Celebrating Japan Digital Days.

■ Celebrating Japan Digital Days.

October 10th.

Digital Day.

The DIGITAL DAYS SUMMIT was held.

100,000 people viewed the event on Nico Live, Youtube, and other platforms.

Thank you very much.

In conjunction with the Digital Agency’s “Digital Days ONLINE EVENT,” the CiP Council, of which I am a representative, explored the future of “entertainment x digital.”

Kyary Pamyu, Hachioji P, Ichiro Yamaguchi of Sakanaction, and Magical Lovely sent their messages of support.

The opening session was a discussion of the Digital Agency, hosted by Karen Makishima, the second Digital Minister who took office a week ago, among others.

The Digital Agency staff introduced an analog case in which it took an agency employee 90 minutes to get a parking certificate.

Hiroyuki introduced administrative online procedures in France. I though France was the country of inconvenience, but I was pleasantly shocked. 

Now, then, the event we hosted.

Digital performances by VJs, DJs, and VFX artists in a virtual XR space from BLACKBOX, a state-of-the-art distribution studio with permanent 4-sided LEDs.

Live entertainment by DJ CARTOON and YELLOCK was a highlight.

The talks by SUGIZO of LUNA SEA/X JAPAN, Tatsuro and Miya, and Digihari President Tomoyuki Sugiyama were also thrilling.

Many people must have been taken aback by the video of SHAG, a jam band led by SUGIZO.

I was also a speaker at the “Superhuman Sports Session: Digital and the Body.”

Attended by the Superhuman Sports regulars Professor Masahiko Inami of the University of Tokyo, Professor Kota Minamizawa of Keio University, President Yoshiaki Sawabe of 1→10, and Shinji Neki, the Vice Mayor of Paralympic Village.

What is digital human extension? What is the jizai (autonomized) body? What is Tech & Pop sports?

Seven years ago, on October 10th, Physical Education Day, 50 years after the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, superhuman sports made their start.

Physical Education Day became Digital Day. Incorporating the digital into the physical body.

After the new Tokyo Olympics, the next stop is Paris. The year after that, the Osaka Expo.

Let’s connect them in an interesting way.

In preparation for the Digital Days ONLINE EVENT, a “Digital Day Exploratory Committee” was established at the Digital Agency.

Jun Murai was the chairperson and I was the acting chairperson.

Although discussed by a diverse group of members including Yoichi Ochiai and Hiroyuki, the DIGITAL DAYS SUMMIT was planned and implemented almost entirely by private volunteers, mainly from the music industry.

At the end of the event, we welcomed online Takuya Hirai, the first Minister of Digital Media, who was in Kagawa with producer Shogo Mizuno.

He has done a tremendous job in facing the longstanding challenge of public-private partner ship and breaking down stove-piping in the Kasumigaseki area, and successfully implemented this event in one year by allocating the necessary laws, budget, and personnel.

Thank you very much for your hard work.

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Kyoto International Film and Art Festival

■ Kyoto International Film and Art Festival

Like a film festival, but not a film festival. It looks like an art exhibition, but it is not. 

When I asked what it was all about,

“It’s all about film, art, and everything else,” was what I got in return. This is the Kyoto International Film and Art Festival.

The festival was held without incident. As the chairman of the executive committee, I would like to express my gratitude.

For two consecutive years since the Pacific War, the Gion Festival had to cancel the Yamahoko Junko procession.

However, in order to keep the culture alive, Yamahoko floats were still constructed.

As in the previous year, there were only six lightings of the Daimonji (in which a Chinese character meaning “large” or “great” is lit on fire on a mountain).

But lit they were.

The Olympics and Paralympics were held under restrictions.

We thought we should follow these examples and do the best we can.

Last year, we followed through with the event online.

This year, we tried a hybrid solution, holding the event both on- and offline.

This year’s theme:

“Face forward.

Forward.”

We want to make shape of the Reiwa era post-COVID.

Let’s face forward.

Including those who visited the stage greetings and exhibitions, as well as online viewers, a total of 110,000 people attended the festival.

58 films and 90 artworks were screened.

Though, we haven’t yet regained the pre-COVID level of enthusiasm.

