From May to November 2018, I composed the music for ON THE STREAM, a video installation work by architect Toyo Ito, presented at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy.
Although the work employed moving images, the exhibition itself was not concerned with visual explanation.
Instead, it addressed architectural thought and the flow of time as its central subject.
From the earliest discussions, the shared intention was clear: rather than creating music that explains space, the sound should run alongside architectural thinking itself.
The question was not how sound could support visual information, but how it could coexist with the density and speed inherent to the space.
What was sought was a sonic presence that neither led nor followed, but remained parallel to the architecture.
For this reason, I chose an approach that did not rely on clear melody or rhythm.
Instead, the composition treats texture, fluctuation, and tonal instability as primary materials.
At the time, I was deeply interested in pitch beyond conventional tuning standards such as A=440Hz or 442Hz, including alternative frequency systems such as solfeggio frequencies.
Rather than presenting these choices as overt concepts, I focused on allowing sound to exist in a state that was not overly regulated—present, but unresolved.
The goal was for the music to avoid interfering with the image or architecture, while still leaving a subtle imprint at a sensory level.
Sound functions here not as a foreground element, but as an undercurrent that supports perception without drawing attention to itself.
As a result, the music never steps into the foreground of the exhibition.
Instead, it serves as a perceptual foundation, allowing visitors to engage more deeply with both the moving image and the architectural ideas it embodies.
This project was not about composing music for an installation after the fact.
It was an exploration of how sound might exist alongside architectural thought, sharing time and space without explanation or emphasis.
