Ocean white is a collaborative visual-sound-lighting installation performance with Naomi Ota (visual art), Tim Humphrey and Madeleine Flynn (sound), Soo Yeun You (dance) and Peter Eckersall (dramaturge). Organizers have invited international collaborator Genta Iwamura who is the lighting designer for acclaimed Butoh dance company Sankaijuku.
The project will explore two spatial concepts. They are notions of 'Yohaku-no-bi' (Japanese term: literally translated
as beauty of extra white) and 'pathway'. Yohakuno-bi, in the sense of 'open space' which focuses on what is left out of a design rather than what is put in.
The aesthetics of yohaku is often associated with the concept of 'emptiness' or 'nothingness' of Zen philosophy.
However what organizers emphasise here is a new perspective of Yohaku-no-bi generated by Naomi's research in Okinawa. Utaki (Sacred grove: also called 'on') in Taketomi island is non-decorative and empty, but a powerful and sublime space. While Zen gardens such as Karesansui (literally, 'dry landscape') are precisely designed, with a solemn atmosphere suggesting a resolute attitude, the open space of Utaki exists as very carefree, and fits comfortably within people's everyday lives.
Some pathways on the island are covered by sea bleached white coral bones and act as a guide to the Utaki space. Utaki is naturally found by following those attractive pathways. The concept of pathway in the project will be interpreted as a transformative element leading audiences into open white space.
The installation will be developed through a collaborative process that will investigate the artistic concept through visual art, sonic and lighting combinations and techniques. The installation will be constructed as a treatment of pathway and open white as spatial and temporal metaphors, dynamically shifting experiences of spatial disclosure towards experiences of place and finally site. Varied elements will be discovered along the eventually disclosing the open white area. The project will also investigate activations of the environment through dance experiments.
Personnel: Genta Iwamura (lighting designer), Dr.Tim Humphrey and Madeleine Flynn (composers/musicians), Soo Yeun You (choreographer/dancer), Naomi Ota (visual artist), Dr. Peter Eckersall (dramaturge)
