Yuko Mohri’s Solo is an installation whose conception was shaped by the advent of the pandemic. Originally conceived as a multidisciplinary collaborative piano, it was changed when the artist decided to move to a place in nature to protect herself from contagion and began making environmental field recordings such as “waves beating against the shore, rain drizzling on rice paddies, trees rustling in the wind, bonfires crackling, water birds squawking…”. The sound of waves, for example, is picked up by a microphone in front of a loudspeaker (just as our ears would) and converted, with a delay, into approximate notes for an autonomous piano. Instead of reverse sonification, where the pitch of natural sounds is converted into notes, the system seems to listen, creating a dialogical contrast between the quiet digital video and the analogue mechanics of the piano.

 

Yuko Mohri – Solo residency project at Ginza Sony Park