical works, and Luc Ferrari, the electronic works.
(3) Cf. the manifesto in English :
http://www.pj-fukushima.jp/en/project.html
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Many thanks to Robert Murphy for his translation
++ http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/robert-murphy/
A public radio broadcasting
Maison Laurentine (France) and Fukushima Kitchen Garden (Japan)
hosted and curated by Dominique Balaÿ and Koji Nagahata
2013 March 11
—
march 10 , starting 3:00 pm
march 11 , starting 10:00 am (french time)
—
In May 2012, Japan had no nuclear plants in operation. 100% of the park was shut down in a country that drew more than 30% of its energy from this production and before March 11 was developing a highly proactive nuclear policy.
This new situation (which was neither a referendum issue nor a political decision) has attracted a great hope to those who want a radical transformation of energy policy and a paradigm shift in the conduct of public affairs.
A window was open and the radio project « Meanwhile in Fukushima … » was born in an attempt to capture and express that hope.
Today this window is largely closed.
But many people are still working to maintain this hope of May, and the sound of their work continues to be perceptible if we pay attention and try to listen.
This radio program invites us to such a listening simultaneously at Maison Laurentine and at Fukushima Kitchen Garden, with the aim to promote long-term international interest in Fukushima.
Among the contributors of the public radio program: Eric Cordier, Julia Drouhin, Ayako Sato, Bruno Bernard, Thierry Charollais, Cats Hats Gowns (Guillaume Eymenier, Cédrick Eymenier, Yvan Duhamel, Mathias Rossignol), David Christoffel, Yoko Higashi, Richard Pinhas, Daniel Martin-Borret, Maïa Barouh, Rodolphe Alexis, Yasuaki Shimizu, Ryoko Sekiguchi, Aurelien Chouzenoux, Salvatore Puglia & Philippe « L’amiral » Poirier, Ezra Brass, projet Gunkanjima ( Gilles Laval, Yoko Higashi, Marc Siffert, Takumi Fukushima, Laurent Grappe, Yuko Oshima), Michiro Endo, N.Jacob + Otto v. Rhino + Keiji Katsuda, Jean Pierre Balpe, Emmanuel Mieville & Patrice Cazelles, Ulysse (Renaud Beaurepaire, Thomas Bernard, Grégoire Florent, Frédéric Fradet), Laurent Choquel, Masae Gimbayashi-Barbotte, Stéphane Balaÿ, Michel Titin-Schnaider, Claire Chalut, Thanato Twist with oleg’s Sound System, Mathieu Bec, Sylvia Monnier, Pascal Deleuze, Julien Blaine & ElFuego Fatuo (Clara de Asis, Laura Vazquez), Frédéric Mathevet, Masateru Kawakami, Philippe Petit, Cristian Vogel …
Practical infos
The radio program « A Window on Fukushima, 311/2013 » will be stream over partner websites of Maison Laurentine, the journal Droit de Cités and websynradio.
* To embed on your site webSYNradio stream (various broadcasting 24/7, including Fukushima program March 11):
http://sounds.synradio.fr:8000/synradio.mp3
* To turn on the stream:
Rights cited: http://droitdecites.org/2013/01/31/11-mars-2013-une-fenetre-sur-fukushima/
websynradio: http://synradio.fr/une-fenetre-sur-fukushima-3112013/
* The podcast with separated files (to copy and paste into vlc / i tunes or any other reader of your choice):
http://91.121.133.19/sons/artistes/311/playlist_fukushima_311_websynradio-web.m3u
* The podcast single file (to download or copy and paste into vlc / i tunes or any other reader of your choice)
http://sounds.synradio.fr/sons/artistes/311/playlist_fukushima_311_websynradio_MP3WRAP.mp3
Public broadcast at Maison Laurentine and at Fukushima Kitchen Garden.
