< “Z-O-M-B-I-E-T-O-W-N” Text by Asa Ito >

Erasure

Can we erase anything in this world?

For example, think the ways that “mapo tofu” can be erased when it is written on paper with a pencil.

Method one, the simple eraser method. It’s true that as far as I can see, the paper has returned to the original white paper, yet fallen bits from the eraser remain. When the eraser erases the words “mapo tofu,” those words are contained within the eraser and pulled away from the fiber of the paper. Thus, the words are actually pulled away from the page, and not erased. The black lead that made “mapo tofu” is now a part of the eraser, and the eraser bits now remain on the desk. In other words, it is simply a change in combination, paper + “mapo tofu” (black lead) turns to eraser + “mapo tofu” (black lead).

Method two, burn the paper. Unlike the eraser method, a scientific method occurs in this method. However, similarly, this is also just a change in combination. One can’t say that it has erased or disappeared, for it is not clear if the ashes of the paper had flown away or not.

Method three, if it cannot be physically erased, what does erasing mean conceptually? For example, when “none” is written down after “mapo tofu”, the owner of a Chinese restaurant will notice that there is no more tofu in the refrigerator, and thus will think about what to write onto the menu. However, though this method has successfully signified the restaurant that there is no mapo tofu, the reality of the menu cannot be erased. Rather, the fact that the mapo tofu is sold out increases the presence of mapo tofu.

※ Methods 1-3 involves the essential problem of thinking of the taste of mapo tofu when seeing the words “mapo tofu.” In fact, when seeing the words, the taste of mapo tofu is more bothersome than the image. Once one imagines the taste, “the tongue tastes of mapo tofu,” and somehow unconsciously, that day’s lunch is mapo tofu. Rather than thinking about erasing mapo tofu, it should be about complementing it. Even if the logic behind the example of “none” is rejected, the body that experiences the image of mapo tofu cannot be erased. Thus, as long as the recognizer has a body, nothing can be erased.

Method four, writing down “maji tofu” next to “mapo tofu.” The moment when people see two similar things, they have the tendency to find the difference between the two. Following this tendency, before one even thinks of the taste of mapo tofu, one intends to change the situation into a problem-solving situation. The meaning of the word “mapo tofu” is temporarily put away, yet the question of the meaning turns into a question of the letters, even more, a new system of meaning arises by thinking of the different meanings of “ma (signifying grandmother) and ji (signifying grandfather).” “Japanese old sayings” is what is brought to association. Yet, this association isn’t held for long, and thus the consciousness returns to “mapo tofu.”

There is no problem when an eraser erases words, for it is regarded as “erased,” and when “none” is added, for it is “erased” from the menu. Yet, the moment that the eye over looks is when the economy of daily life is constructed. However, strictly speaking, nothing is erased, and nothing can be erased.

ーーー

Remake

A remake means both making something again and repeatedly remaking something. In the past, “making” is written, and with the accumulation of history, a remake has different characteristics than a recycled object. (Recycling means the original shape is gone, such as used paper turned into toilet paper.) A remake leaves its previous life alone and simply lives in its current life. A double image is created when the object in its previous and life and its current life are pierced through together. There’s no doubt that in this life everything is physically “rebuilt;” however, in many situations, “history” is difficult to see, meaning that a remake is a clear illustration of the way things are in this life. In Kobayashi Kohei’s production of objects, he uses many remakes of daily objects such as a hose and an umbrella.

Additionally, in Hachioji, a city in Japan, there is a facility. This facility is adjacent to a garbage incinerator and takes advantage of its residual heat in creating a footbath that is available besides the car park. In the first floor of this facility, there is a remake factory. In fact, one can experience creating a remake in this factory, such as creating a remake of a Japanese beanbag from the scraps of a kimono, creating a remake of a quoits from a hose, or creating a remake of an “artwork” from a record player and a golf ball to exhibit at some entrance.

The remakes are placed closely next to each other in the factory, and one can find doubles of the same remake. What stands out especially is the fluorescent cushioning material that is used to cover the corners of desks, of billboards, of the back of chairs, and of tool holders. These are made for the prevention of injuries for children who might hit their heads. There is a total of 30 of these cushioning materials and they are in fact all remade out of tennis balls. Though these tennis balls are remade into cushioning materials, their previous lives as tennis balls are not lost; for, once one walks into the factory, the 30 cushioning materials – tennis balls, seem to be flying at the visitor all at once without making a sound. In other words, because of the fluorescent color of the cushioning material = tennis ball, they seem to be floating off the ground from their surrounding objects and peeled off like an orange peel to cover the corners, also the tennis ball “turns into an elliptical shape as it bounces intensely off of different objects,” and at that moment, the elasticity that it had as a tennis ball experiences a “resurrection.” A “resurrection” is to say that something happens from an object. Thus, a remake in this case, connects the times of the two events of “protecting the corner” and “hitting the corner,” hence, awakening the past. Furthermore, the “distorted ball” cannot be registered to the naked eye, and so in this same moment a “resurrection” occurs in the form of a manga-esque representation. The observer participates in the performance, for a playback machine = player. Playback machine = player means disc = remake, and so a “resurrection” occurs. Even though the record is covered by scratches, the center label shows that the content is “Terminator 2.”

