ANSWERS
Do you feel that the sky is far away or too close?
空は遠い？それとも近い？
It depends on positions of clouds
雲の位置によって変わる
Very far away. I can’t touch. We are not in the sky.
すごく遠い。さわれない。私たちは空にはいない。
Good people will go to the sky after they die. Bad people will go to bottom.
いい人間は死んだら空に行く。悪い人間は下に行く。
Main point is my feeling. I’m surrounded by the sky. It depends on my feeling and my decision.
大切なのは感情。空に囲まれている。感情や自分の判断で変わる。
It’s far but near. “ it’s not decided how much is the sky”. Air is connected to the sky, so near? I can grab the air, so it’s connected? When I think that everything is mine, then they will be mine? It could be opposite way too.
遠い。けど近い。「どっから空か決まってないもんな」空気が繋がっているから近い？全部掴めるから繋がっている？全部俺のもの？全部私のものと思ったら私のもの？逆も然り。
I feel that far away.
遠く感じる
Sometimes far and near. When I’m happy, the sky is closer
遠い時も近い時もある。幸せな時は近く感じる。
Far away like I can’t calculate
遠い。わからないくらい
I can’t go there by myself. Even an airplane can’t go there.
自分で行けないのもあるけど、空って行こうと思っても飛行機とかじゃ簡単に行けやしない
A place with clouds. When I climb a mountain, I’m in the sky. When I’m on an airplane and the body goes into the clouds, I feel like I’m in the sky.
雲がある場所。登山した時に空にいる。飛行機が雲に入ると、「空にいる！」
Things in front of me is already the sky. I may be grabbing the sky right now too. Everything surrounds me is the sky. When you see the scene from far away, the color may be the sky blue color.
目の前が空やん。今も空をつかんでいるのかも。周りは全部空。遠くから見たら、空色かも。
far
遠い
I don’t understand
意味わからん
It’s far away I can’t go there by myself
遠い。自分ではいけない
The sky is close
I can see stars
I can see the moon
It’s like sense
The sky is blue
There are clouds
空は近い
星が見える
月が見える
感覚的なもの
空は青いなあ
雲があるなあ
When I feel the sky is close or far, there is a dialogue with the sky
If you concern about the sky, the sky gets closer
A dialogue with the sky
The sky is different in urban area and mountain
When the sky is echoing, I’m in a different world
When I was in uk, the sky was closer
自分が近い遠いと思った時に空との対話がある
空に関心があると近い
空との対話
都会と山で空が違う
共鳴することで空は別の世界かも
空が見えるか見えないか
イギリスの方が空が近い
Far away
Human can’t fly in the sky
When I look up the sky from the ground, it’s quite far away
“I want to go somewhere but I can’t go”
Taking me to a different world = the sky
遠い
人間は空を飛べない
地面から空を見ると精神面で遠い
「どこかに行きたいけど、いけない」
違う世界に行ける＝空
Far near
narrow wide
anything doesn’t describe about the sky
I have no feeling for the sky
“that exists there, that’s it”
It doesn’t reflect any psychological things
It doesn’t reflect my mind
遠い、近い
狭い、広い
どれも違う気がする
空に対する思いがあまりない
「ただそこにある」
心理的なものを写していない
心を投影したりしない
Is the sky a space?
Physically far away
For dead people, the sky is just a small part to pass by
How much is the sky the sky?
At night, you can see stars
In daytime, you can find water steams
There are airplanes
At night, you can see the universe through the sky
The sun covers stars
From where the clouds exist is the sky
空は宇宙？
物理的には遠い
亡くなった人にとっては一瞬でピュンと飛ぶのかも
空ってどこまでが空？
夜は星が見える
昼は水蒸気がある
飛行機がある
夜の方が宇宙まで見える
太陽で星が見えないから
雲があるところから空
Is the sky far? or near?
I’ve never felt it’s close
This world is apart from the sky
I have no idea about the distance between the sky and the ground
There is nothing physical like the moon to measure
Ambiguous
There are some poems like “The sky is too wide”
Eternity
空は遠い？それとも近い？
近いと思ったことがない
空から切り離されている
空との距離ってどこまでかわからない
月のような対象物がない
ぼんやり
「空は広いな」というようなポエムもあるように
無限
Far
I don’t know from where to where is the sky
Unknown
If the sky is above buildings, I can reach easily
The existence difficult to catch
遠い
どこからが空かわからない
未知である
ビルより上だったら登れば届く
遠い存在
Near
In front of me
There is nothing far away
Even the moon is near
This world is too small
Is this world substantial?
I don’t feel real to this reality
The sky in my dream is always far
Everything in my dream is far away
Even I try to touch something, I can’t touch
What are far or close?
What is the boundary?
近い
目の前にある
遠いものはない
月すらも近い
むしろ狭い
本当に実体？
リアルに対する現実味がない
夢の中の空は遠い
全部が遠い
触ろうと思ってもさわれない
遠い近いってなんだ？
境目はなんだ？
Far
Physically and culturally it should be far away
It’s eternity so it means far
The sky is a place no one can reach
If you have imagination, you can reach
遠い
物理的に文化的にそうあるべき
無限大だから空という概念は遠くあるべき
みんなにとって空はたどり着けない
想像力があればたどり着ける
Far away because it doesn’t have end(limit)
限界がないから遠い
From the ground, it’s far
If I fly, it’s close
It’s about physical thing
It doesn’t change by emotion
地上から見たら遠い
空の中飛んでたら近い
物理的な問題
感情では変化しない
Sometimes I feel close and far
The sky is interesting
I don’t have so much opportunities to look the sky
Beyond the sky, there is the universe
But no one can go
Even on airplane, I don’t feel that’s close
Things which you see from the ground = The sky
Things which you see from the universe = the earth
近く感じる時も遠く感じる時もある
空わかんないね
空を見る機会がない
あの向こうに宇宙がある
行けるわけではない
飛行機の中でも近い感じがしない
地上から見たもの＝空
宇宙から見た空＝地球
This answers were from one question.
