You Nakai is going to give an artist talk on December 6 from 18:45 at the Building 18 hall in Komaba campus, the University of Tokyo, as part of the series "Doing Air through Arts." Since the whole series is funded by Daikin, a company manufacturing air conditioners and air purifiers, the assigned topic is the artistic use of air, so together with the artist and rock musician Yoshihito Mizuuchi, You is presenting a performance lecture entitled "The Air in Our Bodies: Doing Air through Farts" which explores the phenomenon of flatulence in relation to recent project concerning air and the notion of the virtual.
November 3, 2023
You Nakai will be conducting a test-run of Island Eye Island Ear on Kamomejima in Hokkaido over the weekend of November 25-26 as part of Side Project. On November 27, there will be a related symposium "IEIE, Reflected: phase 3: No Wo/Man Is an Island: From Knavelskar to Kamomejima (1974-2024)" in Sapporo Community Plaza with members of Side Project and special guests Marianne Hultman, Kjersti Solbakken and Berte Ynnesdal from Lofoten International Art Festival where we plan to present another version of IEIE next year.
June 23, 2023
SELOUT is curating the sixth seminar of influentology on September 30 at the 900 auditorium in Komaba campus, the University of Tokyo. The invited lecturer will be the renowned musician Kenji Ozawa, who will be talking about "The Influentology of Images". He will also be performing some songs, including a new one written especially for this occasion. This event is by application only (and only in Japanese), so please check out the following form if you are interested in participating.
February 3, 2023
Here's the film documentation of the Zoomusic concert we organized with Tokyo Gen'On Project in December 2022.
February 1, 2023
You Nakai will be co-curating an exhibition as part of the ongoing Side Project which explores the realizability of David Tudor's unrealized project Island Eye Island Ear in Hokkaido. This is the second show after the first one we presented last August, and it will focus on both the islands we have examined so far, as well as interviews conducted with scholars and hunters and artists who we met during our research as a series of side-effects of this endeavor.
January 29, 2023
You Nakai is going to give a lecture titled "Karmic Relationships, Accelerated: Influences & Incidents in India (and Beyond)" as part of the CTM Festival in Berlin on February 2. Details are here.
December 6, 2022
You Nakai is going to curate a zoomusic concert in collaboration with Tokyo Gen'On Project. With new works by G Douglas Barrett, Jenn Kirby, Varun Kishore, Aiko Kono, Akiko Koga, and Koki Fukuda. The concert will be held simultaneously online and offline (in Tokyo). Details are here.
You Nakai is co-curating IEIE, Reflected [Phase 1], as part of the three-year long SIDE PROJECT aimed at realizing the unrealized project Island Eye Island Ear in Hokkaido, Japan. Phase 1 will consist of two events: an experimental workshop focused on sound beams using ultrasonic loudspeakers (August 21), as well as the exhibition IEIE Chronicles, which charts out the time line of events (and their side-effects) related to Island Eye Island Ear (August 28-September 4).
June 15, 2022
You Nakai will be part of Unexpected Territories, a ten-day festival on David Tudor's music in Berlin from July 1-10, participating in a round table, a lecture workshop on Island Eye Island Ear, as well as a performance of Monobirds.
June 1, 2022
You Nakai is presenting a paper titled "Archival Weatherings" as part of the group presentation ARCHIVING POST-1960s MUSICS: FOUR EXPERIENCES OF ENGAGEMENT at the conference of American Musical Instrument Society in Calgary.
You Nakai is going to be part of a zoomusic concert happening over the weekend. This will present the results of a virtual residency that No Collective has been doing at the University of Virginia. Details are here.
what & WHO
hoSted by You Nakai at the university of Tokyo, SIDE EFFECTS LAB EXPLORES THE PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURES OF PERFORMANCE BY PAYING ATTENTION TO THE PHENOMENA OF BYPRODUCTS AND SIDE EFFECTS
RESEARCH
We conduct research on various fields of interest which extend from and merge in issues of performance and side effects.
PERFORMANCE
We create various forms of performances, while also searching ways to frame various phenomena as performance.
PUBLICATION
We publish what we discovered, made, or conceived, through various channels and platforms across the world.
