I am giving a lecture at Harvard university tomorrow and am looking
for someone to play the shakuachi for a few minutes during the
lecture. The lecture is in the course "How to Build a Habitable
Planet" and I am trying to demonstrate the idea that there is more to
real events than scientific reductionism. In natural systems,
everything is related and in movement, and this creates a reality
very different from equilibrium calculations from first principles.
So if we just take a piece of bamboo, what is it? It can be
described sitting on the table with great mathematical precision, but
has no life, little significance. Then we put some holes in it with
a definite relationship, and it is played with attention. The living
event, the physical laws expressed by the instrument and the
relationship between the instrument, the player, and the listeners--
in movement. How is this experience different from the equations
describing the shape of the bamboo? The whole of the moment, in
relationship and in movement, is far greater than the parts in
isolation. This is characteristic of living systems, on all scales,
including probably the planetary one.
Shakuachi seems to me an appropriate instrument for such a
demonstration. Is there anyone in the Boston area who could devote
an hour between 1:00 and 2:30 tomorrow afternoon?
Charles Langmuir
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