Like butterflies swarming around the light of a vending machine, human behavior is sometimes unconsciously dictated. When the people gathered at the event space "VACANT" in Harajuku noticed Mirai Moriyama's footsteps echoing from downstairs, they lined up by the wall and stopped talking, as if on command. The sound of the steady, steady steps was slow and steady, with a firm will.
VERTIGO" consists of two parts. In the first half, visitors are free to view the installation and photographs in the space. The space is furnished with photographs, platforms, a cup of water, and books. The most eye-catching feature is a transparent acrylic panel suspended to divide the room at the center. In the second half of the exhibition, Moriyama will perform using the space and installation as it is.
There is no boundary between the audience and the performers. Everyone is at the same eye level and becomes a part of the performance. Then Moriyama appears.
There." "Doku."
He said this as he turned his gaze straight to one corner of the hall. His words, uttered as if he were speaking to the audience, passed through every corner of the large space.
VERTIGO" is composed of a motif of "Narcissus" from Greek mythology. It tells the story of a god who falls in love with his reflection in the surface of water and eventually decays without fulfillment. He is the origin of the word narcissism. The statement is quoted below.
Narcissus, a beautiful young man in Greek mythology, from whom the words "narcissism( self-absorption and narcissism)" originated, and Echo, a nymph who has feelings for Narcissus. She is a voice-only being who has lost her body and is only allowed to repeat the voices of others( echo). One day, Narcissus falls in love with his reflection in the water mirror, and without realizing it is him, he continues to speak words of love to her, which are echoed by Echo as if he himself were responding to her reflection on the surface of the water. After these questions and answers, Narcissus is unable to leave the scene, and he is so consumed by his unfulfilled feelings that he destroys himself.
A transparent acrylic plate hanging in the center of the space represents the surface of the water, standing as if to separate this side and that side. Moriyama put his face to the water in the cup and began to struggle to find his "self" existing there.
Hidden in the transparent acrylic panel is a mechanism that could be called the skeleton of this experiment. It is a vibration speaker that uses bone conduction technology.
When you put your ear to the acrylic panel, you could hear the noise of the audience's voices and the sound of their clothing rubbing against it, recorded on the spot and at that moment. Like witnessing oneself reflected in the surface of the water, like hearing the echoes of the echoes of the Echo, an experiment with sound was being conducted. These vibrations do not pass through the eardrum but reach the brain through the bones.
Moriyama is in agony and gradually begins to move like a zombie. His preconceived image of the human body is shattered. His body collapses, crawls on the ground, and slowly rises as if pulled by an invisible line. Then he collapses again. The repetition is both beautiful and grotesque enough to make one want to turn away.
VERTIGO's statement is "a search for the 'reclaiming of the individual' in the information society.
In understanding this statement, I would like to share one news item with you. It is "Donald Trump's Campaign."
U.S. President Donald Trump said that his presidential victory was "due to social networking". While this may not be what he intended to say, the background of his statement is detailed in the NETFLIX documentary "The Great Hack. After analyzing a large amount of personal information and categorizing the preferences, lifestyles, and demographics of individuals, the company targeted those who were likely to switch from Clinton to Trump among the electorate, and those who lived in areas where the campaign was likely to be competitive. Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm that executed this advertising strategy, was suspended and his firm went out of business due to accusations of informalities. A large amount of personal information was obtained through a Facebook quiz application and allegedly used fraudulently for the campaign.
What happened here was a "hijacking of the individual's unconscious" through the misuse of technology. We did not choose, but were actually made to choose. Brainwashing by the media has been practiced in various aspects for a long time, but in the Internet age, it is invading the realm of "I" in a more sophisticated manner.
At the heart of VERTIGO is the question, "What is who I am?" The question is: "What is myself? As a mirror of the ever-changing times, the definition of one's existence continues to transform. After the performance, we interviewed the three artists about the issues and ideas behind this spatial art form, as well as the way they relate to each other.
