One Cut One Bow interviews:
Atsushi Fukunaga

Atsushi Fukunaga, The dubbing happenings 13 – The biological sciences around the space – (2015), illustration of magazine, acrylic
sheet, one-way mirror sheet, glass, acrylic mirror sheets, frame; translation in German, Japanese; 100.5 x 100.5 x 2.5 cm

One Cut One Bow (Magdalen Chua and Ryotaro
Hoshino) interviewed Atsushi Fukunaga on 10
February 2016 at Fukunaga’s studio in Berlin. His
works investigate the physical and aural possibilities
for representing the invisible nature of onomatopoeia
and sound. Increasingly, he has been exploring therelated concepts of language and voice throughsculptures, collages, and sound installations, often incollaboration with different language speakers.
Originally from Hiroshima, Japan, Fukunaga has
been based in Berlin since 2006.

For Rainy Noise (2011), I created a system with apump for water, making it look like it was raining.
People would walk in through the entrance here, lookinside and hear the noise. At times, they would lookat the water droplets; on other occasions, they would
look up, but of course there would not be any rain. I
showed the visual effect of rain and noise, and as
before, this work is based on my own experience ofsound. This experience with the rainy noiseproducing zaaaa is mine, whether from my illusion or
prejudice.

Beginnings in sound and onomatopoeia
Atsushi Fukunaga (AF): Since 2006, I have been
making works about sound and when I started, myideas were from Japanese manga comics.
One Cut One Bow (OCOB): Perhaps we could startwith your earlier works. No view, no sounds in
Denmark (2007) makes me think about things thatare there, but cannot be seen or heard. Could you tell
us more about it?
AF: You wouldn’t be able to hear anything from thework and in the space. However, from certain angles
within the space, you would be able to see
something. I drew symbols and letters using glossy
transparent spray on the white wall. The images were
pictograms, and based on transcriptions by a Dane,using Danish, after hearing Japanese onomatopoeia
read aloud. The work was intended to create a morenuanced perception of language by reading
something aloud and my techniques were intended toshow the invisibility of sound. My stencils for thespray were displayed in the space behind, to show
how I made my work.
When I first made works, the sounds were from me.
For example, baki or poki in The sounds of broken
colorpencil (2007) are my sounds, and the sounds inthe Kosmos series of collages that I made in 2012,
are all mine.

Atsushi Fukunaga; The sounds of broken colorpencil (2007);
color pens, paper; 50 x 50 x 70cm

Illusions and prejudices of one’s own sounds
OCOB: What do you mean when you say “yoursounds?” Do you mean that you create the sounds?
AF: You were asking me about Die Taubeuhr /Pigeon Clock (2011). It was based on sounds thatwere translated from my own experience. In Japan,
when I was a child, I would go to my friend’s house.
My friend had a pigeon clock, which went popoooopopoooo. When I came to Berlin, I saw the same kindof clock and heard about cuckoo clocks. I thoughtthat there were two different versions of clocks — apigeon clock made in Japan, and a cuckoo clock
made in Germany. But, I now know that they are one
and the same.
OCOB: What other personal experiences haveinspired your works?
AF: I always ask myself the question, “As sound isinvisible, how can I show it?” Before coming to Berlin,
I used letters as objects for sound, but started to look
more closely at sound itself. Take for example, thestatic white noise produced by the TV. When the TV
doesn’t screen any programmes, it goes zaaaaaaa,
with random, flickering “dots” or “snow.” That was 10
or 20 years ago. I used to watch TV and would
sometimes fall asleep. Three hours later, I would
wake up thinking that it's raining. There wouldn’t be
any rain when I look outside, but on glancing at theTV, I would then realise that it was producing thesound.

Atsushi Fukunaga; Rainy Noise (2011); wood, plastic board,
rubber hose, PVC pipe, water, umbrella, television, speaker;
350 x 300 x 100cm

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Atsushi Fukunaga; Die Taubeuhr / Pigeon Clock (2011); cuckoo clock, Pigeon’s ornament, wood, oil-based paint; 18 x 20 x 10cm

Atsushi Fukunaga; No view, no sounds in Denmark (2007), sponge sheets, white spray painted wall, dimensions variable

Back to the origin of soundthrough sound that they could sense where thedancer was. At times, the dancer would throw thematerials, creating two sounds. It made people
wonder where the dancer was. After the
performance, the stage was empty, and people wereleft wondering about the relationship between
material, sound, direction, and so on.
Previously, I was interested in how to transform
sound into a form, but I felt that I was focusing too
much on words and wanted to go back to the basics,
and rethink my approach. I then began looking at
voice, and asked people to be involved in my project.
It became a turning point for my practice.

