Method No. 15 (July 3, 2002) Guest: John Solt The bulletin "Method" is an email bimonthly of free forwarding. The purpose is to pursue and exhibit method arts, such as method painting, method poem, and method music. If you have any trouble with receiving, please contact us. We will meet your wishes. - "Method" members: Hideki Nakazawa (artist), Shigeru Matsui (poet), Masahiro Miwa (composer) - Manifestos of Methodicism http://aloalo.co.jp/nakazawa/method/ - Japanese translation http://aloalo.co.jp/nakazawa/method/index_j.html Preface by Shigeru Matsui Guest's manuscript: The Method is in the Madness by John Solt Guest's work: untitled by John Solt Members' manuscripts: Methodicism Q & A by Hideki Nakazawa To Quantum Poem by Shigeru Matsui To Synthesize the Human Constitution by Masahiro Miwa Members' works: Composition table of "353100 yen which consists of 149101 coins (Money amount No. 23)" by Hideki Nakazawa Quantum Poem by Shigeru Matsui TUDA-SHIKI by Masahiro Miwa Information, Editor's notes -- Method No. 15 Guest: John Solt Preface by Shigeru Matsui This is the third issue of the bulletin "Method" written in English. Poetry is different from visual art and music in the respect that it has the restriction of using mother tongue, but we dared to have a poet as a guest. He is Mr. John Solt. He has been acting as a mediator between poetical circles of Japan and America since the 1980's. In Japan nowadays, international poetry movement is not so active. I intended to ask him about his current opinion on poetry and poetics. Solt is an American poet for 35 years. He wrote a book about a Japanese poet, Katue Kitasono, (1902-1978) titled, "Shredding the Tapestry of Meaning." (Kitasono's "plastic poetry" is the harbinger of visual poetry in Japan.) Solt's poems that are usually "untitled" are regularly carried in the Japanese literary magazines "Gui" and "Sei'en" (Blue Flame). He has produced visual poetry and occasionally does collaborative pieces with dancers and musicians. - John Solt http://www.highmoonoon.com Guest's manuscript & work: The Method is in the Madness by John Solt I was fortunate to have met poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982; see www.bopsecrets.org) shortly after having begun to write poetry myself. The word "guru" was current in the 1960s, but Kenneth vehemently refused it in regard to himself. Now people would say he was a "mentor" to many students and friends. I was one of them, from when I was 18-32 years old, and he was 62-76. One of the important things Rexroth said to me was, "There are many good poets who are shitty people. It's more important to be a good human being." That was a lesson for life. Once Rexroth was reading a poem someone sent him that didn't move him and he said, "There's nothing wrong with a bad poem. After all, it's only a poem, not a bomb." For me "method" in poetry is not an issue I usually dwell on. On the contrary, I think if I thoroughly understood what my method was, I would probably stop writing for lack of interest. I am curious what mysteriously emerges in a poem from my decaying skull. Perhaps the reason I don't usually think about "method" is because I don't have one. For me, the muse dissected is by definition unpoetic. Inspiration is whatever comes out. Intuition is effective in shaping it later, like planting dead mice in a circle in the garden or tucking in a shirttail. Thirty years ago an Argentinian novelist, who was a morphine addict, said to me, "For your poems, choose words as carefully as if you were carving them in stone." His stone was made of powder. I'm more and more amazed that the world is here each morning. Aren't you? My method aims to stab absurdity in the neck. Rivers run incessantly through poems, but how many poets dip their poems in rivers? untitled by John Solt http://www11.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/td5/shigeru/untitled.html Members' manuscripts & works: Methodicism Q & A by Hideki Nakazawa [Q1] What is individuality for method artists? A: Individuality is not requested, because method should be universal. Method painter A's works and method painter B's works are not necessarily to be distinguished from each other. This is similar to the works by Picasso and Braque during the period of analytical cubism. [Q2] What is beauty in method art? A: Art has been separated from beauty since the era of Courbet. Methodicism refers to authority, but not to beauty. Therefore, method art has no connection with either formalistic or algorismic beauty. [Q3] Can method art touch humans' heart? A: I do not know, because it does not intend to appeal to humans' feelings. Rather, apathy or apatheia, or Stoicism, is close to methodicism. Still more, it does not intend to be mysterious. Simple arithmetic is sufficient to make method art come into effect. [Q4] Method art seems to be closed to ordinary audience, doesn't it? A: I am sorry, but method art is made for logic like mathematics, not for audience like entertainment. [Q5] Methodicism has no destination, does it? A: No. The reason is that methodicism itself is the destination, and that method itself is the goal. "The next" does not exist. Or, if ever "the next" exists, I would have already done it. [Q6] Methodicism cannot surmount modernism, can it? A: Methodicism is a form of modernism. So methodicism "does not" surmount modernism, not "cannot." In