FEATHER in 2019 (Biennale College), BEAT in 2020, CLAP in 2021, TYPEMAN in 2022, SEN and SYUHASUU (FREQUENCY) in 2023… It’s hard to see a more regular schedule than Keisuke Itoh and the team at Cinemaleap, Japan’s leading XR studio, at the Mostra of Venice and its VR section (now Venice Immersive). To find out more about their activities, we spoke to producer Katsutoshi Machiba during the latest edition of the Italian event, right on Lazzaretto Vecchio.
Feedback from Venice Immersive 2023
SYUHASUU (FREQUENCY) by Ellie Oomiya is a more personal tale of a young woman’s quest for self-fulfilment through art and drawing. From childhood to adulthood, the story consists of a succession of paintings that come to life under the brushstrokes of artist Ellie Oomiya. This life story relies heavily on the soundtrack that inhabits these paper characters, with a grand finale in the form of a musical.
SEN by Keisuke Itoh is a visual and tactile experience that invites us into the Japanese tea ceremony… with a few extra tricks. Highly sensitive in its interactions, it leads the viewer to appreciate a quiet time cut off from the world, conducive to soothing. A creation that is undoubtedly at odds with a very active trend in VR, and highly appreciable!
SYUHASUU (FREQUENCY), an artist’s story
Katsutoshi Machiba – Ellie Oomiya is a very popular painter in Japan. When we met, she had never created anything in virtual reality. And it was already a challenge to get her to discover the medium! The project began with an on-boarding phase, during which she saw a lot of VR content to get a feel for existing tools and techniques. But we also talked a lot about the installation side of the business, as she exhibits a lot and has her own experience.
K. M. – SYUHASUU (FREQUENCY) tells her story, and her difficulty in embracing her desire to create through painting. It’s a biopic, so to speak, which she wrote and drew in VR throughout the preparatory phase. We used motion capture to bring her drawings to life. And with a logic: that of pantomime, a discipline highly prized in Japan. Every element of the story was physically “acted out” by motion capture performers.
An ongoing interactive journey
K. M. – I come from the world of cinema, and the relationship with artists was already something very important to me. When I became interested in virtual reality, with all its possibilities, I wanted to bring other artists into it. But there aren’t many of us in this sector in Japan, apart from Cinemaleap, and there’s still a lot of education to be done, not only with the public but also between the various artistic industries that might be interested.
K. M. – In fact, I learned what virtual reality was all about in Venice itself, during the Biennale College VR. In particular, the importance of interaction and a sense of immersion. But the vocabulary is often different in different artistic disciplines, and we adapted to its practice to bring SYUHASUU (FREQUENCY) to life. The experience had to engage the user without any dead time, while giving time to the scenes drawn. I always build on the personalities of the artists who collaborate on our projects. Ellie has a more concrete approach to things, particularly in her approach to storytelling. We talked a lot about adapting everything to virtual reality.
K. M. – Learning from all our projects shows that there are as many manufacturing processes as there are authors. This is understandable in the face of such a fluid medium, which is why we’re so keen on the development phase to make sure we’re all moving in the same direction. Integrating Ellie Oomiya’s painted assets was an essential part of the experience. As was the music by kotringo!
SEN, an experience in Japanese tradition.
K. M. – The word “sen” means many things in Japanese. It’s a number, a symbol of wisdom, and also refers to the Japanese tea ceremony. This was the idea behind the experiment. Like BEAT, SEN was developed with the idea of capturing the viewer’s pulse and interacting with this information. But BEAT was made in the middle of the Covid-19 period, and we abandoned the idea of an overly physical device. We brought the idea back for SEN, and it’s around the heartbeat that we’ve built this tea ceremony.
K. M. – Imagining a story in virtual reality wasn’t easy: I’m more in favor of the idea of a living narrative rather than a classical one, which reinvents the relationship with the viewer to make him/her central to the story. SEN is an LBVR device that includes the set around the audience. Everything has been designed to respect the setting of this Japanese tea ceremony, the silence and so on. But we’ve also added a few requests for exchange and light interaction between spectators. Having an object in your hands, in particular, is an essential part of the experience – and a real artefact of Japanese history. It’s all very faithful to our traditions, but in 3D! I hope people will feel connected to Japanese history with SEN.
K. M. – Our next project with Keisuke Itoh will use a character programmed by AI. Development is in progress, and with the acceleration of these technologies, I don’t yet know when we’ll be able to finish the project.
Next: Beyond the Frame festival (Tokyo) from the 27th to the 29th October. Official website.
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“On the value of connection, between the spiritual and physical worlds” – Keisuke Itoh (TYPEMAN)
