contact Gonzo or the art of touching (1)

When were you punched last time? Have you ever been kicked by someone? Was it a serious incident? Were you just physically playing with some of your friends? It is a rare occasion for modern adults, who live a safe and secure life, to punch or kick someone else. It is rarer to do so in public. Only some professionals fight with each other in front of audience because they need to earn income by doing so. Thanks to those fighters, we can imagine how it would be to punch or kick others. How would you feel, then, if you are waiting for a friend of yours at a station and notice that a bunch of youth next to you suddenly start hitting and kicking each other?

Frighten? Excited? or do you hate it? I

do not know how you would react to it, but I am sure that you cannot help paying an attention to the youth. You cannot disguise that you are totally uninterested in their punching and kicking with each other. Physical contact is so attractive and convincing that it is difficult to refuse to witness it.

contact Gonzo is a group of four young, male

artists (for the performance I witnessed), who occasionally punch and kick with each other in public as a performance. You would for the first glance believe that they are fighting with each other. No wonder you are led to believe so because they actually do harm with each other. But what they are doing is touching with each other as claimed by those youth. It is a manifestation of an art, say, the art of touching.

What is the art of touching? The notion of touching is provocative. It is a great leap for the modern adults to touch someone else physically when you have no particular reason. You need a reason when you touch someone. You may touch someone's chest to diagnose his condition if you are medical doctor. You may touch someone's back if you are asked to massage her. We accept her touching you if she does it as part of her job. We seem to allow someone to touch you if it has a purpose or a rational. What I think of as a reason for touching has something to do with care or an intended action for healing someone else.

Touching is often healing or helping some others. We even pay him sometimes if he touches you for good reason. Okay, good. Now let turn to their performance. Are they touching with each other? Yes, because punching is touching. Then, next question. Are they healing each other? Well, they might be doing it as a ceremony to expel a bad spirit of their bodies. I believe that Zen Buddhists appreciate being hit while meditating if they do not concentrate on them. Contact Gonzo does it as a spiritual exercise. Are you persuaded? No, I am not, neither. (to be continued)

26th November, 2003 (6 years ago)

Allow me, for a while, to reflect on past events to explain the history of our research. What they meant was not obvious at the time they happened, but I believe that I can now describe them better than before.

On 26th November, 2003, these pictures were taken. During the term, I was responsible for running a lecture of Cognitive Science. It was the second time I taught the subject at the institute. I failed somehow to convince myself to teach our students the subject, Cognitive Science, in traditional manners because I was not, and am still not, certain whether focusing on our reasoning abilities was appropriate when we talk about human. I thus adopted an exercise in which students had to move their own bodies to acquire some skill. The skill was Samba :-)





I was fascinated by the music, then, and proposed them to observe their acquisition process where they gradually leant to play the shaker on the rhythm. I do not know why the did not object to my proposal. They might have expected me to do something strange or unusual. In previous year, in fact, I employed a trainer for the lecture, who instructed the participants to do some physical exercises. I was notorious for forcing participants to do things unusual :-)

Here is an example what they were doing:
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/reflections/20031126.mov

I told the participants that we would have a presentation session in the end, where all of them should belong to some group and play the music in front of other participants. We observed then how well they played music and the source of their abilities. They understood certainly how difficult it is to play an unfamiliar rhythm and how long it takes to acquire the skill. I was in the beginning afraid that they might not spend much time for practice, but they seemed to enjoy playing the instrument as a group, to my relief.

Here is another example, in which a group of students are teaching each other how to play the instrument.
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/reflections/20031126a.mov

Today, I can explain why we needed to do the practice. I was interested to know how important the physical coordination among participants is in establishing a common ground for communication although I could not spell out the idea fully. Mimetic ability consists of memorizing your bodily coordination among joints and muscles, recalling it later intentionally, adjusting it to coincide your movement with others, etc. Apes do not have such abilities. Mimetic skill is central for us to be human.

It took long time for me to come to the idea. I believe that I could not have reached this stage without students' commitment to my lecture of Cognitive Science. I am thankful to their patience and enthusiasm, which led the lecture to success. Our research has been supported by these people.

The basic posture for playing the Shamisen

Having experienced the remarkable effects of Alexander Technique last week, I asked my teacher, Ms. Kazue Takagi, to show me how she sits on the chair in great detail. (17th November, 2009)



The side view depicts her sitting on the chair vertical. Excellent!





When I observed her from her back, however, I noticed that her right shoulder was slightly lower than the left one. My impression was that the weight of her upper body was supported by her lower back and its right side was particularly loaded with her weight. She told me of her pain around the neck-shoulder and her lower back. It is reasonable to conjecture that her pain is caused by her posture, i.e., the spine turning rightwards.

