YCAM InterLab + Yoko Ando
Reactor for Awareness in Motion (RAM)
in 2014－15 Performance

Dividual Plays
Dialogue between the unconscious and systems

2015.1.24Sat & 1.25Sun

Initiated by YCAM InterLab, Yoko Ando, a leading dancer from The Forsythe Company, and a group of software engineers have been developing “Reactor for Awareness in Motion (RAM)” since 2010. This is the result of their project exploring the possibilities of bodily expression through technology in the form of dance performance.
RAM defines dance as something produced by the interaction between the dancer and environment rather than a predetermined choreography. Dancers take in surrounding information including other dancers’ movement and react to it according to certain rules they create.
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As part of our research, we developed a system that captures the movement of dancers in real time and interfaces the information to a virtual environment which gives feedback to the dancers. Programing and designing this virtual environment, the system becomes a tool for exploring the possibility of dance.
Go to TOOLS

Paired with the feedback system, this piece accompanies a number of small laboratories on stage in which various objects are placed. They move and shift in accordance with the movement of the dancers. These changes are converted into sound and light and feedback to the stage atmosphere and the dancers who send another signal to the labs. It is a huge “connection machine” involving the dancers, stage and the garden.

About the title

While the antonym of “individual” is “collective” in general, Gilles Deleuze (1925-95), a French philosopher, came up with the notion of “dividual” since the preposition “in” disaffirms the following word. Notions of “individual” and “dividual” have been, and continue to be, discussed in various contexts such as the economy, civil society, personal identity and more.
Through her time at The Forsythe Company, Yoko Ando came to define improvisation as “being individual but with the possibility of being collective at the same time”. While each agent performs independently, he/she is synchronized with other dancers simultaneously.
RAM project began by finding shapes for the ideas in Yoko’s dancer’s mind.
Installation “Reacting Space for Dividual Behavior” (2011)

The piece expands on the idea of “dividual” and explores new dance, new notions of the body and the new relationships between the human body and technology by pursuing deeper interaction between dancers and the notion of system.

Dates

2015.1.24（Sat）19:00 / 1.25（Sun）14:00
＊The door opens 30 min. prior to the performance.

Venue

YCAM Studio A

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Project Direction：YCAM InterLab
Dance Concept + Direction：Yoko Ando（The Forsythe Company）

Collaborators
Programing Device Design：Yoshito Onishi, Ryo Kanda, Sheep
Research and Development Consultant：Yasuaki Kakehi（Keio University）
Dancers：Yui Kawaguchi, Kenta Kojiri, Ryoji Sasamoto（METHOD B）

Special Collaborators
Space Design：Tsuyoshi Tane（DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE／ARCHITECTS）
Sound and Programing：evala（port, ATAK）

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General Seating

Advanced ticket：2,500 yen / “any” members & special discounts 2,000 yen / Under 25 1,800yen
Tickets at the door：3,000 yen
Tickets on sale from：11.29（Sat）
※ Special Discount: 65 and up. Person with disabilities
(1 caretaker is free of charge)
※ No admission for children preschool age and younger

Reserve Ticket

Phone：+81-83-920-6111
Box-Office：Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
(10:00-19:00 Closed on Tuesdays, Wednesday in case Tuesday is a national holiday and 12.19 to 1.3)
Internet：Preregistration required
Seven Eleven：Seven Code 034-682

Child Day Care Service

Reservation required at +81-83-920-6111 by 1.17 (Sat).

※Please inquire about wheelchair assistance or hearing aids in advance.

This event has ended. Thank you for visiting.

• YCAM InterLab
• Yoko Ando
• Tsuyoshi Tane
• evala

• Yoshito Onishi
• Ryo Kanda
• Sheep
• Yasuaki Kakehi

• Yui Kawaguchi
• Kenta Kojiri
• Ryoji Sasamoto
• Masahiko Inami

• Alexis Andre
• Team Twinkrun
• RAM Summer Camp 2014’s
  Best Performance Team
  Team Speed

YCAM InterLab

A team of media art researchers and developers in the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], provides technical support for the realization of installations and performing art pieces commissioned by YCAM. Along with research and practical attempts in implementing cutting-edge technology in the realm of art, the members engage actively in various collaborative research with specialists invited from all parts of the world, with the aim to establish human networks and facilitate exchange among the technical departments of cultural facilities, while continually expanding their area of investigation.