this connection, methodicism is against postmodernism. Methodicism is also against the moratorium that refuses to accept either postmodernism or modernism. [Q7] Methodicism is merely the adaptation of the early twentieth century's avantgarde, isn't it? A: Yes. Methodicism has an aspect of neoclassicism, if you call the avantgarde classics. We do not want to add anything new to art history in this meaning. We just want to keep looking at the tautology in which modernism has resulted. [Q8] Methodicism has still room for selecting methods by each author's taste, doesn't it? A: Maybe yes when you consider methodicism a necessary condition. This case is similar to Berg's dodecaphony, in which his taste is evident. However, methodicism has little room for selecting methods by each author's taste when you consider it a necessary sufficient condition. This case is similar to Webern's dodecaphony, in which dodecaphony itself is evident rather than his taste. I have the same opinion with the latter case. (The above Q & A were exchanged mainly in the class "Methodicism Manifesto" at Bigakko.) To Quantum Poem by Shigeru Matsui In the first half of the twentieth century, revolution broke out in the classical mechanics, which was the first time after Newton's one. Quantum mechanics became reality. It changed a view of the world. Art and science adapted to the method that referred to quantum mechanics. Quantum computation, which was published by David Deutsch in 1985, was one of the examples. In the art world, Yutaka Matsuzawa made a work named "Quantum Art Manifesto" in 1988. Matsuzawa said that, "This is art whose concept is approximated to the quantum mechanics." By the way, his atelier is called "psi." "Psi" means the wave function in quantum mechanics and, in the meantime, this side of the end. "Psi" is an important term for Matsuzawa's thoughts in art. Poems are the mirror of the world view of the same age. Quantum Poem should be a concept. It was delayed for twenty years though. Keisuke Mitsuhashi is a music critic. He and I had published an email magazine called "Every five days to be announced on the performance day" since March 11 until June 14, 2002. We sent 20 email magazines for a hundred days. The following is the text I continued to write in that magazine. "March 6, 2002, Tokyo. Today's Weather Forecast from THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. Highs and lows. 8 degrees centigrade and 20 today. 7 and 13 tomorrow. 4 and 13 the day after tomorrow. 6 and 16 two days after tomorrow. I wrote 2 lines for "Pure Poem" today. I renewed my Website. March 7, 2002, Tokyo. Today's Weather Forecast from THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. Highs and lows. 5 degrees centigrade and 15 today. 4 and 12 tomorrow. 6 and 17 the day after tomorrow. 9 and 17 two days after tomorrow. I wrote 1 line for "Pure Poem" today. (Same as above)" This text is based on "Quantum Poem." This poem presents "Many- Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" by presenting documented weather forecast. Also ancient poems were prophecy, and they were concerned with the future. I attempt to remake the ancient poems by using the modern method. I don't wish a dramatic event. I need to present a phenomenon itself. Who needs the figuration of arranged past? I would like to document all phenomena, but we do not have to understand phenomena. I call my works "Quantum Poem" which should have been written in the twentieth century. To Synthesize the Human Constitution by Masahiro Miwa (For more information about "Matarisama" please see the previous presentation of my work.) If I were to say "Take eight elementary school students and train them thoroughly for two years, and eventually you will end up with a perfect 'Matarisama' ensemble that exceeds all expectations," most people would simply say that I was dreaming. However, such training is no different from what is happening at elementary schools and the various musical lessons and rehearsals that take place every day. Learning that is the result of this kind of training or education, regulates the formation of the human constitution and is a mainstay of our culture. Is there any difference between "a human constitution that can perform a fast matarisama" and "a constitution that can swim breaststroke, or a constitution that can perform calculations on an abacus" in the reason for the existence? It goes without saying that the ability to walk on two legs and the ability to speak languages are the result of extraordinary training. However, we tend to be more aware of humans with a constitution capable of special skills that not necessarily all people are able to perform. Through the ages, music itself has been performed by people who posses constitutions that have been subject to special training, and will continue to be so in the future. Therefore, when we consider the potential for the evolution of music in the future, maybe it is necessary to question the silent understanding that music will continue to be produced in the same customary ways, with the same human constitutions as it has until now. Even when a Japanese person has a constitution that is capable of performing the etudes of Chopin, and moreover, how refined his/her constitution is, the constitution is not something that has evolved from Japanese tradition. When you imagine a vision of a new human