Ujino Muneteru’s Electric Bento Of Music

Not exactly your grandmother’s living room, is it? Side stepping the equally playful and bizarre worlds of Chindogu, artistic inventor Ujino Muneteru spends his time developing phallic (and other) instruments called Rotators made of household appliances, tools or furniture and precisely arranges them into a neat bento of sounds. With a coming exhibition in Berlin, PingMag caught up with the noise boy to talk shop about all things analogue.

Written by Vicente Gutierrez

First, how did you start working with all these materials?

When I was younger I wasn’t really into experimenting with household appliances or anything like that. I was pretty much a proper student: I played bass in a couple of bands and majored in traditional textile courses like dying and weaving. Until 2001 when, at a friend’s art studio, there were all these tools laying around and the electric drill just caught my attention. I just loved the sounds it made! Around then, I was playing bass in a Devo-inspired party band and my interest in music and noise led me to start checking the sounds of every tool in that studio.

So the drill triggered everything?

Phallic instrument including a disco ball on a drill: “LOVE ARM 3,” properly worn by Muneteru himself. By the way, by grabbing onto the rotating part and adding load, it squeaks in high tone creating a melody as if someone is sobbing… Courtesy of Ujino Muneteru, 1996.

Yeah and after that, around 1995, I started experimenting and making my own instruments and developed the LOVE ARM series. That drill, for example, gave me the idea for LOVE ARM 3, which spins a mounted disco ball while making low frequency sounds. I ended up making four LOVE ARMS and a few other instruments out of blenders and hair dryers. Then, I assembled the Rotatorhead unit as a controller for all of the other instruments.

Ah, so the Rotatorhead is the core and you plug other instruments in, which would make a set of The Rotators. With that, are you trying to imitate more conventional instruments: bass, drums, guitar or a synth, for example?

When I look at real instruments, I feel like they have physical weight and volume and it’s hard to get around that. It’s very challenging to make an original design or even modify the elements of an existing instrument. Basically, I rely on observation. I mean, the LOVE ARM was designed as an instrument, and my idea for the Rotatorhead is based on the Akai MPC, a Japanese drum machine.

“Love Arm User Manual.” Courtesy of Ujino Muneteru, 2001.

More from the manual (and how to wear it.) Courtesy of Ujino Muneteru, 2001.

I’m not so much trying to replicate real instruments as much as the ideas come to me. I brainstormed day and night and thought that the sound a hairdryer made really resembled that of an electric guitar running through an envelope filter effect, and since it sounded cool I followed my ears.

Illustration of the “Rotatorhead” unit connecting to “The Rotators” instruments. Courtesy of Muneteru.

How about composing music? Is rhythm important?

I definitely place rhythm at the top of the list as the most important part of contemporary music. So when I compose, I plan it all out with the coloured pencil stubs on the vinyl record and, in a way, set the rhythm. It’s the same as programming on a drum machine.

And how do you arrange the Rotators instruments when you perform live?

I set up everything on the table and control everything from the Rotatorhead, so it ends up looking like a cooking show on TV. As for the instruments, the permanent members of the Rotators are: the blender, for its heavy, low frequency sounds - like a punchy kick drum; the drill, set up too for its snappy, tight snare drum sound; and the hair dryer, which is always involved with my performances because it resembles a fuzzy bass but sometimes takes the role of vocals. Then, I control the Rotatorhead and program it to play in a variety of ways (or, if the rotators are on exhibit, then it’s on automatic play.)

Is there any room for improv live?

I wouldn’t say that I’m an improviser. Actually, I don’t like most kinds of improvised music. For me it’s boring to listen to, although sometimes the best musical magic happens in improvisation. I would just say that my live performances are not that prepared.

Back to making it all: how do the objects find you?

First, I prefer second-hand goods. But, if I can’t find them, I buy a new one. For my last exhibit in China, for example, I had to buy a new drill. My work centres around older things, I like them because I consider them as something more real, with stronger materials and more durable parts. I think I am drawn to them because I can see how they work and function. I’m curious about what’s going on inside and, with newer technology, it’s all getting smaller and thinner, so I can’t see how it works. Plus, new things are made of different and often cheaper materials or parts. It’s like the difference between vintage and new guitars: Fender is a good example.

Yes, quality! Now, how do the Japanese view your work?