YOU NAKAI
You makes music(ians), dance(rs), haunted musical mansions, nursery rhymes, and other forms of performances as a member of No Collective, and publishes experimental children’s books written by children and other literary oddities as a member of Already Not Yet. In addition to his artistic activity, You also conducts research on various topics related to performance, and has been engaged in an extensive study of David Tudor’s music, the results of which have been recently compiled into Reminded by the Instruments: David Tudor’s Music (Oxford University Press, 2021). You currently works as associate professor at the University of Tokyo with a joint appointment at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Culture and Representation Course) and the Art Center of the University of Tokyo (ACUT). He is also the chair (and one of the only two members) of the Department of Avant-garde Arts which he founded in 2023.
To end the virtual residency at the University of Virginia, You Nakai/No Collective, Tokyo Gen'on Project, and UVA composers are organizing a concert of zoomusic. Given the time difference, we are doing two concerts, one in the evening time in Japan (morning in Virginia), and the other in the morning time of Japan (evening in Virginia). The two concerts will be set up like a diptych of sorts so it might be interesting to attend them both. For more details on the virtual residency go here.
You Nakai is joining a group presentation titled ARCHIVING POST-1960s MUSICS: FOUR EXPERIENCES OF ENGAGEMENT at the conference of American Musical Instrument Society.
S.E.L.O.U.T. is curating a series of seminars focused on the topic of influence this fall. For the first round of seminars, we have selected a scientist of Agricultural Informatics ("the other AI") who will talk about the various meanings behind the seemingly singular acronym AI, an elderly gallery owner and a young fashion brand manager who will discuss the notion of "brand" and how to pass over influence across generations, a linguist studying fillers who will talk about his research while inevitably enacting the same fillers he attempts to theorize, a film scholar and an archivist sharing the same Chinese characters in their names, and a YouTuber who broadcasts her life in the countryside with the large bird Emu who will make a YouTube video of her visit to our lab.
PERFORMANCE
Tokyo Gen'On Project#18 ZOOMUSIC
WHEN：December 19, 2022 WHERE：ZOOM／Tokyo, Suginami Public Hall
You Nakai will be curating a concert of zoomusic as part of the "Critic's Selection" series by Tokyo Gen'on Project. We are planning to stage a double concert that happens online and offline simultaneously. For the offline version, taking place in Tokyo, I imagine it will be a bit like visiting a TV studio or a film set while they are shooting a program or a movie addressed primarily to people watching it on screen. So please make your choice and select which version you wish to experience. Details are here.
We are also putting out a call for zoomusic so please submit whatever ideas you may have!
You Nakai is delivering a lecture titled “Karmic Relationships, Accelerated: Influences & Incidents in India (and Beyond)” as part of the CTM Festival in Berlin. Here's abstract: "This talk surveys David Tudor’s long relationship with India, which culminated in his 1969 visit to Ahmedabad to establish the electronic music studio at the National Institute of Design, but was preceded by a strange history of exchanges and misunderstandings between Western mysticism and India, as well as succeeded by an equally strange history of consequences and byproducts that, among other things, might explain why I have been summoned to give this talk at CTM Festival today." Details are here.
PRESENTATION
IEIE, REFLECTED: PHASE 2: LOCATION HUNTING
WHEN：February 4-14, 2023 WHERE：Sapporo Cultural Arts Community Center
You Nakai will be co-curating an exhibition as part of the ongoing Side Project which explores the realizability of David Tudor's unrealized project Island Eye Island Ear in Hokkaido. This is the second show after the first one we presented last August, and it will focus on both the islands we have examined so far, as well as interviews conducted with scholars and hunters and artists who we met during our research as a series of side-effects of this endeavor.
PRESENTATION
THE INFLUENTOLOGY OF IMAGES: KENJI OZAWA
WHEN：September 30, 2023 WHERE：900 Auditorium, The University of Tokyo
SELOUT is curating the sixth seminar of influentology on September 30 at the 900 auditorium in Komaba campus, the University of Tokyo. The invited lecturer will be the renowned musician Kenji Ozawa, who will be talking about "The Influentology of Images". He will also be performing some songs, including a new one written especially for this occasion. This event is by application only (and only in Japanese), so please check out the following form if you are interested in participating.