Interpretation of one subject can connect to new interpretation
14 questions
How do you feel about the length of a day?
1日の長さについてどう感じる？
If you can manipulate “time”, what would you do?
時間を操れたらどうする？
What is your treasure?
宝物は何？
If you have one million yen(10 thousand dollers, 7000 pounds), what do you want to do?
もし１００万円あったら、何がしたい？
When your friend is late for meeting up, how do you feel? How long can you bear for waiting?
友達が待ち合わせに遅れた場合、どう思う？どのくらい待てる？
When you are late for meeting up with your friend, how do you feel? How long is the maximum time for making someone wait?
自分自身が友達との待ち合わせに遅れた場合、どう思う？どれくらいまで待たせられる？
When you don’t do anything, do you feel guilty?
何もしていないときに罪悪感を感じる？
Which part of you do you like the most?
自分のどんなところが好き？
Which part of you do you hate the most?
自分のどんなところが嫌い？
Do you feel fear about death?
死ぬことは怖い？
Do you believe that you will remain in this world after your death?
死んだ後もこの世界にいると思う？
What did you do in your previous life?
前世で何をしていた？
Do you want to live long?
長生きしたい？
Do you feel that the sky is far away or too close?
空は遠い？それとも近い？
"14 questions"
I made 14 questions and I asked them during my summer holiday in Cambodia, the UK and Japan.
I thought that English as a native language or a second language, Japanese as a native language would make huge differences in translating my questions, so even if Japanese native speakers want to define questions accurately, I decided not to answer exactly.
Everyone asked me 'What does it mean?'. And I answered 'What do you think?'.
Fischli and Weiss's 'Will Happiness Find Me?' was not for finding answers, they just wanted to make a situation to ask yourself.
I made an ambiguous question for the last question. Everyone answered in a poetic way. I always felt that they started to ask themselves. 'Asking yourself' creates imaginations. I wanted to create the situation of asking yourself freely like a child. And I found that even in different countries, or different languages, everyone has possibilities to ask and create imaginations.
"Questions Orchestra"
I recorded voices and the atmosphere when I had interviews in Cambodia, the UK and Japan.
The interesting point of listening to this soundtrack is Aizuchi(Nodding, 'Ah','Yes').
Even though an interviewer (Me) was same, every time, the tone of Aizuchi and silent sequence were different.
That's because of different interviewees and the atmosphere of the environment. In Cambodia,I felt that time passed slowly but I felt time passed quickly in Japan. And each person's attitude made difference too. Thinking or Feeling.
The different ways of perceiving the same questions may be because of the atmospheres as well as each person's perspective.
14 QUESTIONS
In summer holiday, I asked various people about 14 questions. I travelled to Cambodia and Malaysia and I asked a Philippine friend and many Cambodian friends. The answers for different nationalities were so various. And I found that there are so many ways to see my questions. But it was not only about differences in countries. I tried to ask some strangers too. And in the end, I found out that it was more comfortable to ask strangers about the questions than with my friends. That’s because of the transient relation which doesn’t last for forever. When I asked a man next to me on a plane to Japan from Malaysia, I was so surprised that I even could listen to his own grandpa’s story too. He told me that it was comfortable to talk with me even though we met for the first time. We exchanged our Facebook but I knew that we won’t contact each other. It was only 3-4 hours spending friends, but we could make somehow ‘Intimacy’.
I wonder why I decided to come abroad to stay for quite a long time. That may be because of the transient relation, I might have not wanted to stay in Past and Future, that was the reason why I decided to come somewhere I don’t know and no one knows me. When I lose my identity, my superficial identity appeared as a Japanese girl. But also my resistance for the nationality fights with that.
Through questioning 14 of them, I found that somehow languages are important to make ‘Intimacy’ but the language doesn’t mean actual language more about waves which can make people’s waves to cause mebius cycles or like DNA. Sometimes it was succeeded to make a great matching, but sometimes it was too far away.
I asked the questions in one to one situation, that made the situation out of societies, countries, and the planet earth. There was no Time and Space.
Inspirations were from Yoko Ono’s ‘Grape fruit’ and Fischli and Weiss’s ‘Will happiness find me?’. The Ono’s book is supposed to be burn after the reader finish reading, the transient relation with the book was related to the relation with my questions. And also Fischli and Weiss’s book doesn’t follow any orders and you can interpret in any ways. As they said, the book is expected to be read as for making a climate to ask questions to oneself.
And also looking at the same question was similar concept to the full moon festival in Asia. When there is the best full moon in Oct, we cerebrate and look at the same moon with people silently. When you all look up the sky to find the same moon, you will reflect your interpretation on the moon and the interpretation influences the person next to you.
During the sessions with many people (28 people), I found that my interpretation for the questions had been changed by influences from them.
I recorded the voices, and I combined them because I wanted to listen to their and my voice as sounds not words. The sounds contained the atmosphere in nerve, excitement, sadness and enjoyment. Sometimes, you may focus on one of the voice, sometimes you may focus on the orchestra of them.