This work is an immersive sound installation using spatial audio technology. Hamakai is a type of vocal communication mimicking the sounds of prey animals while hunting in the forest, used by the last nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Amazon known as the Awá. The artist has visited the site multiple times in recent years to conduct fieldwork and has recorded Hamakai. And at the same time, he recorded sounds like the sound of the illegal logging faced by the Awá and of the railway for transporting raw materials for steel making laid in the vicinity. This work captures a wide variety of such sounds coexisting in the current residential areas of the Awá people.
Furthermore, this work has a structure that allows the artist, who is conducting participant observation using a cultural anthropological approach, to objectively view himself. From beginning to end, this work is centered around the conversation between a father and daughter in the living room. This is taken from the dialogue-based expression technique called “metalogue” devised by Gregory BATESON. The father sharing eagerly the knowledge he acquired from fieldwork, and the daughter learning about the unknown. At the end of the conversation, the daughter poses a fundamental question about the practice of participant observation.
About preserving the culture of others, about conducting research using scientific methods, about addressing pressing issues of environmental and cultural extinction... It expresses such pluralistic elements in the auditory space using theatrical techniques.
Voice Cast: MORINAGA Yasuhiro (Father), UEDA Yuna (Daughter)
Immersive Audio Technical Direction: HIRAI Tetsushi (TXA planning)
Immersive Audio Engineer: Mine-Chang (prime sound studio form)
Performance System: UEDA Shimpei, ISHIKI Takeru, NUMAZAWA Naruki (Scientific Tsukuba)
Recording Studio: Espreita o Som LDA Lisbon
Sound System Support: MITSUHASHI Takeshi (Onkeisha Inc.)
Equipment Support and System Optimization : DOHI Masashi
Production Support:
Jeannine CANTARELLI, Carla KLAJNER, Carolina BRITO, Hugo LEITÃO, Casilla La Pajarita, Uirá Felippe GARCIA, UEDA Koji, CIEBA (Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes), Arari, ISPN