AF: I have always been making objects about
onomatopoeia, but for Rainy Noise (2011), there wasa shift towards looking at the origin of sound. I was
also in a collaboration, Dance in the dark (2011)
where I also used sound without onomatopoeia. As itwas dark, you could not see, but could only hear thedancer moving on the stage. There were also a lot ofmaterials from common objects, but when you hear
only the sound produced by the material, you might
not perceive which sound is of which material. The
audience would look straight ahead, and it was only3

In 2011, alongside development of works about
onomatopoeia, I started this new direction towards
voice. While I was investigating the voice, forinstance, in Open Square Project at the Asahi Art
Square [The hurly-burly chorus - Urban symphony in
Sumida and Asakusa - (2013)], I continued
developing my works about onomatopoeia. Initially, it
was difficult for my to convey the nuance or emotionof Japanese onomatopoeia to Germans. I would firstshow my Japanese onomatopoeia and its effect onsound or its nuance, but it’s difficult for others to
grasp all these. So, right now, I am doing the
opposite. Since 2014, I have been asking otherlanguage speakers about their language, and collect
their sounds for collages.

expensive. I asked the guy the price of one box, andit was €50. It was a lot of money for me at that time,
but I bought it. When I looked inside the box, there
were magazines from around 1910, 1920, ‘23, or ‘25.
I had never seen them before. I used these materials,
and then adventure books, as well as general interest
magazines.
When I first started using these magazines andbooks, I didn’t have any idea about the meanings
behind them, but used them just as physical material.
However, in my latest works (Statistical MachineTranslation series), my approach focuses on
language, drawing from adventure books about aGerman adventurer, Rolf Torring, published around
1915, during the period of German colonialism. I
researched old books related to this story and made17 pieces for this series. For each piece, the titles aretaken from the original German title, but translated
into the language of the place, where the book wasset. For certain languages such as Hindi or other
Asian languages, I translated the titles phoneticallyusing Google Translate.

Exploring language in parallel
AF: Since this year, I have been exploring, in parallel,
the theme of language in the context of relational art,
between others and myself.
OCOB: When you ask people to provide you withsome kind of onomatopoeia, do you ask them to write
it down in alphabetical characters, or do you ask
them to pronounce it?
AF: It was rather tricky at first. For example, for thesound installation I did in 2013, I asked around 100
Japanese to imitate sounds with their voices. I
realised though, that if I explained too much, people
would be influenced.
OCOB: What happens as you collect sounds fromthem? From works, such as The dubbing happenings
04 - Diabolique - (2014), it seems like you ask themfor a sound, whether it's something they write downor say, and then look for the corresponding letters inmagazines to represent them.

Dance in the dark / Digest Version 04' 34; Performance(13'10) / 5 November 2011 at Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte,
Berlin, Germany; Dance: Ayaka AZECHI; Sound Installation:
Atsushi FUKUNAGA; Video: Ink Agop

AF: I’ll show you my folders. Some participants rollthe paper, and I collect whatever they do with it. For
recent works of The dubbing happening series, I firstmake a collage, say using a magazine. I then lay itout and show it to someone, asking him or her toimagine a sound. I would explain the overall concept,
for example, this is about war. I might say something
like, “The monster broke this,” but I wouldn’t express
the sound I imagine the monster to make.
OCOB: So when you eventually make the soundinto these forms on your work, how do these words
written by your friend affect the shape or size?
AF: For earlier works in The dubbing happening
series, the size or shape of the font from themagazines didn’t matter. The size of letters frommagazines is limited, and even if I want to use bigger
letters, I wouldn’t be able to find it. At that time, I
didn’t think of using handwritten letters. I don’t exactly
know why, but I felt that the fonts from magazines
were so beautiful. For some of my collages, such as
the Kosmos series, I found the materials by accident,
at a flea market. I visit the flea market every week.
One day, a guy was selling a big box of these old andbeautiful magazines. I wanted to buy only one
magazine, but it was €2, which I thought was pretty

Atsushi Fukunaga; The dubbing happenings 04 - Diabolique- (2014); illustration and lettering of magazine, paste, frame,
acrylic board, glass; translation in Japanese; 11.7 x 16 x 2cm

4Atsushi Fukunaga; The hurly-burly chorus - Urban symphony in Sumida and Asakusa - (2013); mixed media: multi-speakers, PC,
MP3players, sensor; dimensions variable

Atsushi Fukunaga; Statistical Machine Translation #49 - For wholesale Namaland - (2015); Book cover of “Rolf Torrings Abenteuer”,
adhesive decorative foil, acrylic boards, silver cardboard, frame; Translation in Afrikaans by Google Translate; 22.4 x 27.4 x 2.2 cm

Equality of languages
AF: I think that all languages, having developed indifferent regions, are equal and unique in their own
way. However, with so many English speakers, thedemand for English is high. Each language has its
interesting points, for example, onomatopoeia inJapanese, and though there isn’t as muchonomatopoeia in German, the grammar is interesting.
In the Statistical Machine Translation series, thewords used are from the local language, yet from a
German book. I am interested in this notion ofequality, between these two languages.
When I was studying German, I came across words
that I did not know, but would still read them aloud. I

think that there is meaning in the act of reading
something though without understanding. Usingalphabetical characters to convey a particularlanguage, links the two different languages ofGerman and a local language. It’s an important
aspect for me. When you read the letters, there isrhythm or nuance. If you cannot read it, it is just an
object. By emitting sound through reading, you might
get a new rhythm or nuance.
OCOB: it's interesting, because it also looks at theidea of speaking or voicing something.