I think my work is like an electric bento: it’s very organised, carefully arranged, clean and maybe pleasant to the eye. But I think it’s either too eccentric and out there for Japanese people, or it’s too domestic and boring for them. In Japanese society, I think I’m just a middle-aged gadget guy, “Uncle Odd,” for some Japanese. But sometimes Japanese people identify it as a household and personify it - they tend to recognise it as soon as they see the kotatsu, the heated carpet.

Interesting! Can you give us an example?

One time a well-known Japanese designer, who was a friend of a friend, told me my installations would be better if I used high-quality goods from Europe. I thought that was a typical thing to say, so I ignored his comment because he was thinking more about the actual quality of the goods. But I did take something from it: It made me think about using local goods to better connect with people and focus on their intrinsic value rather than on actual design qualities.

But then, your funky Rotators wouldn’t be the same if you made them out of all-new parts…

No, new parts don’t work the same for me. I think older, unwanted things are better for experimental use - when nobody wants them anymore, it’s time to find a new application for them, something new and different from what the original inventor or designer had in mind. Every product has a life span, physically or culturally, and when a product isn’t trendy or appealing anymore, it ends up at a flea market. When a generation disowns it, it becomes free again - out of its irrelevance - and then there’s a chance to find some new application for it.

So you are trying to kick-start nostalgia…?

With everything going plastic and digital, I want my installations and performances to bounce back old memories and draw people in. Like going to a flea market, everyone’s going to click with something different and say, “Oh! I used to have one of those when I was a kid.”

Ohhh, so true! Then, I heard you did quite a lot of collaborations…?

I’ve collaborated with other musicians, with bass and guitar players like Tatsuhiko Asano or drummers like Asa-Chang, a percussionist and one of the founding members of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. We were both performing at an event at super deluxeand met and planned a collaboration that was held last December at LaForet in Harajuku. We are currently planning another one. I have also worked with Zak and Yumiko of Buffalo Daughter. That was a great experience! Oh yeah, and dance unit Strange Kinoko…

I fear we have to come to an end: what’s slated for 2008?

Freaky! The piano’s keys produce ten variations of women’s screams and applause: “DECORATONE,” 1994. Photo by Yoshiteru Yamamoto. © 1994 Ujino Muneteru

Right now, I am going to Berlin for a group exhibition entitled Re-imagining Asia at the House of World Culture and I’ll probably do a performance there. Another one of my works will be on display in Berlin as well, ‘Ozone-so’, and will move to a new space. That’s happening on March 13th.

Then in April I’m heading to New York as part of a show at Deitch Projects Gallery which is tentatively named ‘After Reality 2.’ Then the rotators will be moving from Guangzhou to Indonesia for a similar show, Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia, which is being organized by the Japan Foundation.

You certainly sound busy this year! Ujino, thanks for sharing your cool rotators with us!

13 Comments

1. Bent!

   Posted by: Nuno on March 10th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

2. sounds good

   Posted by: diablo 2 cd keys on March 10th, 2008 at 9:47 pm

3. Wow, amazing and unique sound sculptures!

   Posted by: Rudi on March 11th, 2008 at 6:55 am

4. Super cool! Very innovatiove and twisted stuff…

   Posted by: Chris Halsted on March 11th, 2008 at 9:45 am

5. ¡Que chido!

   Posted by: mexist on March 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am

6. Good old Ujino. Getting better and better. Gambare!

   Posted by: Anonymous on March 11th, 2008 at 7:33 pm

7. Woow this it fat stuff :)

   Posted by: Grzegorz on March 12th, 2008 at 1:00 am

8. Wooooow!

   I want to draw to those crazy contraptions!

   Posted by: SHANTELL MARTIN on March 12th, 2008 at 8:28 am

9. [...] http://pingmag.jp/2008/03/10/muneteru-ujino/ [...]

   Posted by: Ujino Muneteru’s Electric Bento Of Music « Moustier-City on April 20th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

10. Muito bom este estes trampos!!!!
    parabéns!!! só tomando uma mesmo..!
    axé!

    Posted by: GIA on May 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am

11. [...] There’s an interesting interview of Muneteru on pingmag.jp. [...]

    Posted by: tokoloten » Ujino Muneteru’s electric bento on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:42 am

12. [...] a great interview with the artist, from Ping Mag. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Sit down, have some tea.Talismans for a modern [...]

    Posted by: Tsuyoshi Sugiyama & Ujino Muneteru « 茶有の者 - A Man with Tea on December 30th, 2008 at 12:54 am

13. Awesome way to do music!

    Posted by: Wrought Iron Furniture on July 31st, 2009 at 11:21 pm

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