She was not aware of her posture until I pointed it out to her. It is hard for anyone to notice the slight bent especially on stage because the feature is so subtle that it is easily hidden by clothing. She knew however that there was a problem with her right shoulder as she feels difficulties when she put her clothes (Japanese Kimono) on her for stage performances. She said to me that she could not keep Kimono stay horizontal around her neck.



We discussed why her right shoulder tends to be lowered. Ms. Takagi pointed it out to me that she needed to pluck the third string, the furthest string, which requires her to push her right arm forward. That is right.




I may add to her comment that she is also holding her left arm (mostly) up to run her fingers on the instrument's neck. Hm... Similar phenomena are likely to be found for the Guitar players, too.





She told me that she used to sit down on the flour when she learnt to play the instrument. She started learning quite early, say, around thirteen or fourteen years old. (I have to ask her for the exact year.) I asked her thus to sit dow on the flour. Her shoulders were now adjusted towards the vertical position. I am not completely sure why such an adjustment occurred. Was her upper body supported better by her lower back? hm...

I know there is a some relation between the posture and the way she sits down. I know other shamisen players not belonging to Tsugaru tradition, i.e., the players playing traditional Japanese music with quieter tone, do not hold the instrument that way. They tend to sit on straight on the flour, but their playing styles are more restricted compared to the ones for playing Tsugaru shamisen. Any solution to remove her pain while preserving both niceties?

Alexander Technique

A friend of mine, whom I have known since both of us were high-school students, visited our institute this week to give us a lesson of Alexander Technique. (11th November, 2009) His Name is Daiju Yokoe (DJ in the following).



I had few items of knowledge of the technique. I know personally some people who are working on Body-Mapping, which is I believe one of the descendant of Alexander Technique, but DJ insisted me that Alexander Technique is not equivalent to Body-Mapping. I thus invited him to give a lecture of the technique. The lecture was divided into two parts. The first session started at 15:10 and lasted for 90 minutes approximately. In the midst of the first session, I volunteered to play the Shamisen, a traditional Japanese three-stringed instrument, in front of the participants as a Guinea Pig. I just played short phrases. The movie clips depicts me, first playing a phrase helped by DJ, followed by another performance where I play the instrument as I used to do. In the latter half of the clip, I played a phrase in sorrow mood. I firstly played it as I do it normally and secondly did it as instructed by DJ.

Recalling my attitude towards music, I have been playing any instruments primarily for me, as a dialogue with myself, not for the audience. Well, I sometimes play music recently for the elderly in nursery. I admit the experience (playing music for the elderly) has done something on me though I am not sure what it is. Anyway, the lesson I learned from the Alexander Technique was impressive. But, I know, there are still lots of things to be learnt in the technique.

• http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/alexander/20091111.mov (17MB, h264 format, 720x460)
• http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/alexander/20091111.mp4 ( 9MB, h264 format, 320x240)
• http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/alexander/20091111.wmv ( 3MB, wmv format, 320x240)

I myself did not see many differences between the two ways of playing the instrument, but most audiences pointed out that the performances (partly) following AT technique sounded much better than the other. I later viewed the movie clip by myself and realized that they were right. Amazing.

Only the posture is slightly different between the two. I usually tend to bend my trunk forward, but made my spine stand straight when instructed by DJ. The trick gave the tone more power and richness. Wow...

These are photos taken on 27th September, 2008, when I gave a lecture of the Shamisen playing with my teacher, Ms. Kazue Takagi. After the AT lesson, I happened to find those pictures in my office. (I have been cleaning my office these days.) I was rather amazed to see that Kazue sits on the chair with her spine straight up while I was playing it bending my trunk forward. Our attitudes towards the audience were quite different, too. She was facing them with confidence, while I was not. I noticed that my effort to convey the content of music to the audience was not enough to move them. Shame.

Recalling my attitude towards music, I have been playing any instruments primarily for me, as a dialogue with myself, not for the audience. Well, I sometimes play music recently for the elderly in nursery. I admit the experience (playing music for the elderly) has done something on me though I am not sure what it is. Anyway, the lesson I learned from the Alexander Technique was impressive. But, I know, there are still lots of things to be learnt in the technique.

The third day in Dalian, China. (29th October)

We went to the Dalian Nationalities University in the morning to interview nine students. We interviewed three students in the morning and six students in the afternoon.



I noticed several students were walking, reading a textbook aloud. I asked a teacher what they were doing. He told me that they were memorizing sentences. It was the best way for mastering a language to memorize the whole textbook, said he. The corridor is full of students reading a textbook every morning, which I missed to witness.

