The Creators Project: It took a lot of work to adapt synthetic Japanese open-source pop-star Hatsune Miku for her performance before the picky crowd at Berlin’s mythic, ten-day long CTM and transmediale media art festivals.
Initiated and coordinated by artist Mari Matsutoya, Miku’s brand-new performance, Still Be Here, is above all a strong collaborative effort partially created within a one-of-a-kind residency format at UK artistic laboratory Metal.
3 comments:
As a self-proclaimed aficionado of Japanese culture, I've been seeing stuff about Vocaloid stars for the better part of this decade. For some reason, the idea of a CGI woman who has a beautiful voice as well as a pretty face is slowly taking the world by storm. The thought that such a creation can kickstart a whole generation of culture is kind of astounding, as all of the music and dancing is created on a computer, while one can spend hundreds of dollars to a ticket to one of Miku's "concerts". The music itself is usually typical J-pop mixed with EDM, which lends itself well to the dance music festival circuit that everyone seems so hyped on. The hologram musician thing is also something slowly starting to hit the American circuit, which was first introduced through Tupac's hologram a few years back. Would I personally attend a music festival in which Miku headlines? Probably not. However, the thought that people who truly idolizes this character will get a chance to attend her concert with likeminded Miku-heads makes me happy, since I can see how happy the people at that concert would be.
I am constantly fascinated with the idea of Hatsune Miku. Partly because of the implications of a pop star being entirely created by a software company, and partly because.. I kind of don't get it. I just spent 20 minutes after reading this article watching Hatsune Miku videos, and her other vocaloid friends, and I feel many ways, but I'm not sure how to articulate them. I'm pretty sure you could write a gnarly thesis paper on how hatsune Miku has influenced Japan and their idea of women and celebrities. Even while watching like 5 songs of her's and Megurine Luka, produced by the same software company, I'm entranced. They formulated precisely what the audience would want from a popstar, and project it literally onto millions. And they're huge icons in Japan. They're ingenius ideas. But, I worry about the implications of men creating what the ideal woman should look like. She is larger than life, with long legs, and is always wearing a variant of a schoolgirl outfit, or something that looks like its straight out of Mortal Kombat. I've been thinking a lot lately about how society views Asian women, espeically after watching again You Only Live Twice, the Bond movie where he is massaged and cooed at by a horde of Asian women, as the villain says they'll do Bond's every bidding. And when Hatsune sings, "I am the number 1 princess in the world, here's how you should worship me", I can't help the feeling that the idea of the ideal Asian woman is still as far away as it was in the 60's. She also sings, "All I want to be is cute". A man wrote this lyrics, portraying what he wants Asian women to strive for.
Anyway, I have a little too much to say about Hatsune Miku.
I remember hearing about Hatsune Miku back when I was in middle school, and her songs/voice sounded very different from how she sounds in this short video clip; she sounded a lot more artificial and robotic, and it was very easy to tell that that was a program "singing". I'm surprised to see how much more natural she sounds now compared to back then. It's also interesting to see how the concept of a virtual pop star has expanded internationally and ventured outside of Japan. I think the huge anime culture definitely has an influence on the concept of Hatsune Miku as well as its popularity. I wonder if there are any male variations/versions of Vocaloid stars, and if so their popularity compared to the female ones. The fact that concerts with thousands of fans can be completely driven by a virtual pop star makes me wonder how immersive media like such may be utilized in theatre (not in the form of a virtual pop star, of course).
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