Maison Laurentine
Contemporary Art center
15 rue du Moulin
52210 Aubepierre-sur-Aube – France
10:00 to 17:00 (local time in France)
Fukushima Kitchen Garden
Fukushima University’s satellite
Sakae machi 10-3, Fukushima city
18:00 to 21:00 (local time in Japan)
Free entrance
Links
This project is greatly supported by Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences (ADS), Fukushima University : http://www.ads.fukushima-u.ac.jp/
Website Maison Laurentine : http://www.laurentine.net/
Website Fukushima open sounds (project hosted by Dominique Balaÿ) : http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/
Website Fukushima soundscapes (project hosted by Koji Nagahata) : http://www.sss.fukushima-u.ac.jp/~nagahata/fsp_311/index-e.html
“Meanwhile, in Fukushima …” is a sound collaborative project led in Fukushima.
With the support and partnership of INA GRM (French national institute of audio visual – Research Music Group) and France Musique (French national public music radio), the journal Droits de Cité, creative radio webSYNradio, Radio Campus Bruxelles, Radio Sonic (festival City Sonic, Bruxelles) and multimedia laboratory APO33.
* *
Shortly after the disaster of Fukushima Daishi, a Japanese artist group has gathered around the figure of Otomo Yoshihide. A project is born early, Fukushima Project!, a call for creation that has led to a festival, located in Fukushima, and a series of events around the world (London, New York, Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore , Paris …). I was honored to work in conjunction with Otomo Yoshihide and John Zorn’s to one of these events at The Stone, New York. On August 15, 2011, WebSYNradio, Internet radio that I created and manage, has broadcast live from The Stone bringing a tray of world-renowned musicians.
Following this festival, webSYNradio wished to remain available to the project Fukushima! and continue to « act » with a new project for 2012: « Meanwhile, in Fukushima … »
The principle of this new project is simple: traveling to Fukushima with a lightweight material, to record the sounds of « normal » life in Fukushima and meet people involved in the various initiatives undertaken by the collective Fukushima!.
In parallel to my own recordings, a call for contribution is launched with the aim of collecting sounds of Fukushima and build an “Fukushima open sounds” library.
With the sounds collected and organized in this « open sounds » library, an invitation will be launched at several artists from various nationalities to confront this matter and this issue, and attempt, through works created, to throw a lifeline between there and here.
A selection of their creation will be broadcasted over France Musique radio during a special program. And various events will be organized in France, including live concert, conference …
This sound collaborative project is a way for me to stay true to the singular direction indicated by Otomo Yosihide, Michiro Endo and Ryoichi Wago in their manifesto.
« We need the music, poetry and art that could show us a perspective as possible and a way we approach reality. «
Manifesto Collective Fukushima !
Everyone can participate.The sounds can be of any type: recordings of street sounds, conference, internet, radio or television audio streaming, readings, lectures, nature sounds, music, composition, improvisation, etc. They will of course be related to Fukushima, in a way or another.
Each contributor will accompany his contribution with few words to present the context and nature of the sounds he chose to donate to this library « open sounds » project. Contributors will be listed with their names and bio if they wish. Those interested can send me their files to this adress :
contact@websynradio.fr
For big files, you could use the service of online software WeTransfer: https://www.wetransfer.com/, or any other e-mail service.
All sounds formats are welcome with a preference for uncompressed formats (WAV, AIFF).
No duration limit.
A website is set up to collect the chronicle of this project, and the sounds of the library « Open Sound » is available and usable by all (under a Creative Commons Licence) here : http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/download/telechargement/.
—
For all participants in the project, you can also reuse the sounds collected by Koji Nagahata (University of Fukushima, project partner) and ready for download (in. Wav and. Mp3):
http://www.sss.fukushima-u.ac.jp/~nagahata/fsp_311/index-e.html
Born in 1968, France, currently live in Nîmes, France and work for the internet industry.
Teach a class at the University in Nîmes. Designer/creator of webSYNradio. Member of editorial committee of Droit de Cités. Contributor to various literary and artistic magazines. Several published books and collections.
websynradio
In 2009, upon invitation from the review Droit de Cités, launch the project webSYNradio. WebSYNradio brings together novel propositions from artists or intellectuals that are for the most part well-established on the international scene.
more ++ varias.info
Several events to mediate the project.
