Natural Frequencies is a performance collaboration with Akiko Nakayama, a painter whose practice focuses on so-called “alive painting”, that broadly follows marbling and suminagashi techniques to create colorful abstractions that are projected in real time.

Focusing on the direct connections possible between music and visual art, Natural Frequencies proposes itself as an autonomous closed system with color and sound completely co-dependent. Disturbances created by the performers change the course and attitude of the system, sculpting the overall narrative of the piece.

Sonically, the piece takes the form of an octophonic sound system that features eight speakers arranged in a circle around the performers. Colors from Nakayama’s painting actively determine the timbre and spatialization of electronic sounds. A tertiary layer is created using feedback, where one performer can choose a feedback path by placing the microphone near any one of the eight speakers, forcing the sound into immersive and distorted textures.

This project was created for the Nakanojo Biennale 2021, and filmed at Iwamoto Kami-gumi Community Center and Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture.

The video was filmed by Emanuele Dainotti, Lei Suzuki, and Tetsuo Yamashige.

About Akiko Nakayama

Akiko Nakayama is a Japanese artist that mixes different mediums in her work including painting, performance, and video in an ongoing research she calls “Alive Painting”. Chemical reactions of pigments in water and turpentine guide the colorful abstractions that move on the camera that captures her work.

Among the themes she hopes to explore through this unique process is the human connection with nature through the use of colors and fluidity, and attempts to celebrate moments of beauty that recognize the ephemerality of life.