"Sensation and Discovery": Playground of Eight Sounds
Hosted by: Mullae Arts Village
Sponsored by: Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
Dates: September 16-24, 2022
Location: Gallery M30, Mullae Arts Village
The project experiments with the possibility of ‘music devoid of inherent temporality.’ On the surface, questioning whether temporality is essential to music might seem trivial. Considering the music we are familiar with, the answer to this question is undoubtedly ‘yes.’ If we were to play Beethoven’s Piano Sonata ‘Pathétique’ in a different order than originally composed—reversing the sheet music or rearranging the notes arbitrarily—it would not only fail to evoke the intended emotions but also become unrecognizable as the same piece. For most music we encounter, the intended sequence is crucial, making the inherent temporality of musical works seem essential.
The project seeks to explore the possibility of answering this seemingly obvious question differently. The artists focus on the idea that a listener’s musical experience does not necessarily proceed in the order intended by the composer. When we listen to the ‘Pathétique,’ we do not always follow Beethoven’s intended sequence. We might skip from the exposition directly to the recapitulation or repeatedly listen to a favorite passage. In these moments, the music does not unfold strictly according to the composer’s order; instead, the listener’s intentions strongly influence the experience. Could it be said that the inherent temporality of music is partially deconstructed in such experiences?
This project goes a step further by exploring the possibility of music without inherent temporality—without an intended listening sequence. However, if the sounds lose their temporal structure and are scattered randomly, wouldn’t they become mere noise without any order? Instead of temporality, the artists introduce ‘space’ and ‘materiality’ as the organizing principles of music. In music with inherent temporality like a piano sonata, sounds appear as structures with pitches and durations arranged in temporal order. We respond to the structural beauty and marvel at the composer’s temporal architecture revealed through the arrangement of scales.
In contrast, the project intends for sounds to be experienced as materials with spatial positions rather than temporal structures. The project’s sound installation consists of eight objects that visitors can touch and move. Each object is made from one of eight materials—metal, stone, thread, bamboo, gourd, soil, leather, and wood—corresponding to the traditional Korean classification of musical instruments by material, known as the Eight Sounds. Here, the sounds of the instruments are experienced in conjunction with the material properties. Visitors see and touch the materials, recognize their spatial positions, and hear the sounds emanating from them. Sounds are experienced not just as positions within a temporal arrangement but as materials in space, such as stone, thread, and bamboo, and the sensations they emit.
Depending on the context, the materials may harmonize with each other or create conflicting sensations. The Eight Sounds classification reflects traditional beliefs about the harmony and conflict between these materials (based on the Five Elements system). The project’s materials and instruments were selected to realize the diverse harmonies and conflicts inherent in these materials. Visitors arrange the materials and their associated sounds based on their own sensory perceptions. The sounds emitted by these materials overlap and combine in the space, forming a musical landscape. Visitors experience music not as a combination of temporally ordered sounds but as a combination of sounds with spatial positions and directions, as music with materiality rather than harmonic structures, as a ‘soundscape.’
Exhibition Preface
Written by: Youngchan Lee
Copyright © Oh Myungseok + Jo Hangyeol All rights reserved.