The remake combination of a record player and a golf ball also experiences the same “resurrection.” By placing a golf ball in the middle of the record, it becomes the handle of a teetotum, and in fact when it spins, a mirage of a “resurrection” appears in the form of Schwarzenegger dressed as the terminator walking towards here with fire in the background. In this case, the “rotating” motion creates a double image. In other words, the same time the teetotum rotates, the record player also rotates; however, the reality is that the record player doesn’t exist,that famous one scene in the movie “terminator” somehow is able to be “resurrected.” A “resurrection” means the return of a dead object, and so these remakes must contain something ghostly. This life and the previous life remain interconnected.

ーーー

Regeneration

A DVD disc plays a movie by changing the physical traces on the disc. If a laser light is directed at the disk, the story within the movie is “regenerated.” The medium of the disc is for the story to exist, yet when the disc is scratched, the story changes, and so in other words, the disk is the story itself. However, at the same time, the disk is a physical object, and the story is combined with the element of time, and so the two both overcome the differences in “changing” together, thus they are completely different but correspond to each other. Therefore, a “resurrection” is a situation where the physical object can also be another object.

The corner of a desk that could be a bouncing tennis ball. The spinning teetotum that could be the image of the terminator. Thus, this odd concept of “could be another object” is the essence of “resurrection.” Moving an object that had stopped is not a “resurrection.” “Resurrection” literally means a dead object coming back to life, in other words, a zombie, and there is nothing odd, magical, or illogical about this.

In this life, there is a wide range of media to record what is about to disappear, and a DVD disc is a product aimed to document memories, meaning the possibility of “resurrection” is greater. For example, objects such as roads, mountains, and houses can have other occurrences happen at the same time, allowing “resurrection” to happen. As children in the classroom think and share their opinions, there are other objects in that view that can be together “resurrected.” The same time multiple players move, multiple happenings occur.

Within the landscape where objects “resurrect” at the same time, that town has zombies hanging around, turning it into a zombie town. A ghost town appears when humans disappear and leave only a shell, whereas a zombie town is when objects come back to life. Movies often depict zombies increasing in number. In music, minimal music is created when multiple sound sources simultaneously playback the same sounds, and in the town, when a “resurrected” object meets another “resurrected” object, a zombie could be created. Surrounding us could be various objects that can be different objects, and thus our town could secretly already be a zombie town.

ーーー

Whirlpools

Every summer vacation, my family travels to our relative’s house in Shikoku. The only exciting thing in our seven-hour drive down an empty road is the fried chicken in the bento box that my mother makes. When we were about to cross the Naruto Strait, the fried chicken breast did not go past my throat. The car cut through Awaji Island, and before approaching the O-Naruto Bridge, I felt that same tension of how I didn’t want to go to my relative’s house. There is certainly differences between “culture,” and a week’s stay brings a lot of tension to the children, and at the same time it is a curious experience in another culture.

The reason occurred at the Naruto Straight ahead. I am in the car with my family, cutting through Awaji Island, crossing the O-Naruto Bridge, and headed towards Shikoku. Although I understand the reason, my head says to “go through the Naruto Strait” that, according to the map of Japan, is a very narrow gap between Awaji Island and Shikoku to enter the Seto Sea. I don’t even understand why I imagined such a course that intersects reality. The image cannot be corrected, and we would be in a situation where we would have to go through the Naruto Channel. Additionally, having claustrophobia, there is great fear of feeling trapped when passing through this narrow gap with moving walls, the same reason to why I cannot ride in a ferris wheel (which is not in fact because of a fear of height). This moving wall sticks then separates to your body, as if the esophagus is swallowing food. Indeed, this explains my own esophagus holding onto the fried chicken, and as I try to send it forward, it stays down. There is a closed place among claustrophobic human beings! As I headed towards the Naruto Strait, I was sweating in my own closed of space. By holding down the looming Awaji Island with my right hand, and holding the heavy Shikoku with my left hand, I forced open the Naruto Strait, and painfully escaped from my own mouth – I was inside of my own child and it was such a confusing and chaotic image. For that reason, I could not swallow the fried chicken.

ーーー

Time Travel

Taro Okamoto, in his lifetime, said, “the Jomon people are imitating themselves.” Similar to what Okamoto said, a recent thesis paper published a hypothesis that “Kraftwerk’s originator is Perfume.” These arguments share the fact that their “origin” is not fact of the past, but an assumption. An origin is not “the starting point of time,” that is when one meets a “fountain that contains all possibilities,” one first sees the flowing water, and then one finds the origin of the water. Okamoto, the fountain of possibilities deeply finds “objects with Jomon characteristics,” and the Jomon people themselves saw them in the downstream. For the author of the thesis paper, Kraftwerk’s events were supported by Man Machine’s yearnings, this image came to Japan, in other words, the Japanese pop group, Perfume, and this fountain, the parent was born before the child.

If so, there are so many possibilities to the starting point of this contemporary society. Let’s say the origin of town a is called A, and this town may appear hundreds of years later, and appear as a country that is more Ghibli movie like than the Ghibli movies, and might appear five thousand years later. There is a possibility that our own origin might appear 10 thousand years later. Even though these characters are born after myself, I am still expecting my own presence.

The discussion around “origin” cannot be cleaned up because there is a possibility that everything including myself may be activating something that I don’t know. For example, a situation where when I’m walking on a surface, and I turn on a switch on the floor by stepping on it. In this moment, with the possibility that I unconsciously move and operate will lead me to consciously find the “origin” in the future. The origin to what happens in the future does not exist in the present time, and if it is something related to the present, it is unknown. Therefore, it can be concluded that the present was an unconscious result.

Text by Asa Ito