Photo : Dominik Mentzos

Yoko Ando

Embarked on a career as a dancer after meeting Kuniko Kisanuki in 1989, and has appeared in numerous dance performances since. She has been choreographing and performing her own solo pieces since 1997. In 2001 she was discovered by William Forsythe and joined the Ballett Frankfurt, in 2005 became a member of The Forsythe Company. Ando now enjoys a worldwide reputation as a leading dancer of the company. In Japan, she continues to work on her own projects while collaborating with other dance companies.

Special Collaborators

Photo : Alexandra Isard

Tsuyoshi Tane

Architect. Born in 1979, Tokyo, Japan. In 2006, he found DGT with Dan Dorell (Italy) and Lina Ghotmeh (Lebanon) as architecture practice in Paris. Cuurently, DGT is working on the winner of the international competition to design the Estonian National Museum, (to be completed in 2016) and other project globally.
The practice has gain an international, attention, the finalist for the New National Stadium of Japan in 2012. DGT has won numerous other prizes including the young architects prize from the French Ministry of Culture (2008) and an award from the Architects Association of Milan (2008), the Red Dot Award Winner (2013) and the Milan Design Award Winner of 2 prizes and etc. Since 2012, he has been teaching at the Columbia University GSAPP.

http://www.dgtarchitects.com/

Photo : Kenshu Shintsubo

evala

Born in 1976. Musician / Sound Artist. Founder of the music label "port". Also releases his music on the "ATAK" label. evala has produced and performed cutting-edge electronic music in many of the world's most prestigious halls and festivals.
He has also made installations for visual art exhibitions. His work features prominently in stereophonic sound using his multi-channel audio system device. He writes music for films, theatrical performances, and advertising as well.

http://evala.jp/

Collaborators

Photo : Shoko Hiraoka

Yoshito Onishi

b. 1986. Applying programming to the creative process, Onishi creates refined paintings and sculptures with electronic circuits and living organisms. He has participated in various other artists’ projects as a video artist, designer, software and hardware developer.

Ryo Kanda

Artist / Programmer
Ryo has created live visuals and music videos for various musicians from Japan and overseas under the name of Kezzardrix. In 2013,「SjQ++」, the band he is a member of as a visual designer, won the Ars Electronica Award of Distinction. He also collaborates with contemporary artists and media artists on their stage work and installations, and, in addition, works as a support programmer for interactive devices such as commercial digital signage, iOS applications, websites and more.

http://www.kezzardrix.net/

Sheep

Programmer
Born in 1989. Graduated from Art & Media Course at Department of Information Design, Tama Art University. Sheep created works dealing with the notion of systems and structure while a student. Today, he mainly works in video and commercial installations such as digital signage among other things.

Yasuaki Kakehi

Interactive Media Designer & Researcher. Associate Professor at Faculty of Environment and Information Studies - Keio University. Ph.D in Interdisciplinary Information Studies. Kakehi develops interactive media that extend the human body, tools and communication by multiplying the five senses, the properties of physical materials and digital information. Exhibiting his work and research results at ACM SIGGRAPH and Ars Electronica Festival, he crosses over the boundaries between engineering, art and design. In 2012, a work of his was selected for one of the best 100 Good Design Awards and received the minister of MEXT award for young scientist in 2014. He is the Co- founder of TECHTILE an organization that develops and studies tactile expression, in which YCAM was involved from 2011 to 2013. Kakehi is also a member of the artist group “plaplax” and explores the possibility of media technology & art mainly in the commercial domain.

