Fascinating show explores silent horror of Hiroshima
Deaf artist uses vibratory tech to reflect deaf experience of atomic bombs at LIVElab
The apocalyptic atomic bomb blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at the very end of the Second World War, must have produced some of the loudest sounds, certainly manmade ones, ever heard on this planet.
Metaphorically, perhaps the very loudest, but one which leaves us in silence.
For Chisato Minamimura, though, a rare perspective on that monstrous tragedy, nuclear warfare, affords unique sensory insights into how we process experience, even at (or maybe especially at) the extremities of human horror. That perspective? The standpoint of those who did not hear it at all but saw and felt it — the deaf survivors of those two cataclysms.
Her concert/performance, “Scored in Silence,” at McMaster University’s LIVElab through May 14, is an experimental tour de force of artistic novelty, historical reflection and alternative storytelling, all combining to produce a powerful, haunting and beautiful meditation on the human puzzle.
It is staged using a remarkable array of media, forms and effets, from American Sign Language, choreography, animation, mime, signmime, projected illustration/video and spoken word to an adaptation of gaming technology that enables audience members to feel strong vibration in their seats.
“It is a visual and touch music” and a visceral one, says Minamimura, a deaf Japanese-British artist, of her use of the word “scored.” “I am fascinated by music, how we can see and feel it. So, this is a score by completely different from an orchestral score. It’s mathematical. Basically, it’s how I structure music.”
There is sound in the one-woman show (spoken word and some voice narration), but one of the chief things it does for audiences, both hearing and deaf, is to simulate the “sensation” of sound as vibration and to approximate the sensory world of the deaf.
“The deaf at Hiroshima (and Nagasaki) had an untold perspective that we have not known,” says Minamimura, through interpreter Liam McCabe.
She came to the subject through her meeting of an older woman on a visit to her family in Japan. “She was deaf and she was present at Hiroshima. When she told me of her experience that’s where the inspiration (for the show) came from. She was a child at the time and she didn’t have a clue.” She saw this and felt this, without hearing, without knowing.
Minamimurra did extensive research on the deaf at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and wanted to replicate, artistically, for others, both deaf and hearing, some semblance of their unique experience. The show also touches on issues of discrimination against the deaf in Japanese society.
An integral part of that experiential approach is the production’s use of the gaming technology mentioned above, namely, the Woojer belt/strap, which everyone in the space at LIVElab will be given.
The Woojer belt is a vibratory advice that transmits pulsations to the wearer’s body corresponding to the sounds in the surrounding space.
The show also features HoloGauze, a projection material that creates a 3D holographic illusion, reflects the live performance.
“With me having a sensory disability, I am fascinated by anything sensory,” says Minamimura. “For me, the more senses that are used bridges the gaps (between people of different abilities).”
In Hamilton this week, Minamimura is preparing for her shows at LIVElab which she calls “incredible.”
It is, she adds, the perfect venue for the kind of show that “Scored in Silence” is, dealing as it does with how humans develop and process experience through art, music, theatre and other creative means.
The LIVELab facility is a 106 seat research-based performance theatre and testing centre at McMaster University (Psychology Complex, second floor, 202 — 1280 Main St. W). It is committed to the scientific study of music, sound, and movement and their importance in human development and human health.
“Scored in Silence” has been called “a feast for the senses, a jolt to the stomach (literally), a prayer for a community relegated to the edges of society” — review of Toronto performance by Aisling Murphy in Intermission Magazine.
“Scored in Silence” opened at LIVElab on Thursday, May 12 and continues with showings on Friday, May 13 at 7 p.m. and on Saturday, May 14 at 2 and 7 p.m.
There is a free open house/demo/ preview from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 13.
General admission is $25, $10 for student/senior/deaf/disability visitors.
For more info, livelab@mcmaster.ca