constitution, that is essentially the same as imagining new music or culture. When someone comes up with a new idea for jamming records on a turntable, somebody else refines this with astonishig accuracy and eventually creates a new way of performance. I believe that the new human constitutions will be created more and more in the future, unexpectedly and arbitrarily like this, and yet always according to the needs of the current era. Composition table of "353100 yen which consists of 149101 coins (Money amount No. 23)" by Hideki Nakazawa http://aloalo.co.jp/nakazawa/method/work015.html I gathered Japanese coins using a certain simple rule, which generated 353100 yen which consists of 149101 coins. This composition table tells the rule: every means should be taken to indicate each sum from 1 yen by one 1-yen coin to 100 yen by one 100-yen coin. For example, 5 yen is indicated by one 5-yen coin, or, by five 1-yen coins. Quantum Poem by Shigeru Matsui http://www11.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/td5/shigeru/QuantumPoem.html See the above manuscript. TUDA-SHIKI by Masahiro Miwa http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~taro02/tudashiki/tuda-shiki.html The original idea of this work, "reverse simulation music," was developed by Ms. Tsuda during a workshop held at The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts. Two groups of people communicate numbers to each other using hand positions and footsteps, and move around according to algorithms. No sound is used. Although the text on website is in Japanese, you can see the motion image of this work. Information: from John Solt - I have a website business which loses money and is almost unvisited: www.highmoonoon.com. For more on me, please search the internet via www.google.com "John Solt," but there are three glaring errors: a Christian missionary slyly goes by my name, my book of Kitasono Katue translations, "Glass Beret," is listed as "Green Beret," and, under www.amazon.com, my book "Shredding the Tapestry of Meaning: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katue" (Harvard Asia Center, 1999) has the subject matter ludicrously including "feminist theology." It's okay that the unseen cyber wolves tear at my identity, because any self- construction is ultimately illusionary. from Hideki Nakazawa - Group show "ignition" at Roentgenwerke (Kichijoji) until July 6. - Collaboration "Method Cocktail" by Nakazawa and Matsui and Adachi will be realized again at the last class of "Methodicist Manifesto" on July 24 at Bigakko (1500 yen). - Lithographs "209 same characters No. 1 - No. 5" will be published from Printhouse OM in July. Text by Shigeo Chiba. - Workshop "Making and Performing of Hiragana Melodies (Japanese syllabic monophonies)" at Hakodate Museum for Art, Hokkaido, on August 1. - One day event "WINDS CAFE" at Winds Gallery (Kichijoji) in September. - Solo show at SAI Gallery (Osaka) in October. - Further and other info on my webpage at http://aloalo.co.jp/nakazawa/ from Shigeru Matsui - "Quantum Poem?" Contributed to "suigyu" http://www.ne.jp/asahi/suigyu/suigyu21/ - Perfomance "marathon READING" July 6 (Tokyo) http://nakuya.com/mr.html from Masahiro Miwa - July 21 Presentation and Premier of "SendMail v3 for trumpet and piano" at ICC (NTT InterCommunication Center) http://www.ntticc.or.jp/Calendar/2002/Art_Bit_Collection/index_j.html - August 2-5 World Premier of "MATARISAMA-CPU for mixed Choir" at Oki Music Seminar in Ama (Okinoshima-Island) - August 21-25 Appearance (only) at DSP Summer School 2002 http://dspss.iamas.ac.jp/ - August 25 Performance of "SendMail v3 for trumpet and piano" at Media Art Festival 2002 http://1106.suac.net/MAF2002/ from "Method" - Essays on methodicism and the Method Art Festival by Motoaki Shinohara on the evening of April 27 issue of the Sankei-Newspaper and on the June issue of the Gendaishi-Techo. - Back numbers http://aloalo.co.jp/nakazawa/method/index_e.html Guests up to the issue No. 14: Motoaki Shinohara, Toshiaki Furuya, Masahiro Miwa, Akira Tatehata, Kenjiro Okazaki, Haruyuki Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Ishii, Yutaka Matsuzawa, Yuji Takahashi, Shin Tanabe, Shigeyuki Toshima, Yasunao Tone, Yasuko Toyoshima, Clarence Barlow. - Those who want to subscribe for this bulletin, contact the members. - Volunteer assistants wanted for the activities of "Method." Editor's notes: Poetry is a bomb. Poetry has to be terrorism which harms your life. I would like to announce what I have been thinking for a long time. In view of the present international poetry movement, poetry should not be the notation to pursue one's pleasure, because if so, there will be no future for poetry. We have to find the strictly adhering notation for poetry. There are still many things that a method poet has to work on. (SM) -- Bimonthly Bulletin "Method" No. 15 published on July 3, 2002 Publisher: Hideki Nakazawa, Shigeru Matsui, Masahiro Miwa nakazawa@aloalo.co.jp http://aloalo.co.jp/nakazawa/ shigeru@td5.so-net.ne.jp http://www11.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/td5/shigeru/ mmiwa@iamas.ac.jp http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~mmiwa/ Although you can send on this bulletin freely, each writer still holds the copyright. Corruption and appropriation are prohibited. Your sound judgement is required in forwarding this bulletin to others.