Expanding the Body through Technology: Questioning the Future of Human Physicality in the Real and Virtual World. The exhibition showcases MPLUSPLUS’s latest endeavour: a performance featuring robots that go beyond the human.
[Outline] Expanding the Body through Technology: Questioning the Future of Human Physicality in the Real and Virtual World
Will we be able to accept and go beyond the physicality that robots and technology are set to usher in? At a time when developments like AI are augmenting humans, this work presents a whole new kind of technologized physicality.
▶︎ The exhibition showcases MPLUSPLUS’s latest endeavour: a performance featuring robots that go beyond the human
With a background as a dancer, MPLUSPLUS CEO Fujimoto Minoru pursued research into wearable computing and received a PhD in engineering. Following a stint as a university educator, he launched MPLUSPLUS to develop original LED devices. Fujimoto has attempted to update the human body through stage performances and other projects. As a further means of engaging with this aspiration, the new work presented at the exhibition is an installation featuring robots that transcend human ability.
Exhibited Works:
- “Unknown RhythmsーHumanized Clock” (new work)
- “Morphing Elegance ーRobotic Choreographer” (2018 / 2023)
- “Vitality of LightーLight-emitting Existence” (new work)
▶︎ Comprehensive Showcase of a Decade of MPLUSPLUS Products
MPLUSPLUS is known for its LEDs staging for performances by music groups like EXILE and AKB48, and for its appearance on America’s Got Talent. The members of MPLUSPLUS have developed many products and systems for use as tools for dancers, musicians, and other performers, fusing art and technology to pioneer a form of Gesamtkunstwerk or “total artwork.” The exhibition offers the first ever comprehensive showcase of around ten types of products that MPLUSPLUS has developed to date. Some of the exhibits are interactive.
▶︎ Events Exploring Various Research Fields and Cultural Scenes
Researcher, artist / CEO, MPLUSPLUS
Born in 1983, Fujimoto Minoru performed as a dancer while undertaking PhD research into wearable computing at Kobe University. After a stint teaching at Tokyo University of Technology, he founded MPLUSPLUS in 2013. Harnessing his own experience as a dancer, the group puts on stage events and develops systems that enable new kinds of live performance. He was responsible for choreographing the lighting for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games opening ceremony. At Ars Electronica 2010, Fujimoto presented Lighting Choreographer, which expands the expressive capability of the human body through lights. He held the solo exhibition MOVIN’ in 2021, where he presented the giant installation Humanized Light, which measures seven meters and adapts human augmentation to a space.
MPLUSPLUS “Embodiment++”
Dates September 16 (Sat) – November 19 (Sun) , 2023
Closed Mondays (Open if Monday is a public holiday, in which case CCBT will be closed the following day)
Hours 1:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Venue Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]Admission free
/++
/++
