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‘discrete figures’ performance by Rhizomatiks x Elevenplay

Three Shows Over Three Nights

Thank you San Francisco for supporting 10 years of Gray Area and selling out all three nights of ‘discrete figures’ by Rhizomatiks x ELEVENPLAY!

Ticket Information

Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 8PM (7PM VIP) (21+) SOLD OUT

Friday, April 20, 2018 - 8PM (All Ages) SOLD OUT

Saturday, April 21, 2018 - 8PM (All Ages) SOLD OUT

No refunds or exchanges, however you are welcome to transfer between ticket holders. Up All Night has ticket transfer instructions here.

Presenting the United States Premiere of ‘discrete figures’ a new dance technology performance by artist Daito Manabe’s Rhizomatiks Research and Choreographer MIKIKO's ELEVENPLAY, in collaboration with artist Kyle McDonald.

Inspired by Alan Turing, their newest performance marries choreography for five dancers with machine learning technology and a stage designed for interactivity between performers, drones, virtual dancers and other objects.

A Decade of Gray Area

Celebrating Gray Area’s 10 year anniversary programming art & technology in San Francisco, we invite you to join us in supporting our largest production in the Grand Theater to date co-presented by Heron Arts, Japan Foundation and tickets available exclusively on Up All Night.

Full Length Dance and Technology Performance

An expansive multidisciplinary collaboration between mathematicians, dancers, media artists, composers, and engineers, this complex experimental augmented reality performance is truly the first of its kind. This newest dance performance probes the circuitry connecting the corporeal to the cognitive, questioning the very essence of humanity and machine.

Alan Turing is often called the father of modern computing. He was a brilliant mathematician and logician. He developed the idea of the modern computer and artificial intelligence

Turing thus gave birth to one physical incarnation of mathematics. His creations are the embodiment of the act of performing mathematics. Although his contemporaries would see a sharp delineation between human and machine, in his eyes, his progeny did not constitute a distant “other”. Rather, he was the father of a “living machine.”

How might mathematics manifest itself as physical expression? What binds human cognition and philosophy to a human being’s body? How might this connection dissolve or transform in time?

The full-length show follows the emergence of mathematics in relationship to the human body, exploring perception and our physical modes of expression through a complex set of emerging technologies.

Production Credits

Cast:
KOHMEN (ELEVENPLAY)
SAYA (ELEVENPLAY)
MARU (ELEVENPLAY)
EMMY (ELEVENPLAY)
YU (ELEVENPLAY)
Stage Direction | Choreography: MIKIKO
Artistic Direction | Music: Daito Manabe (Rhizomatiks Research)
Technical Direction | Hardware Engineering: Motoi Ishibashi (Rhizomatiks Research)
Machine learning Direction: Kyle McDonald
Machine learning: Yuta Asai (Rhizomatiks Research)
Projection System | Software Engineering: Yuya Hanai (Rhizomatiks Research)
Visualization: Satoshi Horii (Rhizomatiks Research)
Visualization: You Tanaka (Rhizomatiks Research) CG Direction: Tetsuka Niiyama (+Ring / TaiyoKikaku Co.,Ltd.)
CG Production: Toshihiko Sakata (+Ring / TaiyoKikaku Co.,Ltd.)
Music: Daito Manabe, Seiho, Setsuya Kurotaki, Krakaur, THIRTEENSTUDY, "hanabi" by kotringo
Videographer: Muryo Homma (Rhizomatiks Research)
Stage Engineering: Momoko Nishimoto (Rhizomatiks Research)
4D-VIEWS: Crescent,inc.
Technical Support: Shintaro Kamijo (Rhizomatiks Research)
Craft : Tomoaki Yanagisawa(Rhizomatiks Research) , Toshitaka Mochizuki (Rhizomatiks Research) , Kyohei Mouri
Production management: Yoko Shiraiwa (ELEVENPLAY), Nozomi Yamaguchi (Rhizomatiks Research), Ayumi Ota (Rhizomatiks Research), Rina Watanabe (Rhizomatiks Research)
Production: Takao Inoue (Rhizomatiks Research)
Production: Rhizomatiks co., ltd.

Artist Collaboration Background

An interdisciplinary digital Renaissance man, Rhizomatiks Research co-founder Daito Manabe stands out for his new approaches to the human body, data, programming, computers and other everyday phenomena. With one foot in the future, the Tokyo-based media artist and creative technologist uses programming, sound design and interaction design to develop next-level production technology for major international events and entertainment projects, from augmented reality videos for musicians to live interactive technology for dancers.

Among his extensive collaborations, Manabe developed the imaging system for Björk’s video “Mouth Mantra,” lead the AR/VR live imaging production for her “Quicksand” performance, co-created the “Sensing Streams” installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and most recently completed the commission “Celestial Frequencies” at the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics. After working with L.A.-based producer Nosaj Thing on music videos that used advanced projection mapping, augmented reality, dancing drones and motion capture, Manabe and the L.A.-based producer set out on their ever-evolving, Prix Ars Electronica Award-winning music video "Cold Stare", forefronting new technology not only as art but as a way to transcend reality.

