Knowing Without Seeing
Cover. Shirahige-jinja Shrine [Takashima, Japan [2010]. Photography: Nipomen.
Preface
This text is an extract from The Presence of Absence [2013] by creative artist, Keiko Oyamatsu.
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Synopsis
As an artist born in Japan, but now living and studying in the Netherlands, she developed a particular viewpoint, which is born of merging and integrating two contrasting cultures. The intention and purpose of the thesis was to evaluate contemporary art, largely governed by Western values, from an Eastern point of view and personal perspective. This opened up a dialogue that lead to new insights. Her analysis centres around the concept of Ma ['negative space' or 'space in-between’], with its origins deep in Japanese culture, but with its global meaning.
In the first chapter she starts with an investigation of the perceptual differences between Ma in Japan and Ma in the Western countries, in the domain of human interaction, subjective self, and physical environment. Chapter 2 examines and analyses Ma in the works of both Western and Japanese artists such as Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Francis Alys, On Kawara, and Rei Naito. Her line of thinking is inspired by mixtures of Western and Eastern philosophers such as Roland Barthes, George Gurdjieff, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh [Osho], Dogen Zenji, Hu Shih, and others.
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Introduction
Ma [間; pronounced 'maah'] is a Japanese word for which there is no equivalent word in English or in Dutch. It can be roughly translated as 'negative space' or 'space in-between' e.g. a gap, interval, pause or the space between two structural parts. Ma is the essence of the Japanese aesthetic and is a concept representing the pure and essential void between all things. Ma is a field within which things can exist, stand out and have meaning. A total lack of clutter, Ma relates closely to Mu [nothingness. emptiness, the void], a keyword in Buddhism, especially in Mahayana-Zen traditions. Ma has always been a central concern of artistic expression in Japan, as things which are not seen, which are intangible have a much bigger impact on the human psyche than things which are seen.
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Power of the Invisible
Take as an example, the situation in Japan after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The country seems to have entered an age of 'fear of the invisible'; fear of radiation. A mother living 50 km away from the nuclear site is quoted as saying that 'radiation has been occupying my mind the whole time'. It prevents her from allowing her children to pick flowers, jump in puddles, or touch wet umbrellas. She doe not like taking her newborn daughter out for walks.
She knows this impacts badly on her children's well-being, but she cannot stop taking precautions. Overwhelming fear throughout the country caused by uncertainty about the invisible toxicants frequently manifests as physical ailments with many people reporting cases of heart disease and panic attacks. Even in areas where radiation risks are very low, people are still deeply concerned and worried. Rational or irrational, it is seriously threatening the country's economy, and the very future of its society.
Quite the opposite yet equally true is the perception of the 'things which are not seen' as belonging to the highest divinity, the concept of God, which evokes a sense of supreme beauty, truth, grace, and wisdom in the minds of believers. Billions of people throughout the world believe that God has the power to save the world; God being the creator of the world and true hope for infinite eternal life. 'Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption' [Psalm 130:7]. Faith in God can console people even in the face of death. However, God has of course, never been seen.
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'Billions of people throughout the world believe that God has the power to save the world; God being the Creator of the world and true hope for infinite eternal life. Faith in God can console people even in the face of death. However, God has of course never been seen.'
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Muslims ban the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed. Jews have for the most part avoided visual representation of the deity. The Christian Orthodox Church uses religious icons and symbols for worship. Since God became unified with Jesus, Jesus and other holy figures can be represented, but God above cannot be represented pictorially. Some Protestant traditions like Calvinism banned images entirely and today there is little imagery to be found in Baptist churches. In Buddhism too, although denying the existence of a creator God, their primary conceptual tenet is the lack of a central essence or substance to the self: emptiness, or nothingness.
In the scientific world, quantum physics has demonstrated that our physical reality consists of nothingness, that the atoms are mostly empty space, that atoms are energy. The model of any atom is nothing materially, but all things potentially. Arguably therefore, the greatest motivational force in human activity is the invisible intangibles. In art, Ma, as the space and time of the invisible intangibles, can lead to magic. Art is a form of communication. One could even say that the art of art lies in Ma, the 'realm of freedom and creativity, a space where sensibility is evoked and endlessly recognised, a zone of nothingness and everything, where there are no names, rules, boundaries or definitions'.
As an artist born in Japan, but now living and studying in the Netherlands, I myself have developed a particular viewpoint, which is born of merging and integrating two contrasting cultures. My intention and the purpose of this paper is to evaluate contemporary art, largely governed by Western values, from my Eastern point of view and personal perspective. My analysis will center around the concept of Ma with its origins deep in Japanese culture but with its global meaning.
