Score #21: Visit a body of water in between different states
In Japan, rivers are often considered to be dragons or serpents. They are entities with their own agencies. There are numerous rituals in different parts of Japan, where people honor, play with, appease, and negotiate with these deities. I myself have had many personal encounters with them. They penetrate me, when they say hello. Sometimes, they stay inside me for a long time and score their songs on my body. The Japanese archipelago is located on the Ring of Fire, meaning that the earth shakes all the time here. It also means that there is water heated by the earth seeping out everywhere. I commune with the earth by soaking in these hot springs. They all really have such different personalities and ways of telling me about their stories. It is my utmost pleasure to immerse myself in their murmuring caresses. Water is always changing and yet always the same. They are songs themselves. I would love to hear how people communicate with different entities of traveling waters: where water is springing out of the earth; where creeks are joining with each other; where glacier is melting; where a river is also a sea; where a fog is rolling over; where rain is becoming a lake; where water is climbing through a tree trunk; where a puddle is evaporating into the sky; or where snow is fusing with light. Would our actions change if we could listen to their voices together?
Score and text by Tomoko Momiyama, living in Fukui, Japan.
Collage by Randi Nygård living in Oslo, Norway.
Layers of found images of water changing states.