Masaki Fujihata (Japan)

Technoreality

The Event Hall seats 2,000 in a stadium atmosphere, with bleacher seating on two sides and three balconies climbing four walls. At the end of the day it was completely packed. A white raised stage was cluttered with IT equipment and the audience (mostly students) was the most animated yet seen at this conference. Media artist Masaki Fujihata mounted the stage, but not at once. First the screens and IT setup were established: walls were monitors. On one wall we saw water dropping from a copper pipe. On the other it hit, its sub-drops accumulated on a drumhead. Fujihata appeared and explained the visual recording setup. He said we could identify with each drop during its second-long fall, feeling no gravity, and also with its final existence, as many dispersed drops.
The performance became increasingly complex. Three guests came. Two wore techno-eyewear with cameras showing them the view from the other guy's goggles. We watched them play Go Fish. One won. The audience laughed. A cell phone rang. On two walls we saw a man on a bike near a station, but he was fuzzy. We got his data by GPS. Fujihata said we were "entangled," and told us that our world had become this mess of information. Only by "projecting," by reaching out with our own information, we can tell who's where, and which data comes from whom. A complex network allows parallel realities, he said. The crowd clapped. (MH)

Writer:Kosuke Ikehata/Norimitsu Korekata/Junko Sakamoto/Nobuko Shimuta/Naoko Hasegawa/Osamu Hisanaga/Sakurako Muto/Naho Yoshioka/Helmut Langer/Maggie Hohle/Nicole Rechia/Trysh Wahlig/Gitte Waldman/Robert Zolna
Photographer:Yoshimitsu Asai/Yasuhiko Katsuta/Fumihiko Mizutani