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Chapter 1.
Perspectives on Ma in Japan and Western Countries
It seems to me that words are of primal significance in western countries, including Holland. I know many Dutch people are atheist's but the basic culture still resonates in Christianity, where the bible states; 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' [John 1:1]. Interestingly, the original Greek for the 'Word' was 'Logos' which can be taken to mean 'reason'. Therefore the 'Word' might be supposed to mean 'Reason'. In the western world where the reason is the foundation and guide of pursuing the truth, to lose reasons [words] must mean to lose everything.
I wonder if this could be one of deep seated subconscious reasons why western people put so much emphasis on verbal and written communication. Above all, western society is consisted of high racial and cultural diversity - which means you must use many words in order to be understood by the other people who come from totally different cultural backgrounds. Everything must be uttered in words. Moreover, in a good conversation, there should be no 'gaps' or 'silence'. You must keep talking and attend well to the conversational flow.
In my own experience in the first few years in Europe, I was not aware of this rule and would perplex people with my pauses and silences in the conversation. You must keep the conversation running even when you have got nothing to say. Some people are even phobic to silence, and people who are naturally tacit and quiet - called 'introverts' - suffer from prejudice: they are 'stuck up', anti social, boring, and there is something wrong with them. In western countries, Ma [pauses, silence] in communication seems typically perceived as 'lack of communication' and something negative.
Awkward Silence - Silence For No More Than 4 Seconds
'There are even 'rules' about silence. It has been said that, in a conversation between two English speakers who are not close friends, a silence of longer than four seconds is not allowed [which means that people become embarrassed if nothing is said after that time - they feel obliged to say something, even if it is only a remark about the weather'.
Peter Trudgill [1943]. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society 4th Edition [2000]. Penguin.
Generally, western people feel so uncomfortable with silence in conversation, they try to constantly fill in the gap with words. The 'awkward silence' can bedevil human interaction. Silence in conversation is perceived as those 'tumbleweed' moments, those 'angels passing', those thoroughly awkward vacuums in the conversation where everybody looks at the ground and hopes like hell that someone else is going to step in or else suddenly starts blurting out anything that comes to mind just to get rid of the silence'.
Uncommon knowledge [2014]. Awkward Silence. Uncommon Knowledge Ltd.
They feel more comfortable when there is a constant stream of sound, and modern day culture has developed so many ways of ensuring that we practically never experience real silence for any length of time. Everybody is listening to the radio, watching TV, on a cellphone, or with an mp3 player to their ears. The shopping malls and streets play continual music at us. And this sense that sound should be continuous must be carried over into conversation. Once they start talking with others, they seem to feel the need to 'keep talking' without a pause until the conversation is formally ended. Quite a few people even find 'ending the conversation' hard to do - because it invites silence.
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'Generally, western people feel so uncomfortable with silence in conversation, they try to constantly fill in the gap with words. Silence in conversation is perceived as those 'tumbleweed' moments, those thoroughly awkward vacuums in the conversation where everybody looks at the ground and hopes like hell that someone else is going to step in or else suddenly starts blurting out anything that comes to mind just to get rid of the silence.'
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A Dutch psychologist, Namkje Koudenburg, of the psychology department at the University of Groningen, has uncovered exactly what it is that makes those disruptions in conversation so awfully uncomfortable: They elicit deep-seated, primal fears of social acceptance and belonging. In her academic article, she suggests that silence threatens social needs. She found that the conversational flow is very pleasant; it informs people that things are all right; they belong to the group and; agree with one another. As such, conversational flow serves social needs. That is, the need to belong, the need for self-esteem and the need for social validation.
The study consisted of two experiments, involving the total of 162 undergraduate students. In one experiment, participants watched one of two versions of a six-minutes video clip, in which a group of three female students were talking about relationships. The participants were to imagine themselves being one of the three female students in the video, a woman named Linda. The three talked for four minutes, and then 'Linda' said that teachers who have sex with students should be fired immediately. [silence].
In one version of the video, the other members of the group smoothly steered the conversation to a topic that wasn't directly related to what Linda had said, and the conversation continued for two more minutes, never returning to the subject she had broached. But in the 'disrupted flow' version of the video, Linda's words were followed with four seconds of silence, and then the conversation continued in a similar way to the first video.
In a questionnaire, those who imagined themselves as Linda in the four seconds silence scenario reported feeling more rejection and more negative emotions, and fewer feelings of belonging or self-esteem, than those who watched the conversation that kept going without skipping a beat. People who experienced the silence reported feeling 'distressed, afraid, hurt, and rejected,' according to the paper. Koudenberg says in the interview by NBC News: 'Even when people are not consciously aware that there is a silence, they immediately sense that there is something wrong'.
