AT A GLANCE
Artist China Blue Shows at
Tokyo Experimental Festival
8 Bit
Cricket.
Image
courtesy of
the artist.
By Raphael Rosen
Contributor
Interacting with electronic animals used to
only be possible in Philip K. Dick stories. For
October and November of this year, though, at
the Tokyo Experimental Festival Vol. 8 in that
city’s Hongo district, American sound artist
China Blue exhibited an art piece that proves
otherwise.
China Blue was invited to the festival as a
representative of the American art community.
Founder and executive director of The Engine
Institute, she creates artworks that marry
art and science. She specifically created The
Engine Institute—based in Providence, Rhode
Island— “to harness the strengths of artists and
scientists to benefit communities.” Current
Engine programs include a partnership with
NASA and the Rhode Island Space Grant
to create a movie about sound and human
perception, as well as the annual Firefly
SciArt in America December 2013
Festival, which educates the public about the
importance of dark skies and holds workshops
showing visitors how to build their own
electronic fireflies.
The piece Blue brought to Tokyo was called
8 Bit Cricket and consisted of a series of simple
circuits that responded to sound. If no one were
close to the piece, the circuits would randomly
fire on and off, creating an artificial “cricket
chorus.” If, however, visitors turned flashlights
on and off near the artwork, the cricket song
would change.
“During my trip I noticed the sound of the
crickets,” Blue said, “and I was surprised that
they sounded different from ours and oddly
more like my electronic crickets.” For the
Tokyo festival, art indeed seemed to mimic
reality.
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