It is not true that China lacks a tradition of sound art. The Chinese culture has the most advanced sound theory and aesthetics of hearing in the world culture. Chinese interest in sound is in the interrelatedness and interaction of sound, music, and tuning with cosmology, astronomy, and medicine.

The ancient Taoist school of Laozi and Zhuangzi’s concept of sound also resonates with the ideas of John Cage and some futurists.

Although sound art is not as well established in China as it is in the West, there are many acoustic inventions and installations from as far back as ancient times. But far back in ancient times, China also had some intriguing acoustic inventions and some works of acoustic devices.

For example, the Echo Wall (built in 1530). The walls are made of ground bricks against the seam, the curvature of the wall is very regular, the wall is extremely smooth and neat, very favorable to the propagation of sound waves. As long as two people stand behind the east and west halls respectively, and stand against the wall, a person against the wall to the north to speak, sound waves will be along the wall in the form of sound waves to the other end of one or two hundred meters, no matter how small the voice, but also can make each other hear clearly, and the sound is long, which is a curiosity. Due to the misunderstanding of the echo formed by the reflection of sound waves, it is commonly known as the “echo wall”.

With the development of computer technology, its application in art has become more and more extensive. Many works of art also use computer technology. For example, Ikue Mori first used drum machines in improvised music, and then turned to laptops to connect Tokyo with the Knitting Factory in downtown New York in the 1980s and the stone scene of John Zorn’s The Stone.

I have seen Yuri Suzuki’s works. In Design Museum in 2019, Design Museum exhibited some of his works. The themes are about exploring how we navigate and connect to the surrounding world through sound, and how to make new technologies more relevant through the novel realization of sound design. Interactive devices, audition tubes and sound-absorbing boxes invite visitors to create their own unique sound experience.

I tried to interact with the sound absorption device. When I speak to the speaker, the sound from the speaker may become different. One device becomes a delayed sound, and the other changes the tone of my original speech. This installation art feels very interesting. Taking into account the theme of the work itself, it can also use a form to make it easier for the audience to understand his meaning. In addition, his works in other exhibitions are very interesting. Not only the appearance but also the way of interaction, there is a feeling that I want to try.

Fluxus in Japan

Founded in 1960 by George Maciunas, Fluxus began as a small international network of artists and composers characterized by a common attitude rather than a movement. Fluxus has obvious Japanese color because it is partially integrated with Zen Buddhism. John Cage is a student of the Zen Buddhism writer Daisetsu teitaro, who also introduced Zen Buddhism into the West. One of the representatives of Fluxus in Japan is Yoko Ono, whose work voice piece for Soprano (1961) consists of the word ‘scream’ with three options for screaming given to the performer; to scream ‘against the wind’, ‘against the wall’ and ‘against the sky’. When I finished listening to this work, from my intuitive feeling, her scream was very loud at first, but it became soft at the back.

Another representative of Fluxus, Nam June Paik, is a Korean American artist. I have been to his exhibition in Tate Modern. His works are full of visual sense, and many of them are completed by TV. His Fluxus was inspired by the composer John Cage and his use of everyday sound and noise in music.

Mono-ha (School of Things) was a pioneering art movement that emerged in Tokyo in the mid-1960s whose artists, instead of making traditional representational artworks, explored materials and their properties in reaction to what they saw as ruthless development and industrialiston in Japan. Mono-ha uses natural materials such as stones, trees or industrial materials such as paper and steel plates. To reassess the relationship and influence between ourselves, objects and the surrounding environment.

Hitoshi Nomura’s work Tardiology discusses the process of object decay. He used four large boxes to form a building similar to a tower. Through the accumulation of time, weathering and gravity, this work finally collapsed.

In the work Cowra, it receives electromagnetic waves from the sun and the Milky way, converts them into audio and plays them through speakers.

Ginrin is an experimental PR film, a film that presents a boy’s depiction of a daydream about a bicycle, but also embodies Jikken Kobo’s blend of everyday materials and innovative technology, as well as a predilection for science fiction and a narrative of the unconscious.

When I finished watching the film, I think it has a few experimental images in the middle is very interesting, like the boy in the film is sleeping, may be about to dream but still feel in the dream before even the memory of the dream is forgotten, these images used some strange material through the form of loop to show and his music becomes very experimental unlike the beginning and end part with the string music. The content of this film is very similar to the content of my project, which is all about dreams. Ginrin gave me a lot of inspiration and I might be able to use some very abstract sounds to describe my dreams. Because indeed, when I saw the artistic images of the bicycle parts in the middle of the film, they were very abstract and blurred like a dream.

Gutai is one of the most important groups of Japanese artists. The group has a diverse range of practice, such as sound, installation, interactive and environmental art. Atsuko Tanaka’s Work (Bell)(1955) was Gutai’s first sound art piece. Work (Bell) is an interactive conceptual sculpture that Tanaka described as “painting with sound.” Arranged on the floor, the work consists of a series of electric bells attached to a long, snaking cord, echoing the composition of Tanaka’s many colorful works on canvas of interconnected networks and hubs. At the top of every hour, the gallery attendant will press the button, triggering a series of shrill electric bells to ring sequentially throughout the exhibition space.