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'Even when people are not consciously aware that there is a silence, they immediately sense that there is something wrong.'
- Namkje Koudenburg
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Implicit Silence-Orientated Communication
Japan is a homogeneous island that had not experienced colonisation or invasion, therefore did not need to develop linguistic communication extensively throughout the history. It's society has existed from the very long time ago, Japanese people share common sense and context. When someone talks to the audience, the speaker expects them to know these things and takes it for granted. This mutual understanding is called an 'unspoken agreement'. This can be summarised in the anecdote of a Japanese manager explaining the difference between Japanese and Western communication: 'We are a homogeneous people and donʼt have to speak as much as you do in the West. When we say one word, we understand ten, but here you have to say ten to understand one.'
It is also a common knowledge in Japan that people who keep talking all the time or saying 'the obvious' are considered 'shallow', 'thoughtless', and 'tiring'. The Japanese value silences and pauses in between the conversation. Pauses and silences are the essential part of our communication, which is not to be feel threatened but to be 'sensed' ʻreadʼ and even 'enjoyed'. Historically in Japan, silence has been associated with truthfulness. This belief originated in Zen Buddhism, where the spoken word was discouraged and silence was encouraged, as it was believed that enlightenment can not be attained by talking.
The eastern religions and philosophy - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism - have long cultivated an appreciation for silence. In their teachings, silence is essential to spiritual life. They see silence as a mark of spiritual maturity. The Chinese scripture called the Tao Te Ching says, 'Those revered as the holiest people in the East - gurus, bhikkhus, and Zen masters - are people of few words. They speak little because they believe'. Gandhi said that 'In the attitude of Silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.' That's why Zen and other Eastern meditations are best practiced in total silence.
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'In the attitude of Silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.'
- Mahatma Gandhi
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In Eastern belief silence is a prior condition to spiritual purification and growth. Eastern beliefs teach that silence leads to inner awareness, wisdom, compassion, and enlightenment. The Indian philosopher and spiritual leader, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh [Osho], describes silence as follows:
'It is true that there is nothing more beautiful, more blissful than enlightenment even the talk of it, even the faraway echo, even the shadow of it.
The moon reflected in water is not the real moon, but still it has tremendous beauty; and if the water of your mind is silent, then the moon reflected in the water is exactly the same.
It is not your experience, but it is someone's experience you love, it is someone's experience you trust. And just because you love and you trust, you start sharing the experience in a subtle way.
It is certainly difficult to say anything about it, although my whole life I have been saying things about it and only about it. Even if, though, I am talking about other things, I am only talking to lead you towards an understanding of enlightenment.
It is your state of silence, it is your state of universal-hood. It is you without the ego and its problems. It is you without any questions and without any answer either simply silent.
And there is no joy which can transcend this silence. It is pure light, it is pure delight.'
Ma in Daily Conversation
Ma [pauses, silence] in the conversation of the Japanese people conveys emotions, shows respect, creates personal distance, avoids conflict and even changes the meaning of speech completely. There is a number of Japanese proverbs that warn against the use of the spoken word. The proverbs such as: 'a bird who don't sing don't get shot' and 'spoken words make one feel abandoned [= it is better to leave many things unsaid]' highlights this belief. Verbal expression is considered untrustworthy and has consequences for the speaker.
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'spoken words make one feel abandoned [= it is better to leave many things unsaid]'
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This is relevant in politics, too. Japanese politicians are still judged by virtues such as silence rather than their oratory skills, where the contrary is mostly true in the West. In Japan, on the intra-personal level, the outer realm of a person concerns one's outer body, which includes one's speech and verbal expression. Silence is associated with the inner realm, which the Japanese equate with truthfulness. This sociopsychological idea is central to the Japanese mindset. To further illustrate this I would like to refer to the three major Japanese concepts regarding ma in interpersonal* [behaviour between people in an encounter] communication:
'Haragei'
Haragei is a concept in Japanese interpersonal communication. The term literally can be translated as 'stomach art' and means an exchange of thoughts and feelings that are implied in conversation, rather than explicitly stated. It can also denote charisma or strength of personality. It is considered difficult for non- Japanese, particularly Westerners, to fully understand.
In negotiation, haragei is characterised by euphemisms,* vague and indirect statements, prolonged silences and careful avoidance of any comment that might potentially give offense. Information is communicated through timing, facial expression and emotional context, rather than through direct speech. It also functions as a method of leadership, replacing direct orders to subordinates with subtle, non-verbal signals. It is considered a desirable trait in a leader in Japan.
