4uto-c0rrec4 is a performative collaboration between forrest wong and Yuji Kinoshita based on the idea of mapmaking and miscommunication. In the early stage of this project, both artists conversed mainly by using emojis with auto-correction due to the language barrier. However, these pre-design pictorial expressions and automated AI assistance are not always friendly to non-native English speakers and non-euro-American users. Their communications have often led to light-hearted mistranslations, and sometimes misunderstandings. Through this way of communicating, both of the artists have put together a map of Nagoya port city based on forrest’s memories of Nagoya of his brief visit last year (2020) and Yuji’s guide to the lesser-explored parts of the city. This pamphlet with customised emojis serves as a personalized guide for the artists to carry out their performative actions while navigating through their cultural differences.
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It was decided that I would research about Nagoya with a friend based across the ocean. The problem was, I am not good at English and can barely communicate. After several attempts, I began to kind of understand what the words meant and have a clue but there were still lots of mistake. I had always thought that communication and jangle had a similar structure. Jangle is a word derived from hindi and refers to a forest or woods around a residential area that is so thick that you cannot enter. I sense something similar in the relationships between people, just like a wall between residents in a housing area. And oddly this friend’s name was ‘forrest’. What an unusual coincidence, i thought. —text by Yuji Kinoshita
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Blessings from the mountains
Both of us love the mountains. We think mountains have good spirits and nutrients that have been nourishing humans since olden times. The sharing of stories about mountains remind us of the experience of taking baths at sentos (public bath) in Nagoya. I remember there was one in particular with a mural of Mount Fuji, where the bathers were soaking in ther water with the reflection of the painted mountain. This image to me looked as if they were being blessed while they were taking baths. We try to relate the element of water in our everyday life experience by translating it into performance based our our personal relationship with water.
performance text by forrest wong and Yuji Kinoshita
*this performance was performed from both parties by live streaming
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performance duration: 00:33:00
pamphlet, drawings, in situ performance(s), video
2021
photo credit : rae hong, thum