Sound art has a unique character in Japan. The polar opposite images of the hustle and bustle of the city and the tranquility of Japanese gardens with the sound of bells in temples reflect two views of the same thing. The Japanese soundscape may be related to the incorporation of Buddhist elements and to some historical events.

The Japanese ideals are very different from the Western ideals with their symmetry, pure tone, and steady phrasing, which are also related to the Buddhist concept of Wabi-sabi, the beauty of irregularity. The Japanese shakuhachi, sho, and koto instruments are also played differently from the Western instruments, which prefer to explore the limits of instability.

Although Japan has gone through a cycle of closing and opening, and has now become modernized and its culture has been assimilated into the global culture, it is still an island with its own unique ways and customs.

When I saw it for an hour and six, I heard a sound like snoring. I was curious whether it was snoring, so I searched Chris Watson outside the circle of fire, which is an album composed of 22 songs. The first song is called Waiting. Chris is close to a baobab tree and records the purr of the cheetah sleeping. In his album, I can hear the sound of many natural animals and feel that they are nearby.

His recording made me feel that I had ignored the noise pollution around me and felt that I had returned to the primitive forest. I feel that his works also draw our attention to the seriousness of the current environmental problems.

Then I heard Susan Philipsz’s work Lowlands in this historical video. Her work is a Scottish folk song, which is installed under the bridge through the horn. Singing, the voice of people on and under the bridge and the sound of water are integrated into one, which has become the sound part of this work.

After watching this work, her song has been around my ears. It feels like a lullaby. And I watched the video about this work. I think there is a relationship between the sound of the horn under the bridge and the waveform of the water, because the sound also has waveform. I think Susan’s works are very good, and her way of expression can be worth learning.

From the past to the present, many sound artists have made outstanding contributions to this art. They are all role models that I can learn from. I think the sound art in the future will become more extensive and can be integrated and accepted by the public.

Imaginary Landscape No. 1 was created by American composer John Cage in 1939 to record constant frequency and variable frequency, large Chinese cymbals and string piano. It is also the first work in the imaginary landscape series. It is scored for four performers: two of them in control of two variable-speed phono turntables and playing frequency recordings, a muted piano, and a cymbal.

When I heard John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 1 in the video, I thought the music was very novel if it was put in that era. So I went to find the whole piece of this work, which lasted about six minutes. His electronic music sounds creepy. I think it is very suitable for making background music for some horror films. After listening to this work, the chorus of this work will keep me in my ears. It’s like I’m in a very empty and dark place, and then aliens will attack.

I read John Cage’s book called silence. John Cage composed music with noise. His most famous music is 4’33 ’’, according to the score of “4:33”, the performer doesn’t need to play a sound from the beginning to the end. Generally speaking, the piano player will open and close the piano cover, wipe sweat and other actions between the movements, and during the performance of this music, all kinds of sounds heard by the audience can be considered as part of the music.

There is a saying in the concept of Buddhism that “emptiness is existence, and existence is emptiness”. This sentence is a good example in John Cage’s “4’33” works. He is really studying silence and looking for this idea. He uses no sound to let the audience know what the contrast of sound is. So I think sometimes nothing can bring you a lot of creativity. For example, before there was no Internet or computer, sound artists would create their own unique sounds, and it just like the Cirque du Soleil, which is different from the traditional circus. Cirque du Soleil does not use animals, On the contrary, Cirque du Soleil is famous for its human performance and stage effect. Although this work has many disputes, I think his work has its own creation and ideas.

When I heard 15 minutes and 30 seconds in this video, my attention was attracted by a gradually louder intro. When this work reached the loudest, I felt very nervous with the sound, just like I was watching a horror film which have background music before the horror clip. I searched the full version of this work on YouTube. This is Metastaseis by Iannis Xenakis. When I heard this work, I was very shocked. The work slowly changed from loud to climax, then decreased from the highest point to mild, then slowly rose to the top, and finally faded out. I think this work is like watching a thriller movie. I have a sense of picture after listening. When I close my eyes and listen, I seem to be in an imaginary movie scene.

Moreover, I think the ending of this work is very meaningful. I remember that this sound work is very similar to a thriller short film I saw a long time ago. The story is about a very rainy day in the countryside. A man didn’t bring an umbrella and have no means of transportation. A kind man took him in and gave him some food, The man felt very warm, but when he entered the bedroom given to him by the kind man, the furniture and smell in the bedroom were very strange and pungent. The man didn’t dare to refuse the kind man, so he stayed. In the midnight, the man was shocked by thunder. He looked at the dark place. He felt that he always felt a pair of eyes looking at him. At last the man heard someone knocking on his room door. The story ends here. So I think the structure of this story is very similar to that of Metastaseis。

Iannis Xenakis is a Greek French, composer, musician, musician and director. Xenakis took the lead in using mathematical models in music, such as the application of set theory, stochastic process and game theory, and also had an important impact on the development of electronics and music and computer music.

Every musician in the work has his own role. No two are the same. This work is very unusual. His work feels like establishing a balanced environment in chaos and regularity, which can make the listener have more comfortable senses.