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Atsushi Fukunaga; Storyteller 04 – The North Wind and the Sun – (2015); mirror glass, magnifying mirrors, frame;translation in French, Taiwanese, 24.5 x 24.5 x 3.5 cm each

AF: When working on the sound installations, I didn’t
ask sound professionals, but ordinary people toimitate the sounds of nature. All of them said thatthey could not imitate the sounds as they were notprofessionals and their voices were not good. We
have a Japanese onomatopoeia, ka-kah, for thesound of a crow. But in reality, that is not quite thesound of a crow. From my recording, it’s actually likean old person crying, with a voice that has a humanlike quality. When I asked someone to imitate thesound using his own voice, he said that it was difficult
because of the frequency and could only make thesound ka-kah. I asked him to listen again andexplained that the sound of the crow was not ka-kah.
So he tried again, sometimes saying kuwa kuwa or
ku-ah ku-ah and then a new onomatopoeia wascreated.
If I myself imitate sound, only one sound is produced.
However, when I ask 100 people, then 100 various
sounds are created.

OCOB: The sounds are also very much related toaction. When you have something like this, your hand
can’t help but move. When you ask the participants
to create sounds, do they move?
AF: Sometimes, yes. I ask them to move their bodies
or imagine being a bird. I think everything isconnected at the fundamental level. My idea is toselect voice and letters, but sometimes, it has also
involved body performance.
I have been using sound installations often since2013 and 2014. Then last summer, I tried again but
this time, resulting in collages with mirrors in a series
called Storyteller. I would show people a collage andimage, and ask them to imagine the sound. The
collages would be based on a fairy tale, for example,
from the Grimm brothers, Aesop’s fables, or aJapanese ghost story. Before 2013, I cut out lettersfrom magazines. However, this time, I would use
people’s writing. For example, when I asked anelderly Japanese woman to produce sound, shewrote as she was looking at the image, and I used
her writing by scanning it. Although I previously had
an aversion to writing, I have become interested in
handwriting produced by others.

Sound as performance and of emotion
OCOB: At times, when you were describing yourworks, I thought of a play or theatre, where you are
the director, getting people and giving some
instructions. There is a relationship between you andthe person, and it feels like in some of your works,
there is this quality of creating space, and I think of aperformance.

OCOB: How about the sheet for the Statistical
Machine Translation works? It's also reflective, yet
not quite like a mirror.
AF: This decorated sheet for that series is like acover of colonial history. In a way, obscuring history
yet also acknowledging that it is in the background.
I used a mirror for the Storyteller works because it’s
appropriate when you think about the properties ofsound. If you look at the letters or the figure in theworks, you have to focus on one point. Perhaps you
might see both, but you cannot take in everything all
at one time. I think that the mirror expresses theinvisibility of sound.

AF: Initially people can’t control their own voice, butsometimes, after trying, they have a sense of theirsound. That’s why reading or emitting of sound is so
important. For example, in this collage, The dubbing
happenings 13 – The biological sciences around thespace – (2015), there is this octopus. When
producing sound, it is not just about looking, but you
might also make gestures. You become an octopus. I
think sound is like an emotion. When you become anoctopus, your imagination transforms, and I would
like to also try working with performance.

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The future
OCOB: What are you currently working on?
AF: I am planning a new work that is a step further
into my exploration of language. It is a comment
about the Japanese government, as it is in such abad state.
I have a poster here, which is about the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP) Agreement. This poster was by
the Liberal Democratic Party around 2010 or so when
they were the opposition, and were explaining thatthey were absolutely against the TPP and would
definitely not support it. Literally, the poster reads,“We don’t lie. We are against the TPP. We won’tchange our minds.” For small and medium-sizedenterprises, and those in agriculture in Japan, thesewere of course such beautiful words, which we now
realise were lies as the Liberal Democratic Party
recently signed the Agreement. My idea is to cover
the words with this decorative sheet, blurring andaltering the appearance of the words. [Note:
Fukunaga has recently completed this work, The
Marvelous Catchphrase (2016)].
I have also been reading the history of the Grimm
brothers. They made a German dictionary, gatheringwords from local languages and dialects as well as
folktales. Their fairy tales are not just in Germany, butalso in other countries. Long ago, people would go
round, telling stories in songs. The transmission ofthese tales orally and its associations in different
cultures and languages are truly fascinating.
In future, I would like to go around talking to different
people in various countries, asking them to produce
sounds in relation to these stories, and gather them.

Atsushi Fukunaga; Marvelous Catchphrase – Untitled 01–(2016); textured acrylic sheet, cutting sheet, aluminumboard, frame; 51.4 x 26.4 x 4.5 cm

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