YAKUSHIMA TREASURE ANOTHER LIVE from YAKUSHIMA

This work offers an interactive, browser-based experience to view the live performance by KOM_I and Oorutaichi in the virgin forests of Yakushima. Its main theme is the circle of transmigration of Okinawa’s Kudaka-jima Island, which is allegedly related to the Niraikanai beliefs of the Amami Islands. The performance begins with the Mogaribune song representing the time before death to burial, followed by an interlude representing the time from burial to the afterlife, and finally the Higashi song representing the arrival to the eastern sky of the circle of transmigration. Dentsu Craft Tokyo and TSUJIKAWA Koichiro combined complex elements of a space scanned with infrared light as 360-degree 3D point group data, captured colors with photogrammetry, recorded movements with depth sensors, and recorded a three-dimensional audio image of surround sound with 360-degree microphones. The outcome was an experience different from both a spectacle visible to the naked eye, and a video taken by a regular camera. By compiling data that cannot be naturally perceived by our visual and auditory senses, this work was created to present “a world that our souls see,” instead of a mere video record of the performance.

This work was highly praised as a “viewing experience that tackles a completely new realm.” What is particularly interesting is that even though it uses a very practical presence (i.e., data) that is (supposedly) unsuitable to the mystical forests of Yakushima, integration of such data enables immersion in a fantastic world that is “physically impossible for humans,” accelerating the mystical nature of Yakushima. Using a computer or a smartphone as a medium, it became able to bring this mystical experience to a wider audience, and I cannot help but feel so thrilled to think that this might be applied to XR and other devices, creating an even more different experience. It is a pursuit of freedom to jump over the real world’s inevitable barriers, such as the physical distance between the artist and audience. It is an experience that cannot be felt only by something visible to the naked eye or hearable with the ears. I would like to commend the fascinating possibilities of this live performance. (KONISHI Toshiyuki)