* euphemism [n.] from Greek euphemismos 'use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one, superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies'. In English, a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of 'choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant' is first attested 1793.
In martial arts circles, haragei refers to those arts which supposedly enable the practitioner to sense threats or anticipate an opponent's movements.
'Reading The Air'
The term 'reading the air'" means 'getting a read on situations and see what's really going on by feeling the atmosphere', and is a representative concept of Japanese culture in general. In this context, 'the air' refers to the unspoken thoughts and feelings among any group of people. 'The air' is not articulated as such, but it is implicitly understood that people should follow 'the air' by trying to work out what everyone else is thinking and feeling, thereby not going against the unspoken consensus. It is to be understood without words. People without this skill are viewed as bad and socially awkward, and most Japanese do what they can to avoid being labeled as 'incapable of reading the air'.
'Ishin-denshin'
'Ishin-denshin' is a Japanese idiom which denotes a traditional concept of interpersonal communication through unspoken mutual understanding. It literally translates as 'what the mind thinks, the heart transmits'. This expression is often used to convey a style of non-verbal communication between two people that is felt to be characteristic of Japanese culture. It refers to a passive form of shared understanding - a sincere, silent communication via the heart or belly - as opposed to overt communication via the face and mouth, which is seen as being susceptible to insincerities.
Such concepts are related to the traditions of Zen, where the term refers to direct mind transmission. It continues to influence many aspects of contemporary Japanese culture, ranging from business practices to end-of -life care. The Japanese people believe a 'real' relationship should function better without uttering a word, which signifies a mature relationship of the deeper understanding between people who have gotten to know each other so well.
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'In the Japanese approach to everyday life, the ma between people, and especially ma in the sense of psychological distance between the self and the others, has always played a significant role in smoothing human relations'.
- Minami Hiroshi
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Furthermore, in social relations, ma, in the sense of distance, is considered the decisive factor in Japanese interpersonal behavior. One takes care of being neither too attached to nor too distant from people. One pays close attention to ma between oneself and others. As social psychologist, Minami Hiroshi put it: 'In the Japanese approach to everyday life, the ma between people, and especially ma in the sense of psychological distance between the self and the others, has always played a significant role in smoothing human relations'.
As an example, when we are taught to bow in early age, we are told to make a deliberate pause [approx. 3 seconds] at the end of the bow before raising back our faces. It is to make sure there is enough ma in our bow for it to have meaning and show respect and gratitude to the other person standing in front. These crucial moments of ma exist in all kinds of traditional rituals, such as the tea or scent ceremony, a haiku* reading, etc.
* haiku [n.] Originally the name of the opening lines of a type of improvised, witty linked verse.
In the Domain of Subjective-Self
The social psychologist, Richard E. Nisbett, proposes that easterners and westerners have significantly different styles of thought and perception. The differences also include how one perceives oneself or the concept of 'self'. In Japanese, the character for a 'human being' consists of two words 人間, one indicating a person standing up [人] and ma [間]. This indicates the notion that a human being is a being in between human beings. The Chinese philosopher Hu Shih states: 'in the Confucian human-centered philosophy man cannot exist alone; all action must be in the form of interaction between man and man'..
On the contrary, the western 'self' is composed of fixed attributes and can move from one setting or context to another without significant alteration; Descartes' notion of the 'isolated mind'. It ascribes to man a mode of being in which the individual exists separately from the world of physical nature and also from engagement with others, 'The isolated mind' is also called the 'solitary self', and strongly linked with radical individualism. The mind [self], according to Descartes,* is complete in itself. It has no need for anything physical to be what it is. It knows itself directly and with absolute certainty. The self as mind exists as a distinct substance, as 'thinking matter', and it enjoys a supreme independence from the world of 'extended matter' that is subject to the laws of physics. This philosophy dominated the western world for decades.
* René Descartes [1596 - 1650] French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. Applied an original system of methodical doubt, he dismissed apparent knowledge derived from authority, the senses, and reason and erected new epistemic foundations on the basis of the intuition that, when he is thinking, he exists; this he expressed in the dictum 'I think, therefore I am'.
For east Asians the person is so connected to others that the self is literally dependent on the context. As philosopher Donald Munro describes it, east Asians understand themselves 'in terms of their relation to the whole, such as the family, society, Tao Principles, or Pure Consciousness'. If an important person is removed from the individual's social network, that individual literally becomes a different person. What we call 'self' is merely a conventional term not referring to any real independent entity; there is only to be found this psycho-physical process of existence changing from moment to moment.
