Ryoji Ikeda’s superposition made me think about being human in a technology-heavy and science-driven world. And no, you don’t have to be a physics nerd to appreciate this performance (because I certainly am not). In fact, I’m going to focus on the non-scientific aspects of this performance.
The stage set-up was pretty simple: 10 Mac screens in the very front, 10 slightly bigger screens a few feet back, and 2 big screens behind them all. In between, there was a table of equipments set up for the two human performers to add life to the work — playing morse code at each other, experimenting with different tuning forks, solving cryptic crossword puzzles, and so on.
The two human performers typed out messages that were impossible to process real-time, because multiple screens showed totally different messages. We can only focus visually on one aspect — what the performer is doing, what one (not both) of them is typing, or what is on the front screens. That’s human. As humans, we can’t do everything.
As humans, we sometimes find discomfort in scientifically-produced “music”. superposition explored the effects of using booming bass, almost inaudible low-frequency drones, piercing high pitch, clashing near-frequency notes. These cause mild physical pain and discomfort. Sharing these emotions make us human, too.
Another aspect of human-ness was in the pitch forks. In this segment, the two performers each took a pitch fork tuned to “A” — but with different frequencies, used in orchestras worldwide. The U.S. American standard is often A=440Hz, but in other countries, any frequencies from A=419.9Hz to 454.7Hz are possible (source: 10 small screens in the performance). And indeed, they sound different. The performers played two of these 10 differently-pitched tuning forks at a time, which cause the vibrations to clash against each other. This reminded me of how much tuning A can be a source of conflict between musicians. Even the difference between using A=440Hz or A=442Hz to tune can cause problems to orchestral musicians that are expected to play perfectly in tune all the time. These cultural differences and conflicts are very much human — computers can’t feel the anger and frustration that come with them.
But, in the end, what is the significance of this human-ness in today’s world?
The fun part of this performance was my attempt to figure out what the performance actually means. There is no definite answer. superposition asked me a very vague, open-ended question — what’s the humans’ role in a society where technology and science replaces a lot of our roles? Hashtag: food for thought.
