Rebicycling
installation-composition for 4 digital tracks
and abandoned bicycles
Tokyo Japan 2000
Two Track Version
Thousands of Thousands of bicycles circulate through
the streets of Tokyo every day. It is quite remarkable to observe their disordered
behavior as well as the existence of great chaos when these locomotive vehicles
are parked (many of them fall onto the ground, others end up being used as
trash cans, etc). Yet, it is even more striking to discover that many bicycles
are abandoned in the city. There is as a big mystery arising from this, do
some people steal bicycles to arrive to their houses after having missed the
last night train? Or, do people just leave bicycles on the streets because
they will buy a new one? The truth is that in the middle of continuous and
organic movement, there are many bicycles that suddenly stop their daily transit
and stay parked for weeks or months at the same spot.
The police occasionally take some of these abandoned vehicles and pile them
in a corner, or place them in an a special bicycle parking lot, but in spite
of this, thousands of bicycles are becoming trash in Tokyo. These transportation
objects have a potential capacity of being used, and yet, they have suddenly
gained a state of entropy, a state of complete and chaotic stillness.
First World countries like Japan, USA or France, are countries where people
consume in excess and throw to the trash what would be fixed or reused in
less developed countries. And then, in Japan you have the absurdity of law,
which forbids people from taking and reusing deserted bicycles.
Natural living rhythm exists in organic life, as when we go to sleep every
night, but then get up the next day to become active. However, what would
happen if we suddenly fall into a state of coma? A clear drama is produced
when we have potential stasis and movement within the same being, but one
of the two stops working.
The purpose of this sound installation work is to confront these two opposed
paradoxical states (still bicycles against bicycle wheels moving sounds),
hoping to spell out entropy from these agonizing beings and giving them new
potential energy and hopefulness for survival. bicycles circulate through
the streets of Tokyo every day. It is quite remarkable to observe their disordered
behavior as well as the existence of great chaos when these locomotive vehicles
are parked (many of them fall onto the ground, others end up being used as
trash cans, etc). Yet, it is even more striking to discover that many bicycles
are abandoned in the city. There is as a big mystery arising from this, do
some people steal bicycles to arrive to their houses after having missed the
last night train? Or, do people just leave bicycles on the streets because
they will buy a new one? The truth is that in the middle of continuous and
organic movement, there are many bicycles that suddenly stop their daily transit
and stay parked for weeks or months at the same spot.
The police occasionally take some of these abandoned vehicles and pile them
in a corner, or place them in an a special bicycle parking lot, but in spite
of this, thousands of bicycles are becoming trash in Tokyo. These transportation
objects have a potential capacity of being used, and yet, they have suddenly
gained a state of entropy, a state of complete and chaotic stillness.
First World countries like Japan, USA or France, are countries where people
consume in excess and throw to the trash what would be fixed or reused in
less developed countries. And then, in Japan you have the absurdity of law,
which forbids people from taking and reusing deserted bicycles.
Natural living rhythm exists in organic life, as when we go to sleep every
night, but then get up the next day to become active. However, what would
happen if we suddenly fall into a state of coma? A clear drama is produced
when we have potential stasis and movement within the same being, but one
of the two stops working.
The purpose of this sound installation work is to confront these two opposed
paradoxical states (still bicycles against bicycle wheels moving sounds),
hoping to spell out entropy from these agonizing beings and giving them new
potential energy and hopefulness for survival.
This work was originally develppped as a sound installation (a 4 small preamplified speaker system and bicycles lying in the floor) and presented in the SURGE gallery in Tokyo Japan. Llater on I decided to present another version of this work for concert situation with the same sound in a 4 track speaker system but still images of abandoned bicycles instead of the real bicycles on the floor.
Rebicycling
instalación - composición para 4 pistas digitales
y bicicletas abandonadas
Tokio Japón 2000