Experiments in writing, in music, in art, in anything really, are hit and miss. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they work and don’t work at the same time, depending on who you ask.
Over the weekend, I conducted an experimental haiku workshop at an ambient music event that was loosely related to haiku. I presented two ideas that I hoped would explore the boundaries of structure and how the structure of one art form can be used to create and inspire other art forms.
The first idea was to use basic stencils to explore the arrangement of images that could later be used as haiku writing prompts. Since a haiku typically has three parts, I proposed that participants choose three stencils that somehow communicated a story or an emotion to them when placed together. Then I had participants arrange those stencils in the order of their liking and transfer them onto paper using spray paint.
My hope was that all participants would display their finished stencils and we would have time to write haiku inspired by them, but unfortunately, we never got to that point.
The second idea was to use music symbols to make stenciled paintings that communicate rhythm. Since traditional haiku uses a structure of 5-7-5, I thought it would be interesting to arrange musical symbols in a way that creates two lines of 5 beats and one line of 7 beats. These musical composition paintings could then, I hoped, be interpreted by musicians to make experimental music.
It works. I had a friend try it. You can play the composition straight through, looping the rhythm and adjusting the melody as you see fit, or you can assign a different instrument to each line and have the two rhythms of five and seven weave in and out of each other.
It’s an interesting way to approach music, and one that could result in an infinite number of results, but again, at the workshop, we didn’t have enough time or space to see this to completion.
(1)
how cheerfully
the birds chatter near my window
on such a drab day
(2)
imagining Santoka
walking in this cold rain
dreaming of hot sake
(3)
in your footprints
the fresh remains of
trampled flowers
(4)
a scratch in my car
the new me says thank you
you're finally here
(5)
with eyes closed
in complete darkness
I move toward the light
(6)
the moment
the train doors open
fresh air rushes in
(7)
young plum blossoms
study the passing people
in Chinatown
As always, thank you for reading.