PRESENTATION
IEIE, REFLECTED: PHASE 3: NO Wo/MAN IS AN ISLAND: FROM KNAVELSKAR TO KAMOMEJIMA (1974-2024)
WHEN：November 27, 2023 WHERE：Sapporo Cultural Arts Community Center
You Nakai will be conducting a test-run of Island Eye Island Ear on Kamomejima in Hokkaido over the weekend of November 25-26 as part of Side Project. On November 27, there will be a related symposium in Sapporo Community Plaza with members of Side Project and special guests Marianne Hultman, Kjersti Solbakken and Berte Ynnesdal from Lofoten International Art Festival where we plan to present another version of IEIE next year.
PERFORMANCE
DOING AIR THROUGH FARTS
WHEN：December 6, 2023, 18:45- WHERE：Building 18 Hall, Komaba Campus, The University of Tokyo
You Nakai is going to give an artist talk on December 6 from 18:45 at the Building 18 hall in Komaba campus, the Unviersity of Tokyo, as part of the series "Doing Air through Arts." Since the whole series is funded by Daikin, a company manufacturing air conditioners and air purifiers, the assigned topic is the artistic use of air, so together with the artist and rock musician Yoshihito Mizuuchi, You is presenting a performance lecture entitled "The Air in Our Bodies: Doing Air through Farts" which explores the phenomenon of flatulence in relation to recent project concerning air and the notion of the virtual.
PRESENTATION
IEIE, REFLECTED: PHASE 4: VIRTUAL GROUND
WHEN：February 17-18, 2024 WHERE：The University of Sapporo, Virtual Reality Theater
As part of Side Project, You Nakai will be presenting a virtual reality piece "Virtual IEIE: Last Year in Kamomejima" which enables viewers to re-experience the realization of Island Eye Island Ear on Kamomejima. This presentation will be part of the Sapporo International Art Festival 2014, and will be accompanied by an extravagant symposium titled "Virtual Grand Hotel" in which we will assemble as many people as possible who we met during our 2-year-long exploration of the project, to explore the fruits and potential future developments of all the byproducts and side effects of our effort to realize IEIE in Hokkaido.
PRESENT
UNDERTAKINGS, STUDIES & LaboUrs CURRENTLY conducted by S.E.L.O.U.T. with STUDENTS OR other people
INFLUENCE of influence
An archeology of the occult and convenient notion of influence which people use to explain relationships and effects that cannot be explained rationally. From influentia to influencers, via influenza and DUI. [COURSE]
A series of publications that serve as a platform for practical and theoretical research on the concept of "influence." Each issue in this series will focus on a specific theme from various perspectives through the optics of "influence."
A genealogical examination of the now-prevalent notion of performance, with a focus on the various forms of empiricism revolving around the lineage of pragmatism. [COURSE]
Exploring personal habits as a network of unconscious choreography set on each individual, and using mutual reflection between participants to discover dance by way of subtraction. [COURSE]
An experimental class where non-music major students learn the real history and theory and practice of experimental music, and attempt to imagine and fabricate a pseudo-history and theory and practice of experimental music that could have been but was not. Scheduled to go on for twenty or so years. [COURSE]
A series of pedagogical exercises to make music that can only be performed and experienced over zoom, partially to overcome the reluctance of teaching experimental music during COVID-19. [COURSE]
Long term collaborative project based in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, to explore the realizability of David Tudor's unrealized project Island Eye Island Ear along with the side effects of such an exploration.
An effort to publish the documentation of 9 Evenings (1966), using the manuscript of a book that was planned yet abandoned in the aftermath of the event, while also reflecting on the passing of time since then to conceive a documentation twice removed.
You Nakai is currently working on a translation of Investigative Aesthetics by Eyal Weizman and Matthew Fuller, as well as other publications related to Forensic Architecture.
Various projects concerning David Tudor are in development, including a festival of Tudor's music in Berlin (July 2022), plans for setting a David Tudor Lab in Istanbul, etc.
Extending the idea of bias in analog electronics to make a circuit function properly, materials for realizing a performance are theorized from the negative standpoint of constraint.
REMINDED BY THE INSTRUMENTS: DAVID TUDOR'S MUSIC [2021.3]
This is a book on what a musician named David Tudor did, along with how and why he did them. And it is also sometimes about what he might have been thinking when he did certain things. The way I go about doing this is by connecting many materials that Tudor left behind as if they were pieces of a giant puzzle. So the important thing is that whole picture emerges from within that process, as a by-product or a side effect almost, and that’s why it feels like a bit of a cheat to give away a quick overview to people who have not read it. The most exciting things, at least as far as I’m concerned, are in the specific processes of solving one puzzle after another, and not so much in the philosophy or theory that might show up in the end. In that sense, maybe it’s a bit like a performance, which might be quite fitting for a book on Tudor.
