Embodying a Map: A Review of “DUMB TYPE｜2022: remap”
<p>Dumb Type, a Japanese art collective organized in 1984, presented <em>2022: remap</em>, a modified version of its recent work <em>2022</em> (2022) which came to be shown at the 59th Venice Biennale. <em>2022: remap</em> is the installation that comprises some devices for processing light, sound, laser beams, and video images. The sounds of this work were composed or devised by musician Sakamoto Ryuichi, who joined in Dumb Type and passed away this past March.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*gmJLkQfR4bnqmutaiDeVVw.jpeg" style="height:387px; width:700px" /></p>
<p>Dumb Type, <strong>2022: remap</strong> (detail) *Record players are playing the field recordings.</p>
<p>In the center of the exhibition space, a square area bounded by walls is constructed. On the outside of the walls, some record players are put in, each of them streaming discrete sound collected in a specific location around the world, such as Santiago, Mexico City, New York, Tokyo, Chiang Mai. These sounds of the field recordings are indistinct, and this kind of faintness or impalpability culminates inside the walls.</p>
<p>On the wall, red dots of the laser beams, which are shot from the device and reflected by the revolting mirror system, compose the letters and sentences. These are quoted from an American geography textbook in the 1850s, some of which read “What is the Earth?” “On which Continent do we live?” “How many Countries are there?” “How are they divided?” “In what country do we live?” These phrases suggest a geopolitical “map” of the world.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/@katsumata.ryo/embodying-a-map-a-review-of-dumb-type-2022-remap-b6d8712120c8"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>