Transmediating a Japanese Garden through Spatial Sound Design

Abstract

There have been numerous artists, architects and designers whose encounters with traditional Japanese garden aesthetics have produced creative works. The author examines John Cage's Ryoanji, a musical translation of the famous karesansui garden in Kyoto, as an important musical precedent and uses it to position his own methodologies for transmediating the spatial predilections of the Japanese garden Sesshutei. He also documents various mapping techniques and data visualizations used to inform his recent multi-channel sound installation/performance environment, Sesshutei as a spatial model.