Taking a Breath
Disconnecting can help us in reconnecting
今度は今度。今は今。
"“Next time is next time, now is now”
I recently watched Perfect Days - the latest film from the wonderful mind of Wim Wenders. In short, it’s a story about a man named Hirayama - a public toilet cleaner living in Tokyo who has found a peaceful form of fulfilment in a miniaturised practice of his art, tucked neatly within the heart of his monotonous daily routine.
Central to his attitude to life is komorebi, the Japanese word for the shimmering of light and shadow created by leaves swaying in the wind, something that exists once, only at that moment. He sees uniqueness in every event. The film is a meditative masterpiece, a study into what makes the ordinary so extraordinary. I won’t share too many more spoilers regarding the story here, you can find a much better synopsis here via The New Yorker, but if you’ve yet to see Perfect Days, I do highly recommend you to watch it — it’s the kind of film that changes the way you see the world — a temporary relief from the patterns of our thoughts, perceptions and calculations.
What struck me so deeply after watching this film, was its exploration of intimate space. Communicating emotions as a series of fine details and observations between humans and their environments is something which is reflected exceptionally well in the film’s sound design.
Focusing very much on the ordinary, and drifting between real world setting and dream-like sequences — we are hypnotised by the clinks, steps and movements of Hirayama as he patrols his universe. We pick up and perceive his character to be the sum of the tiny details that the near-silent dialogue leaves to us as empty space. Here in the void, we come to appreciate the slightest noise, where our imaginations, preconceptions and computations work creatively to fill in the story.
This film, and these thoughts, have sat with me during this past few weeks as I’ve taken a break from my online self - that which I refer to as my digital presence, indeed for most of you reading that is perhaps the Mat Eric Hart that you know best!
Anyways, I’m somewhat sure that this brief break was perhaps subtly influenced after having watching Perfect Days. Amongst many much welcomed exchanges and activities (I finished two novels which I’m chuffed about!), I have also been collecting and forming new projects during this digital down time. “So often, the best ideas come to writers and creators when they are not being productive,” writes Mason Currey, who curates the wonderful Subtle Maneuvers which explores deeply and with delicate insight the routines, rituals and wrigglings of creative life.
One such project I have recently started work on is a very interesting collection of exclusive sound effects for the incredible Soundly platform — a collection which places its focus solely on the sounds of breathing.
The collection is in the final stages of mixing and will be published very soon - in the meantime, I’d love to know if you have any further ideas for sounds that centre on the subject of breathing!
So far I’ve had panting, wheezing, yawning, sighing, snoring, gasping, choking… please feel free to let me know your ideas in the comments- or even better, if you’re feeling expressive why not send me a voice recording with your idea!
Further Listening… 🎧
https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/breathing-with-the-forest/
Breathing with the Forest is an experience of deep continuity and reciprocity with a Capinuri tree (Maquira coriacea) in the Colombian Amazon rainforest. Inviting us to see inside its hidden pathways, this multimedia journey brings us into relationship with the rhythmic interchange of breath that keeps the forest—and us—alive. Entering the forest, we step out of our separateness to embody something much more than human.
“With each breath we take a rhythmic interchange that keeps the foret and us alive…
…with each breath we exchange parts of ourselves with the wider world”
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Mat
🌻
My piece Asfixia (suffocation/asphyxia) from my album Beat Studies
https://marcelocarneiro.bandcamp.com/album/beat-studies