http://www.xlab.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~kakehi/

Photo : Acci Baba

Yui Kawaguchi

Lives and works in Berlin. The dance magazine “tanz” named her “one of the best dancers in Berlin”. She is an original cast member of “Red Bull Flying Bach” by Flying Steps, a leading German break dance team. The work won the Echo Klassic Sonderpreis 2010 and is currently touring the world. In 2010, her solo performance "andropolaroid“ was awarded Der Kölner Tanztheaterpreis 2010. Kawaguchi is also engaged in a research project with a cognitive scientist, Junji Watanabe and is developing a workshop with him. In 2014, she collaborated with video artist, Yoshimasa Ishibashi on “MatchAtria”.

http://www.mendora.com/

Photo : momoko japan

Kenta Kojiri

Kenta Kojiri started dancing in Japan at the age of three, and began his professional career after receiving the Apprentice Scholarship at the Prix de Lausanne in 1999. This achievement also included an invitation to join Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Because of his interest in the Kylián style, he joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 in 2003 and Nederlands Dans Theater 1 three years later. His last season at Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) also marked Jiří Kylián`s last as resident choreographer, during which Kenta danced in Kylián`s final creation for NDT, "Mémoires d'Oubliettes".
Currently, Kenta is working as a freelance dancer and choreographer on the international stage and continues to share his knowledge with the artists of Japan.

http://www.kojiri.jp/

Ryoji Sasamoto

Dancer/Choreographer. Born and raised in Chiba, Sasamoto started dancing at the age of 15. From 2006 to 2013 he resided in the U.S., performing with numerous major New York choreographers including Nathan Trice, Kota Yamazaki, Larry Keigwin, and Shen Wei, among others. Throughout his career he has been highly recognized as a dancer and was featured in Dance Magazine's “25 to Watch” in 2011. He was nominated for the Outstanding Performer Award for The New York Dance and Performance Awards/ The Bessies, in 2012. Sasamoto currently resides in Kudamatsu-shi, Yamaguchi, where he runs METHOD B.

Related Event

Masahiko Inami

Professor at Graduate School of Media Design – Keio University. Graduated from the school of bioscience and biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1994, and from the graduate school of bioscience and biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1996 and received Ph.D. from the department of engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1999. After working as a research assistant at Tokyo University, a professor at The University of Electro- Communications, a visiting scientist at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Inami became a professor at Keio University in 2008. Specializing in Augmented Reality, Augmented Human and entertainment engineering, he has developed various devices related to the human senses and perception such as optical camouflage, a tactile expansion device, a Straw-like User Interface, and a dynamic vision augmentation device. Awarded for Coolest Invention of the Year by TIME magazine, honor young scientist by the minister of MEXT, Keio Gijuku Academic Prize, Makoto Nagao Special Prize by Information Processing Society of Japan and more.

Alexis Andre

Interactive media researcher / artist. After acquiring his engineering degree in France, Andre received a ME and a PhD in computer science from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He currently researches cutting edge interaction, art, games and design at Sony Computer Science Laboratories among a creative group of scientists exploring new ideas in computer technology.

Team Twinkrun

A group of four college students aiming to promote “Twinkrun”, a sport / game they invented. Players wear an iOS device on their heads and chase each other while looking at a screen that changes every few seconds. The game received the jury’s award by Prof. Masahiko Inami at the 5th Nico Niko Gakkai symposium. An App for the game was released on the App Store in April, 2014.

http://twinkrun.net/

RAM Summer Camp 2014’s Best Performance Team : Team Speed

Member : Yusuke Imanishi, Yu Kitagawa, Asumi Kitahori, Ryoji Sasamoto, Yasuto Nakanishi, and Daisuke Harashima.
The team developed a scene focusing on body “speed”. They continue to voluntarily gather even after the SUMMER CAMP and keep exploring the possibilities of RAM and MOTIONER, elaborating on not only the dialogue between a dancer and his/her body but also between dancers and programmers.

Presented by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion

Supported by Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education, Goethe Institut Osaka

Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2014

This performance was made possible by aids from the public lottery.

Sponsored by：

Collaboration with YCAM InterLab
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]

Reactor for Awareness in Motion（RAM）won a GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2014.