Installation

The Voice of Inconstant Savage
Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme organized by Calouste Gulbenkian Museum's Modern Art Center, The Voice of Inconstant Savage is an immersive installation that superimposes a prayer inspired by the story of a 16th-century Portuguese missionary, a chant from a Kakure-Kirishitan (hidden Christians) prayer – a religion rooted in Nagasaki Prefecture –, a chant from the Karawara spirits of the Awá indigenous people – who live in the Amazon rainforest – and a chorus of Western Gregorian chant. Morinaga questions the position of the aesthetics of inconstancy in relation to the discourse of the “savage” that modern society confronts.

Field recordings

Sombat Simla: Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ
Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’.

Installation

CDOSA
the critical dictionary of southeast asia (cdosea), begins with a question: what constitutes the unity of southeast asia — a region never unified by language, religion or political power? cdosea proceeds by proposing 26 terms — one for each letter of the english / latin alphabet. each term is a concept, a motif, or a biography, and together they are threads weaving together a torn and tattered tapestry of southeast asia. cdosea is a platform facilitating ongoing research, a matrix for generating future projects and an oracular montage machine.

Cinema

THE SCIENCE OF FICTIONS
In 1962, Siman, a solitary farmer, came to Gumuk, sandy bare land. Siman was witnessing a shooting of a fiction film about man landing on the moon. It was an unlucky day for him, Siman was caught by the army and got his tongue chopped off.Soekarno, the first president of Republic Indonesia, came to Gumuk, brought with him a Bolex 8mm camera. From the distance, he made a “the making of” man-landing-on-the-moon film. And the politics went so wrong. Under the new regime, A New Order of Soeharto, Siman was then being named as an insane person because he often moves stupidly, acting as if he is walking on the moon. In the village, Siman built a strange cubical building looking like a robotic machine that he saw in the sands. Siman designed an astronaut costume, and always uses a white helmet every time he goes out of his house. All the villagers agree that Siman is insane, but what he did is actually words and the only way he knows to show the truth. He is the only one who knew about the worlds biggest lie.

Publication

Yasuhiro Morinaga + Roberto Paci Dalo 『Japanese Girls at the Harbor』
『Japanese Girls at the Harbor』
CONCRETEが送るCDリリース第二弾は、日本の無声映画『港の日本娘(監督:清水宏)』から想像するサウンドスケープを、サウンドデザイナーの森永泰弘とイタリアを代表するマルチメディア・アーティストのロベルト・パチ・ダロによって作り上げた作品です。森永による多彩稀な録音のテクニックとライブエレクトロニクス、パチダロによる編集技術とクラリネット演奏とが組み合わさって、無声映画における音響作品というユニークな側面を打ち出しました。 映画が撮影された横浜での録音、フィルムとデジタルが織りなす電子音、過去と現在の音環境や文化の多様性を互いに検討しながら、映画の持つ「時間」に沿いながら制作された本作は、森永とパチダロが推進するプロジェクト『SOUNDGRAPH』の第一弾作品です。『Soundgraph』とは、無声映画の音響化を文化学的な側面から捉え、映画特有の物語構造と時間に沿って音響の制作が行われるものです。今後、様々なアーティストがこのプロジェクトに参加する予定です。