In that spirit, Manabe and Rhizomatiks Research have collaborated in a visual, technical and musical director role with choreographer MIKIKO and the ELEVENPLAY performance company in several high-tech, data-driven performances since 2013, combining corporeal and mechanical bodies in spectacular gyrations of dance and technology.

Artist Bios

ELEVENPLAY

Dance company directed by choreographer & art director, MIKIKO. ELEVENPLAY was founded by MIKIKO in 2009, in the hopes of creating dancers who possess highly artistic sense and creativity on top of exquisite techniques, body and spirit. Composed of female dancers from a variety of genre, ELEVENPLAY's methods of expression are diverse, including stages, video works, and still photos.

MIKIKO

MIKIKO, a stage designer/choreographer, has taken an artistic direction and choreographed for almost fifty world-famous Japanese artists like Perfume, BABYMETAL, Ringo Shiina and more. She has won many awards in the field of performing arts, and her choreography has been widely appreciated in the Japanese Pop scene. It is safe to say that MIKIKO is one of the greatest choreographers in Japan.

Rhizomatiks Research

Rhizomatiks Research mainly takes up projects focusing on the field of research and development, and sets priority in opening a new expression for the future. The team which is leading Rhizomatiks Research, has produced projects with artists such as Perfume and ELEVENPLAY in addition to media-art and data-art projects, and is also in charge of all processes through the projects―planning, implementation and operation.

Daito Manabe

Tokyo-based artist, interaction designer, programmer, and DJ. Launched Rhizomatiks in 2006. Since 2015, has served alongside Motoi Ishibashi as co-director of Rhizomatiks Research, the firm’s division dedicated to exploring new possibilities in the realms of technical and artistic expression with a focus on R&D-intensive projects. Specially-appointed professor at Keio University SFC. Manabe’s work in design, art, and entertainment takes a new approach to everyday materials and phenomenon. However, his end goal is not simply rich, high-definition realism by recognizing and recombining these familiar elemental building blocks. Rather, his practice is informed by careful observation to discover and elucidate the essential potentialities inherent to the human body, data, programming, computers, and other phenomena, thus probing the interrelationships and boundaries delineating the analog and digital, real and virtual. Photo by Akinori Ito.

Motoi Ishibashi

Engineer / Artist. Director of Rhizomatiks Research. Born in 1975. Graduated from the Department of Systems and Control Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS). After graduation, Ishibashi produced show windows and advertisements using an interactive video system, which at the time was still largely unknown. In 2006, he began making full-fledged media art works. His works include “Pa++ern”, “fadeout” and “particles”, and he has shown them at countless museums and events, such as Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media[YCAM], NTT InterCommunication Center[ICC], Ars Electronica and Sonar. In 2010, he expanded his field of activities to include entertainment, and began overseeing the technical aspects of music videos, concerts, and large-scale shows, creating new expressions using advanced systems in live performances. He continues to produce spaces and experiences that would not be possible with video alone through the use of devices and hardware. In 2011, he was awarded the Excellence Prize in the art division of the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival, and the Award of Distinction in the interactive division of Prix Ars Electronica. Photo by Shizuo Takahashi.

Kyle McDonald

Kyle McDonald is an artist working with code. He is a contributor to open source arts-engineering toolkits like openFrameworks, and builds tools that allow artists to use new algorithms in creative ways. He has a habit of sharing ideas and projects in public before they're completed. He creatively subverts networked communication and computation, explores glitch and systemic bias, and extends these concepts to reversal of everything from identity to relationships. Kyle has been an adjunct professor at NYU's ITP, and a member of F.A.T. Lab, community manager for openFrameworks, and artist in residence at STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon, as well as YCAM in Japan. His work is commissioned by and shown at exhibitions and festivals around the world, including: NTT ICC, Ars Electronica, Sonar/OFFF, Eyebeam, Anyang Public Art Project, Cinekid, CLICK Festival, NODE Festival, and many others. He frequently leads workshops exploring computer vision and interaction.

Partners

Japan Foundation

The Japan Foundation is Japan's only institution dedicated to carrying out comprehensive international cultural exchange programs throughout the world.  To cultivate friendship and ties between Japan and the world, the Japan Foundation creates global opportunities to foster friendship, trust, and mutual understanding through culture, language, and dialogue. The Japan Foundation was established in October 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 2003, it was reorganized as an independent administrative institution. Based on a government endowment of 78 billion yen, the activities of the Japan Foundation are financed by annual government subsidies, investment revenue, and donations from the private sector.

Heron Arts

Heron Arts was founded in 2013 by Mark Slee, an active member of San Francisco's creative community, organizing events since the mid-2000s. Prior to Heron Arts, Slee was a member of Facebook's product design and development team. He is joined in 2015 by directors Noah Antieau and Tova Lobatz, who are pursuing ambitious programming that will encompass installations and experiential interactive environments, alongside traditional gallery exhibitions. Antieau has been involved in the arts for two decades. He founded Red Truck Gallery in New Orleans and annually curates a section of the LA Art Show, which he has dubbed Littletopia. Lobatz was formerly the youngest director of a prominent gallery in San Francisco and founded the public arts organization Art City. In the summer of 2014, she was the head curator of the highly successful public art advertising takeover Way Out West. Collectively the three hope to provide San Francisco with a fresh outlook on contemporary beauty in the arts.

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