Aquatic Score for a Performing Goldfish

Sumio Kobayashi

Artwork Description:

Aquatic Score for a Performing Goldfish is a short piano work in which a goldfish becomes the performer. In this work, a musical score is placed beneath the image of water. A computer program detects the movement of a goldfish, and when the fish touches specific notes on the score, corresponding sounds are produced. The fish does not “read” the score in a human way, yet its movement activates the music. In this sense, the score is performed through the unpredictable behavior of a living creature. Ripples on the surface of the water can also become performers. This work presents the place from which I come, seen through different perspectives. Music has become increasingly digitized, and the field in which I have worked has changed with it: musical scores have receded, while artificial procedures have multiplied. We often imagine that we are hearing something natural, yet much of what we hear has already been shaped by invisible digital processes. Even recording and editing procedures that pass unnoticed are deeply artificial.