SOUNDING THE PERIPHERIES [2021.7]
I wrote a new essay titled “Sounding the Peripheries” for the catalog of the exhibition Teasing Chaos: David Tudor at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Through a detailed analysis of Soundings: Ocean Diary (1994), Tudor’s contribution to Ocean, his last collaborative project with John Cage and Merce Cunningham, the essay probes into one particular topic which I had deliberately left on the periphery of my argument in Reminded by the Instruments: the personal and artistic relationship between Tudor and Cage. Tudor’s idiosyncratic take on Cage’s approach to music is revealed, and a series of puzzling evidence documenting their long-time friendship is presented for others to solve.
ZOOMUSIC NO.1 [2021.7]
The first concert of zoomusic by my students at the University of Tokyo.
MONOBIRDS: FROM AHMEDABAD TO XENON [2021.10]
In December 1969, David Tudor made a series of recordings at the Electronic Music Studio at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, using Moog Synthesizers that he himself had brought from the United States and installed there. Ten years later, on March 1, 1979, Tudor used one of these recordings, which he now called Monobird, as the primary source track for a recording session at the New York discotheque Xenon.
This album, released by TOPOS, includes two 33rpm vinyl records of these works and an essay by You Nakai, When David Tudor Went Disco, that provides an in-depth study of Tudor’s performance at Xenon and its relation to Monobird. Selected as BEST OF 2021 by soundohm
MIGRATION OF MONOBIRDS [2021.10]
I presented a talk as part of the Archives Public Programs of National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. The series examines the activities of Experiments in Art & Technology in India in the 1960s and 70s.
My session focused on one particular recording David Tudor made during his stay at NID in late 1969 using the Moog Synthesizer he had installed in India’s first electronic music studio. Although Tudor personally disliked the Moog, after circumstances pushed him to perform with the instrument, he recorded what he did and subsequently used the same recording as a sound source in various performances across the 1970s. Analysis of recordings, photographs, diagrams, schematics, and recollections, revealed the unexpected trajectory of this recording he called Monobird, offering a thought or two about putting the archive to good use.
LATE REALIZATIONS [2022.1]
I wrote a new essay for the recent issue of the online journal ECHO, dedicated to the topic of feedback. It traces David Tudor’s use of feedback in relatively broad strokes, especially in relation to his collaboration with Gordon Mumma, focusing on the period between Bandoneon ! and Island Eye Island Ear, and connecting the argument to my own works with No Collective.
ZOOMUSIC NO.2 [2022.2]
The second concert of zoomusic by my students at the University of Tokyo
SIDE PROJECT LAUNCH DISCUSSION [2022.2]
We had our first launch-up conference of Side Project on February 13, 2022. I gave a talk on Island Eye Island Ear. Unfortunately, the whole thing was in Japanese due to budget constraints, but here's a video if you want to try.
REMINDED BY "REMINDED BY THE INSTRUMENTS" [2022.3]
I was invited to discuss Reminded by the Instruments by RISME, a study group on electronic music within the Italian Musicological Society. I mostly answered questions and talked about things I wrote about and things I did not.
NEW REVIEWS OF REMINDED BY THE INSTRUMENTS [2022.6]
Two lengthy and very insightful reviews of Reminded by the Instruments have appeared recently. One was written by Ezra J. Teboul in English and is published in the Computer Music Journal (MIT Press); The other was written by Jozef Cseres in Czech and is published in the online journal His Voice (Part I and II).
ZOOMUSIC | ToKYO GEN'ON PROJECT [2022.12]
The final ZOOMUSIC concert performed in collaboration with Tokyo Gen'On Project, presented online and offline simultaneously, with new pieces by composers including Doug G. Barrett, Jenn Kirby and Varun Kishore.
KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, ACCELERATED [2023.2]
Online lecture given by You Nakai as part of the CTM Festival in Berlin, surveying David Tudor’s long relationship to India, which culminated in his 1969 visit to Ahmedabad to establish the electronic music studio at the National Institute of Design, but was preceded by a strange history of exchanges and misunderstandings between Western mysticism and India, as well as succeeded by an equally strange history of consequences and byproducts that, among other things, might explain why You was summoned to give this talk at CTM Festival.
