holistic strata
Tokyo-based choreographer and video artist Hiroaki Umeda creates mesmerizing visual environments for his visceral solo works, appearing as a fine-spun swirl of movement in a digital storm of light and sound—an elusive figure, by turns frantic and still, awash in pulsating electronic waves. In a program of acclaimed companion pieces, Haptic and Holistic Strata, Umeda’s distinctive dance vocabulary draws on a range of butoh, ballet and hip-hop. He conceives his interdisciplinary events as a sensorial whole, creating the beats and sonic textures as well as the entrancing video and lighting effects. Designed to elicit primal emotion, Umeda’s work is minimalist and radical, subtle and violent, abstract yet precise, and thrillingly physical.

Falling Black
Unfalling Black is an augmented reality experience that reveals digitally manipulated weather formation in an enclosed environment. Treating the mobile device as a digital window, the work uncovers the displacing choreography of rain, storms and snow, occurring all around the audience and yet witnessed only through the computerized lens.

Betonsturm
Auf den ersten Blick erleben die Besucher feste Formen, die sich auf minimalistische Motive stützen und die stabilen Eigenschaften von Beton unterstreichen. Während des Tragens der HoloLens betreten die Betrachter eine gemischte Realität, die durch reaktionsschnelle Hologramme belebt wird, die die physische Umgebung der Installation erweitern. Mit Concrete Storm erforscht DRIFT die Schicht zwischen den parallelen Welten, wobei die reale und die virtuelle Welt nebeneinander existieren. Die Aufmerksamkeit der Menschen wird nun ständig zwischen diesen beiden Welten aufgeteilt, in denen sie koexistieren. Die Künstler glauben, dass sie durch die Kombination dieser beiden scheinbar getrennten Welten die unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten der unaufhaltsamen Evolution untersuchen können. Concrete Storm erweitert die Grenzen der digitalen Welt, befreit von Bildschirmen und integriert in das Gewebe der physischen Existenz.

Concrete Storm
On first impression, visitors experience solid forms, which draw on minimalist motifs and underscore the stable properties of concrete. While wearing the HoloLens, viewers enter a mixed reality, enlivened by responsive holograms that augment the physical environment of the installation. With Concrete Storm, DRIFT explores the layer between the parallel worlds, whereby the real and the virtual worlds co-exist. People’s attention is now constantly divided between these two worlds in which they coexist. The artists believe that combining these two seemingly separate worlds they can study the unlimited possibilities of the unstoppable evolution. Concrete Storm expands the boundaries of the digital world, freed from screens, and integrated into the fabric of physical existence.

Synchrometrics

Can we design future memories for the body?
Is the body itself the apparatus for remembering cultural processes?Prospectus For a Future Body proposes new perspectives on how the body remembers and invents technological narratives. Central to the project is the study of body movement in dance: How it can evolve, adapt or re-condition to possible futures?Eternal Summer Storm explores the concept of muscle memory transfer as an alternative form of interactive cultural continuities. This concept prototype speculates on a future digital library of body movements or dance techniques that can be experienced beyond the audio-visual conventions. Eternal Summer Storm attempts to recreate legendary Japanese dancer Tatsumi Hijikata’s Butoh dance choreography and experience in ‘A Summer Storm’ (1973) from archival footages.Bionic Movement Research is a collection of experiments on the process of designing digital muscle memory for the body. Inspired by Luigi Galvani discovery (1780) of animal electricity in the human body, these experiments appropriate the techniques of electrical nerve stimulation to choreograph artificial muscle contraction and body movement.

STORM KING PARK
SOMA is an international collective of architects, designers and creatives established in New York. With its focus on incorporating craft, digital technologies and environmental responsability, the firm’s designs and work have attracted critical acclaim for their boundary pushing nature. more…