Flesh & Machine 血肉之躯 VS 数字技术

Daito Manabe is an artist, interaction designer, and co-founder of Rhizomatiks, a firm that aims to bridge the gap between art and technology. The ambition comes naturally for Manabe, whose fascination with programming and sound began when he was just 10 years old. The music, sound effects, and aesthetics of video games in the 1980s captivated him, and he spent his teenage years trying to reproduce them on his NEC computer and a DX-7 synthesizer. “I wanted to make a shooting game like Gradius,” he recalls.

He has come a long way since then, boasting an impressive list of collaborations with notable artists such as Björk, Jesse Kanda, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Perhaps most notable is Rhizomatiks’ work on a production for the closing ceremony of the Rio De Janeiro Olympics in 2016, which projected images of events to be held at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics onto live performers. His most recent work includes music videos for Squarepusher’s “Terminal Slam” and KAZU’s “Come Behind Me, So Good!”.

Music is central to Manabe’s work because it is intimately tied to his interests in technology. While studying mathematics in university, he pursued music by working as a DJ and playing in a jazz band. As a DJ, Manabe opened for Flying Lotus and Squarepusher in their Tokyo tours. Though he is mainly focused on multimedia projects, Manabe still continues to pursue music on his own. He even took up dance as a hobby while collaborating with a Japanese techno-pop unit called Perfume. “I’ve been dancing for about five years now, and I’m not getting any better,” he jokes. He also plans to release some original music later this year. “Of course, it’s not just music, and there’s going to be something else related to it as well, so please check it out,” he hints.

Aside from his music, Manabe is world-renowned for his work in interaction design. His trademark is awe-inducing multimedia performances that are extremely R&D-intensive—drawing inspiration from robotics, real-time data visualization, machine learning, and computer-generated imagery, to name a few. Culminating in a 2016 Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica Festival, Manabe produced a complex technical setup involving 2 dancers, drones, and 3D scanning for Nosaj Thing’s “Cold Stares” music video.

He also directed live AR/VR imaging for Björk’s performances of “Quicksand.” Manabe is constantly working to push the boundary of what can be done, both technically and artistically. His work often has a performative aspect to it, whether it be Manabe himself performing with another prolific artist, or his technology.

Manabe has a long history of using cutting-edge technology to augment, manipulate, and interface with the human body. In one of his first experiments to go viral, “Electric Stimulus to Face,” he electrically stimulated his own face, making his facial muscles contract along with music. Though he has since moved more towards choreographing machines in productions such as 24 Drones, where drones flew alongside dancers in dizzying synchrony, he is again meditating on how technology can directly interface with the human body.

“Human beings and machines are universal themes, but the brain, which was once thought to be a black box, and its output of emotions became more approachable and relevant subjects thanks to machine learning; questions that used to be philosophical are now becoming questions of computer science and mathematics,” Manabe says. He also highlights the reality of brain-machine interfaces today; there already are non-invasive devices that can activate or inhibit certain parts of the human brain, simply through the use of magnetic fields or ultrasonic waves. Manabe considers that idea, saying “it is interesting you can directly control the brain by transcranial magnetic stimulation or ultrasonic stimulation.”

The process of converging on a project concept often happens in an iterative process for Manabe. As conceptual director of Rhizomatiks, Manabe does not narrow down the idea in the beginning, but rather takes a practical approach of trial and error, in a process he describes as “designing the path to the goal.” Technological development is a strong influence on Manabe: “I’m inspired when I look at new technologies. Because it makes things possible that weren’t possible before,” he says.

Manabe is very keen, however, to caution that his works aren’t technological demonstrations or gimmicks. In contrast to an increasingly saturated field of new-media artists and advertising agencies that often leverage flashiness as a selling point, Manabe strives to weave complex stories in his art that the audience can gradually unravel. “You can even create a work of art to provoke thought or raise a question, letting the audience think for themselves when you don’t know the answer,” he explains. In comparison to what he calls the necessity of “straightforward storytelling” in entertainment and advertising, he espouses the view that in art the audience must be inquisitive, willing to work alongside the artist in pursuit of greater understanding.

For Manabe, art is “not just about doing something crazy.” He believes that the things we see and hear every day can take on new value, and become art. With technology, Manabe takes this a step further and examines sounds and sensations that are imperceptible to humans. In his 2015 collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sensing Streams, Manabe explores the relationship between humans and the cities we build. The production makes electromagnetic waves both audible and visible by capturing ambient signals from cellphones, Wi-Fi, and FM radio, and subsequently generating visuals on a large screen. Various representations of the data, ranging from soundwaves to vibrant orbs, are affected in realtime by the surrounding environment. The audience can turn a dial to manipulate the range of frequencies, and the use of cellphones or other electronic devices in the area will alter the imaging. Whether it is by encouraging audiences to discover such parallels or by superimposing projections onto dancers in the form of augmented reality, Manabe embraces the intersection of technology and the physical world.

With Rhizomatiks, Manabe creates art to pose questions about new technology and the ensuing possibilities of how it could control, interact with, or even dance alongside us. Just like the interplay between a glowing drone and a dancer on a dark stage, Manabe welcomes a future in which man and machine can become vehicles of expression for each other.

Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Website: www.daito.ws
Instagram: @daitomanabe
YouTube: ~/daitomanabe

Contributors: Lia Coleman, Eugene Lee
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
Images Courtesy of Daito Manabe