午夜剧场

I want to see the world inside the mind.

I grew up moving back and forth between two languages and two physical modes: sign language and spoken/written language. As I encountered translation, interpretation, and thought composed of language in these two worlds, I became interested in the Umwelt (self-centered world) consisting of bodily sensations and its cognition. In particular, I am very interested in the unknown expansion of "inner speech." Sign language is a language that begins with finding things in the world through pointing and visually tracing their shapes and movements; it is a language formed as a natural language through interaction, expressing memories with the body. Between languages that developed by naming various things and languages that developed through imitation and transference, the characteristics of each language differ significantly because the sensory origins of the languages are different.

Now, please let me conduct a small experiment.

"You have decided to go to Yakushima starting tomorrow. Please prepare for your trip to Yakushima."

Close your eyes and think about it for about 30 seconds... Are you ready? Now, what kind of scene did you imagine at that moment?

When I ask this question, I get a wide variety of answers. Some recall the sensation of a pencil while writing a packing list, some imagine necessary items being equipped as they travel to Yakushima, some feel the damp humidity at the base of the Jomon Sugi cedar, and some see items being stored in a translucent bag. The linguistic world inside the head is called "inner speech." My interest lies in the richness of the sensory modalities of this inner speech world. Some people recall the sensation of running a pencil, damp humidity, touch, or somatosensory sensations, while others experience images, photographs, the sounds of words—there is a vast expansion of diverse universes within the mind.

Recollection expanding from the senses, language born through trial and error in trying to share with someone, connecting with the world through language acquisition, and becoming able to create countless connections oneself. What kind of world connections are born from languages with different sensory bases? And what if sensations not yet accumulated as language were to grow within mutual relationships...?

I feel that there are countless unseen worlds within you and within me.