Empty Pronouns
This lack of 'independent/disconnected self' shows in the very use of the Japanese grammatical structure distinctively. The Japanese anthropologist, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney points out that in the Japanese language, subjects are often missing or absent, transitive verbs do not have objects, including pronouns, and the word order is quite flexible. Furthermore, it lacks authentic third person pronouns. The 'I' represented by an absent first person pronoun in Japanese is defined in relation to the other[s] in the context of the situation. For example, to say 'I have come to you' in Japanese, the speaker can just state the verb kimashita ['has come']' to the listener, and depending on the context, the listener understands if it is she or he or they who has come to you or her or him or them. In the western case of the 'I', the indexical 'I' is the specific subject, I or Mary or Paul, without explicit reference to the context. In contrast, the indexical* unspoken 'I' in the Japanese language is an explicitly relational 'I' in a given context or conversation.
* indexical [adj.] relating to or denoting a word or expression whose meaning is dependent on the context in which it is used [such as here, you, me, that one there, or next Tuesday].
Ma as a Symbiotic 'In-Between' Space
The concept of ma carries great value in traditional Japanese architecture, too. It can also manifest as a tangible space in the architecture design of housings. A good example of a space representing physicalised ma is the engawa [image below], which is the space underneath the extension of the eaves in Japanese housing. This space between the outside and inside [engawa] is used for many purposes. As it runs all the way around the house it is used as a corridor between the other rooms of the house, as a welcoming place for guests. It is also used as a space for having a cup of tea, appreciating the garden, reading, daydreaming, taking a nap, playing a game, etc. It is the space where you can do anything and nothing. It does not have any specific purpose. The Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa in his book, The Philosophy of Symbiosis expands further on the engawa:
'I was struck by Japan's traditional architecture and its space, which was one in which inside and outside interpenetrated. In the countryside where I spent the war years, for example, we always opened the sliding exterior door from the first light of morning, no matter how cold it was. The garden would be filled with snow; or in another season, the buds of spring would be opening and the air filled with the fragrance of flowers. In Japanese homes of the shoin and sukiya styles, there was always this kind of 'unobstructed interpenetration' and symbiosis of inside and outside, a symbiosis with the world of nature.
In the west, in contrast, they have the picture window: the window as a frame, with nature as the painting it frames. This is a view of nature as something 'out there,' and is very different from the traditional Japanese house, where house and garden are one. The Japanese house has another important feature that intermediates between inside and outside - the engawa verandah. The engawa runs around the house as a projecting platform under the eaves. It is different from the terrace in Western architecture in that it serves as an exterior corridor. While it protects the interior from wind, rain, and, in the summer, the strong rays of the sun, it also functions as a place to entertain guests and as an entranceway from the garden into the house.'
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'The engawa runs around the house as a projecting platform under the eaves. It is different from the terrace in Western architecture in that it serves as an exterior corridor. While it protects the interior from wind, rain, and, in the summer, the strong rays of the sun, it also functions as a place to entertain guests and as an entranceway from the garden into the house.'
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But in addition to that, the engawa possesses its own meaning as a third type of space, an intermediary space, in addition to interior and exterior space. In that it is beneath the eaves, the engawa is interior space; but in that it is open, it is part of the exterior space, the garden. In the country house that I lived in during the war, special and formal guests would be received in the guest room, but local merchants and neighborhood friends would come cooling to the engawa, sit down there, and have a cup of tea and chat. Thus the way of receiving guests was distinguished spatially according to the meaning and the role of the guest.
The engawa is a space, ma, inserted between nature and building, exterior and interior. This type of intermediate zone functions as ma to permit two opposing elements to exist in symbiosis. Intermediate space makes a discontinuous continuum possible, so that a plurality of opposing elements can continue in an ever-changing, dynamic relationship. The nature of intermediate space is its ambiguity and multivalency. It does not force opposing elements into compromise or harmony; it is the key to our living and dynamic symbiosis.
Ma as a Central Empty Core
Japanese traditional houses often have courtyards [called nakaniwa: the inside garden]. Typically, if you go inside of the houses, you would come into the entrance room, go through the guest room, several private rooms, and then be welcomed into the sunlight of the courtyard. There are trees, plants, a little pond, rocks, and sand - all changing their shapes and colors according to the seasons [The courtyard is often parted by paper-made sliding doors called shoji]. It locates in the very center of the house, the empty space in the center, the space of ma where outside [nature] is captured in the inside [house], creating symbiosis of the both. This empty space is the very life force for the entire building. The invisible energy, the spirit of nature is breathing and radiating spiritual forces into the building.