“There is, in reality, a virtual self”, is how the late Ryuichi Sakamoto called his final project. As enigmatic as it is, it’s a description that, if it doesn’t resonate in our metaversal times, nails the famous composer’s swansong nature. How better to describe a mixed reality installation in which Sakamoto, virtualized for ages, can be seen giving his last concert.
Title KAGAMI (or “mirror” in Japanese), the work premieres at The Shed in June as a site-specific installation. Live audiences wearing mixed reality glasses will be able to see Sakamoto engaged in a career-spanning solo piano performance – his face and physique rendered in virtual three-dimensions, and his Yamaha grand piano precisely located on the venue stage.
“Ultimately, it’s about presenting a dimensional form, blending in with the surrounding area,” explained Todd Eckert, founder of Tin Drum, the production studio that orchestrated and developed the project. “The experience feels both present and current, but also like the real world in that our agency determines the experience we will have.”
KAGAMI will run simultaneously at The Shed and the Manchester International Festival 2023 in the UK, before heading to the Sydney Opera House and the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in 2024.
Audience viewing experience KAGAMI. Photo: Melissa Alper, courtesy of The Shed.
According to Eckert, Sakamoto was convinced before signing. A key factor for him was Tin Drum’s Project 2019 with Marina Abramovićentitled The life, in which the performance artist was volumetrically captured for a 19-minute mixed reality exhibit. “When he figured that out,” Eckert told Artnet News, “we decided to do it.”
In December 2020 in Tokyo (at the height of COVID, no less), Sakamoto’s final performance was filmed in a four-system motion capture process, which recorded detail right down to his fingertips as they punched the keys of the grand piano. Oftentimes, Sakamoto’s performance conveyed such “gravity”, Eckert said, that his head dipped below the level of occlusion of the cameras, forcing Tin Drum to devise a bespoke regeneration technique to fill in the missing data.
But no, it’s not a deepfake. On the contrary, Eckert emphasized that authenticity was “absolutely everything.” Instead of making the work “read as digital,” the studio’s goal was largely to make the technology invisible, erasing any barriers that might exist between the work and the audience.
That goes for the digital art and transitions that accompany Sakamoto’s hour-long performance of songs, including “Before Long,” “The Seed and the Sower,” and “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.” They’re meant to evoke the tenor of Sakamoto’s compositions, Eckert said, but also to help audiences better access the work, even if it’s “something that’s not there.”
“Everything, by virtue of its delivery, is digital, but nothing is actually meant to feel particularly futuristic,” he said. “I think whenever you have something that’s overtly technical, the humanity is often lost. I wanted the audience to connect with a human being.
Ryuichi Sakamoto. Photo: Luigi & Iango, 2023 @luigiandiango
Sakamoto, over a career spanning over four decades, has amassed a significant discography spanning the ambient, electronic, funk and classical genres. His collaborations with artists such as Iggy Pop, Youssou N’Dour and Brian Wilson have earned him international recognition, as have his scores for films such as Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), The sheltered sky (1990), And the last emperor (1987), the last of which won him an Oscar.
Before his passing in March 2023, Sakamoto wrote a short reflection on KAGAMI, wondering about the world his virtual self might inhabit. He wondered if humans could be wiped out or if squids could take over the land, rendering pianos, music, and even empathy irrelevant.
Still, he added, “This virtual self will not age and will continue to play the piano for years, decades, centuries.”
KAGAMI takes place at The Shed, 545 West 30th Street, New York, from June 10 to July 2. Tickets are available here.
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