France Musique
The artists will have the opportunity to broadcast their creation on France Musique (French national public radio, part of Radio France group) in a program (Electromania) devoted to electronic and electro acoustic music.
GRM
A public concert sponsored by France Musique and INA GRM will be organized in fall 2012 as well.
GRM (Groupe de recherches musicales) is a center for music research in the field of sound and electroacoustic music. Pierre Schaeffer created the GRM in 1958. Since 1975, the GRM is integrated with the INA (French national audio visual institute).
APO-33
The creative space APO-33 will also host the project as a residence + performance.
APO-33 is an art, technology and research laboratory working in the fields of free software, collaborative practices, micromedia, environmental and urban mutations.
Droit de Cités & webSYNradio
The editorial content of the project is already supported by the journal Droit de Cités, which will follow the various developments.
As an online review whose interest focuses on current intellectual, artistic and political issues, constructively and through discussion, Droit de Cités brings together actors from these various domains. Each publication proposes a thematic report that brings to light and develops the most pressing intellectual concerns of the moment. It also provides gateways to online independent workshops and forums for artists from all disciplines.
webSYNradio
WebSYNradio is a workshop for the review Droit de Cités and a radio program hosted by Dominique Balaÿ whose broadcast is streamed 24/7.
You can hear a podcast with an interview (in french) describing the project on France Culture (second part of the issue) : http://www.franceculture.fr/emission-l-atelier-du-son-jerome-game-et-dominique-balay-2011-12-16
Manifesto Project Fukushima! : http://www.pj-fukushima.jp/fr/manifesto_fr.html
Websynradio: http://websynradio.fr/
Review Droit de Cités: http://droitdecites.org/
Facebook WebSYNradio : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1694364385
APO33 : http://www.apo33.org/fr/
INA GRM : http://www.inagrm.com/
Bio/bibliography DB : http://www.varias.info/bio-dominique-balay-english/
« Fukushima is known worldwide by its stigma. But we do not lose hope of finding Fukushima. Even the fear of not being able to return to our hometowns, we would think about the future of this place for it to stay connected with the rest of the world and also in the hope to continue living in this place.“
The collective Fukushima!
Michiro Endo, Otomo Yoshihide, Ryoichi Wago (May 2011)
Thanks to all who contributed to the project in a way or another :
Koji Nagahata, Robert Murphy, Saori Ogawa, Pierre Fetet, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Richard Pinhas, Tomoko Momiyama, Carl Stone,Maïa Barouh, Brice Maire,Christophe Ruetsch, Laurent Mabesoone, Wataru Iwata,projet Gunkanjima ( Gilles Laval, Yoko Higashi, Marc Siffert, Takumi Fukushima, Laurent Grappe, Yuko Oshima), Thomas Baumgartner,Christian Zanesi, Makiko Hamada, Laurent Deboise, Sauveur Fernandez, Youdou Takeushi, Rodolphe Alexis, Otomo Yoshihide, Noda Shigenori, Nicolas Derambure, Alexandre Simonet,Wakako Takatsuki, David Laheist, Yoshihide Matsumoto, Motoki Sasaki, Aja Niedorf, Seb Jarnot, Guillaume Bression, ElFuego Fatuo (Clara de Asis, Laura Vazquez), Toshiyuki Takeuchi, Philippe Pannetier, Takako Sakuraoka, Reiko Ng, Julien Ottavi, Yasuaki Shimizu, Xavier Catherinet, Carine Demange, Laurent Rump,Yuki & Jun Numata, Kohei Sato, Michiro Endo, Stéphane Balaÿ, Mathieu Bec, Sylvia Monnier, Chiaki Sakaguchi,Daniel Martin-Borret, N.Jacob + Otto v. Rhino + Keiji Katsuda, Kumiko Matsumoto,Hiroko Yasuda, Frédéric Mathevet, Pascal Deleuze, Cristian Vogel, Emmanuel Mieville et Patrice Cazelles, Emi Inomoto, Akiko Fukami, Roxanne Turcotte, Furukawa Hideo, Aurelien Chouzenoux …