The series of interviews went well. Every student was enthusiastic and spoke very good Japanese. Some of them only started learning Japanese two years ago and still spoke the language fluently. I was impressed by their energy spent for acquiring the skill. As I had time after finishing the interviews, I looked around the school.



It was an ordinary scene which you may find in any other places called college or university.


One interesting thing was that students put on a cover on their shoes when they entered computer rooms. We might rather ask students put off their shoes in Japan. Such a subtle difference amazed me.



The computer rooms were full of students, too. They used computers to run teaching materials. I understood that the kind of technology was useful when a small number of staff have to teach a large number of students. If you are short-staffed, computers are indispensable.



We went out to visit some other buildings. The square was so spacious and the distance to the library was felt rather long. I wondered why they needed such a large space in the middle of the campus.


From the library, you can look through to the entrance gate, which seemed to be far away. Few cycles we found. I did not know why they opted for walking, but the campus would obviously be overcrowded if everyone rides on a bike.



The library looked modern and well-organized. Students occupied their seats to read something. We went out of the library to stroll into other places.



Students seemed to be enjoying their campus lives. They met friends, looking for something interesting. I suppose that they are rather talented and wealthy to the nation's standard. Studying at a university must be a privilege for the young. I believe that they live their lives under some restrictions, but the option is probably far better than others and they are contented with their choice. We should be pleased to see them opt for coming to Japan to continue their studies.



We were treated with nice choices of Chinese foods in the evening. The exchange with Chinese staff that night was inspiring. We were all agreed on that it is most important to exchange people between the two countries to promote mutual understanding. We are after all neighboring countries and cannot ignore each other. For us, friendship comes first. Diplomacy next. 　

The second day in Dalian, China

I woke up hearing a Chinese flute played outside my room. A guy was playing it on the street. My room was on the ninth flour, but the melody was still audible.



Looking for the guy, I noticed a group of people were practicing Tai-chi in the square down the street. I walked down there to watch how people perform the 24 path. Some of them even practiced swards, whose style I had never seen before.

It was a strong contrast between the modern and the traditional. I wondered how they compromised themselves with those modern offerings while they practiced Tai-Chi. They never minded them at all, I suspect.

We visited the Dalian Nationalities University on the second day, 28th October. It took about 40 minutes to reach there by car and I was amazed to see the modern buildings lined out continuously while we drove outskirts of the city.



The university was also huge. I was told later that 13,000 students studied in the campus.

With Prof. Kunifuji, I interviewed nine student who wished to come to our institute, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. I did not know what drove them to apply for the program, but was impressed by their decisiveness. They were after all very young girls, whose ages were around twenty. They examined their future seriously and tried to change their ordinary course of lives. I could sense strong family ties behind them and how well they were cared for by their parents.



I had better keep myself from commenting on the series of interviews as the result is yet to be known.



I just walked around several times during the breaks and observed how students spent their time. The number of students was enormous and everyone was struggling for a better life.

After a pleasant dinner, I wondered around the city corners alone and stepped into a street where many shops were open. They mostly sold foods. A small girl was playing in one of the restaurants looked after by her parents, carrying a chair, which was too big for her to carry around. I thought how she would grow up and hoped the situation surrounding her would be better.

Four days in Dalian, China

I spent four days this week in Dalian, China, from 27th to 30th October. It was my third visit to China and the last one was the moment when I have been to Beijing probably three years ago.



I had not been to Dalian before and was a bit curious to see how it looked like. The city was huge. It was also very young as most people walking in the streets are twenty's or younger.



The traffic was rather heavy and I had to negotiate my way very carefully when I got across the road.



Main front was occupied with the lines of tall buildings. The scales were rather big compared with those applied in Japan, which made me feel as if I were a sand in the ocean. No wonder people here are struggling to survive every day.



Contrary to its modern face, the back corners still preserve a tranquil atmosphere with a faint idea of ordinary life.



I did not feel alienated though I had traveled for three hours by plane and got across the boarder. People's appearances were, of course, not so different from Japanese, which might be a reason. But I suppose the essence of being human is universal, wherever you go on the earth. (to be continued)

I go English (just for a record)

I decided to build my website in English because

1. I am tired of writing texts in Japanese,
2. I am obsessed to explain our research in English, and
3. Some of my friends cannot read Japanese.
   

Shall I build an Japanese version of this site? Well, I will probably not because

1. I am different person when I write in Japanese,
   
2. I do not want to translate a text into Japanese, and
3. I would rather write something new.

Gathering

I started using twitter and created two Tumblr blogs, namely, green_in_blue and slices. I am not sure for the moment how I will integrate them. I realised that green_in_blue reflects fujinami in the relax mood and slices depicts fujinami in neutral way. This blog on Blogger will record how I sort things out on those web pages, I guess.

Slowly starting...