Correspondances (Correspondences)

Our mutual use of parols is named “conversation”.

A "conversation" is formed by the presence of a speaker “I” and a co-speaker “you”. In the case of Japanese, “I” am called “watashi (わたし)”, “ore (おれ)”, “boku (ぼく)” or others, and as well, “you” are called “omae (おまえ)”, “kimi (きみ)” or others. The moment the co-speaker has become the speaker, the referents of "I" and "you" interchange.

In every moment of our "conversation", the speaker “I” guess what the co-speaker “you” whom “I” am talking to are thinking, and at the same time, guess what “I” myself whom “you” are thinking about am. In the conversation, the consciousness of the subjects “you” and “I” intermingle and intertwine with each other. The topos where thought and emotion of different subjects make correlation is the very "conversation" I think, therefore I wrote the original text. The following is the entire text whose theme is intertwining of “you” and “I”.

I feel and know what you think.
You feel and know what I think.

What you think
that I,
whom you might feel and know, or might not,
feel and know
means
that I feel and know
that you feel and know
what I think,
and then,
what I think
that you,
whom I feel and know, or not,
feel and know
means
that you feel and know
that I feel and know
what you think.

You might feel and know, or might not,
that I feel and know
what you think.

I feel and know, or not,
that you feel and know
what I think.

What I think
that you,
whom I feel and know, or not,
feel and know
means
what you think
that I,
whom you might feel and know, or might not,
feel and know,
and then,
what you think
that I,
whom you might feel and know, or might not,
feel and know
means
what I think
that you,
whom I feel and know, or not,
feel and know.

What you think
that I feel and know
means
what I think
that you feel and know.

What I think
that you feel and know
means
what you think
that I feel and know.

What I think
that you,
whom I,
whom you feel and know,
think of,
feel and know
means
what you think
that I,
whom you,
whom I feel and know
think of,
feel and know,
and then,
what you think
that I,
whom you,
whom I feel and know
think of,
feel and know
means
what I think
that you,
whom I,
whom you feel and know,
think of,
feel and know.

What you think
that I,
whom you might feel and know, or might not,
feel and know
means
what I think
that you,
whom I,
whom you feel and know,
think of,
feel and know,
and then,
what I think
that you,
whom I feel and know, or not,
feel and know
means
what you think
that I,
whom you,
whom I feel and know
think of,
feel and know.

I made the acrylic plate of 5mm thick on which I depicted the letters of the above text. Then I placed them on undulations made of cotton and put them in the box, which is a rectangle of 90cm wide and 4m long. I covered the surface of the box with a prism sheet that I had made undulated like waves. A prism sheet is a material that causes the refraction of light by unevennesses of the surface". By the sheet, parols that make up the whole text warp, surface and overlap. By this gimmick, intertwining and overlapping of the subjects “I” and “you” arise. In addition, descriptions of the state of the subjects become more complex as they include the following question of whether “one” know and feel “the other”, or, whether do not.

I have placed this work in the room which natural light shine in from the window. Since the light impinging on the prism sheet turns by weather and time, the appearance of the letters and the reflected light change moment by moment. The meaning of text is transformed by the intervention of not only the interpretations of individuals in their appreciations but also external phenomena. We can not let the work which is an object for the “appreciating” subject be an object “being merely appreciated”. It exists, rather, as an object which has the subject under its influence. I tried to express the state of the subject and the object continuing to change in “conversation” by creating a topos where this phenomenon arises.

A French symbolist poet of 19th century Stéphane Mallarmé, in his poem “Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard (A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance)”, took up the generative process of parols itself as a poetic representation. The sequences of words described as constellations, while maintaining their grammatical order, have many links not only as linear aspects but also as planar aspects, and countless connections near and far with each other. The only way to comprehend the verse is not to read the poem page by page but to look over it at the state of the page spread. In my work “Correspondances (Correspondences)”, referring to the concept of "visual poetry" of Mallarmé, I tried to adopt not only the planar arrangement of the words but also the spatial arrangement of them, for my own expression, taking advantage of the materials and the phenomena. The reason I tried this is that it would be the suitable concept for me to deal with what the “conversation” by multiple subjects with multiple thought are, from the viewpoint that, in "visual poetry" of Mallarmé, not one thought or emotion develop as linear aspects but some thought develop at the same time.

In addition, Mallarmé had positively tried to take “contingency” in his poems. I have been deeply interested in and strongly influenced by his concept, having felt poetic sensitivity in parols not only based on human arbitrariness and having made my own representation for the purpose of creating the topos where such parols are generated.

Moreover, I named this work of mine “Correspondances (Correspondences)” on the basis of the same poem title of Charles Baudelaire who had a decisive influence on Mallarmé. This poem included in his collection of poems “Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil)” has expressed the empathy between nature and humans, the interaction of the human sensory organs such as visual and olfactory ones and the communion of reason and sensibility. They have been regarded as the very theory of symbolism that Mallarmé had adopted too. Even so, I eventually would regard correspondances as correlation of parols with each other, because I have directed my attention to that humans and nature, sense and sense, reason and sensibility, and all that are, in the first place, the concepts perceived and cognized by the language.

The following is what I thought after I had finished creating the work. The presence of the subject as the word "I" or "you" that appears in “conversation”. My own devotion and interest to each of them. I wonder if this psychology has a universality that can be shared with others.

Each subject call up one's own parols and respond to them to oneself. Next, correlation of parols between the subjects arises. And again, it raise inner correlation of each subject. The chains of reflections and influences of parols that occur among the “conversation” keep on complicating the situation.

As the “conversation” has a complicated structure, I feel as if the distinction of mutual parols were fading. In this midst, it begins to seem to me that I am a part of the phenomenon of conversation and a mere reflector in the space where parols are flying. At the same time, my eye seeing the opponent “you” of the conversation as an object suspend and I feel pleasure as if “you” and “I” coalesced.

All humans, not only me, have survival desires as physical and biological existence. In the same way, I wonder if we humans who are in the middle of “conversation” would be satisfying our own survival desires as consciousness by making the personal pronoun “I” be present in our speech actions. I have thought the use of "I" in speech actions has been due to our instinctive desires.

Our conversations, and the development of emotion and thought of individuals linked with the changes of progress and relationship of the conversations, are made up of “affect”. “Affect” is strict coherence and order we can not completely analyze. Also from the viewpoint that we humans are made up of body organs, we can regard ourselves as the very ones of the orders, and parols we use also have a mechanism.

Moreover and basically, I wonder if we humans can be subjects of our own parols. It is necessary for birth of parols that each of us is influenced by all of reality, which is an object for each subject, except each of ourselves. I would regard that each subject is not an owner of parols but a mere device that makes up cosmos in a topos of "conversation". When devices with the potential for producing parols, that is, humans have multiple relationships with each other, parols guide parols while changing their relationships, and the change also makes mutual guidance of new parols. This is what “Correspondances (Correspondences)” I think are.

In my graduation work of faculty “Correspondances (Correspondences)”, I came to have thought that the great interest to "I" or "you" as the concepts of parols is instinct based on survival desire as consciousness. Whereas, I came to have thought that the subject is a mere reflector of parols in the phenomenon where parols are flying, that is, “conversation”. Within the concepts of "I" and "you", while trying to make ourselves survive, we tend to seek for pleasure of letting ourselves disappear into the reflection of the parols. On the one hand, we speak, but on the other hand, we wish to disappear as voiced parols themselves. We humans in the phenomenon of "conversation" are probably doing such action unconsciously.