I hope that we were able to show a sense of forward moment toward a post-COVID period.

The “Toshiro Mifune” award given to actors went to Kenta Kiritani.

The “Shozo Makino Award” honoring filmmakers went to Masaharu for “The Naked Director” and other films.

This time, the award was given to a young filmmaker.

Face forward, face forward.

The ambassador to present the prize was Kana Kurashina. A young woman.

Face forward, face forward.

Online screenings included the specially screened Chinese film “Beyond the Sky” and the physical screenings at Gion Kagetsu, Hulic Hall, and other venues.

There were also efforts such as the Kyoto International Indies-Cinema, as well as works by the Creator’s Factory for human resource development, among others. I was looking most forward to the silent/classic films.  

https://kiff.kyoto.jp/film/

The art was mainly found at the “Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art.”

https://kiff.kyoto.jp/art/

AU x Shozo Shimamoto “A”

Exhibition and performance by AU, a group of avant-garde artists represented by the late Shozo Shimamoto, a founding member of “Gutai.” The members of AU, Tamaya Shimada, Okakenta, and others worked to create a large “A” (hiragana character “あ”), while Shimamoto himself also created a beautiful “A.” 

This is a modified jukebox where you can watch videos of “A” in production.

It’s a huge PC with buttons as the keyboard, and you’re able type on it.

Analog + digital, super inconvenient! Stupid! Cool!

I want to borrow it and display it at my university. 

There’s also art distributed online.

From the Naoko Tosa Laboratory at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Ars Vivendi (Shishukan) Art Innovation Industry-Academia Joint Lecture, where I am a specially-appointed professor. 

https://kiff.kyoto.jp/art/cat6_artinnovation.html

Dr. Heinrich x Marine Nakamura

Collaboration talk project “Let’s make PoeJan bottles”

It was a real pleasure to invite Dr. Heinrich.

“K-Ko Project” at Gion Kagetsu.

New York artist KAORUKO (that’s formal idol Kaoruko Arai!).

Transmitting her signature K-Ko pose (face out from under the crotch) for good luck.

Ultra Boogies, Kuuki Kaidan, Gerrardon, Dansei Blanco, and Kaerutei posed before the King of Conte semi-finals.

https://kiff.kyoto.jp/art/cat5_kaoruko.html

Theme song of the Kyoto International Film and Art Festival “MEMORIES of FILM”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viu10JhwTeU

Everyone contributed a picture of their favorite movie, coupled with a message.

I was the last one, after Mr. Kukkii.

Thank you, everyone.

After much deliberation, I chose Fellini’s “8 1/2"

The sweet dream of my boyhood.

Fellini’s Rimini is my Kyoto.

Just what is cinema?

Holding hands, making a circle.

“Life is a festival.”

The Kyoto International Film Festival.

In closing, a greeting.

To Hulic Hall, KYOCERA Museum of Art, Tamanoyu, and everyone who provided the venue.

Thank you very much.

To the film art administration, media sponsors, and to the grandparents, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children who participated on- and offline.

Ookini (Thank you very much).

Next year, we would like to make the entire city of Kyoto—east, west, north, south, and online as well—a much livelier hybrid event.

Yoroshuu otano moushimasu (Thank you very much for your cooperation).

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COVID-19, decluttering, Kyoto.

■ COVID-19, decluttering, Kyoto.

A young acquaintance of mine has recently taken to decluttering.

She says she is going to get rid of things, become minimalist and live lightly. She will move to a smaller place where she can live within easy reach of things.

She says, “when you lose weight, you become healthy, and when you become light, you can travel. 

From objects to intangible things; eco-friendly and nomadic.

All I need exists digitally.”

That’s right.

She also “decluttered” people by cutting them off. 

She said, “My main customer service business was doomed because of COVID. During that time, I cut my social networking and phone contacts down to the bare minimum.

Even then, I can still contact the people I need to. The vast majority, however, were unnecessary.”

She seems comfortable.

“The digital community and communication can be overly self-limiting if too abundant.”

I wonder.

No work can be had during COVID. No chance to move your body during COVID.

An opportunity to be reborn.

Detox the things and people you have stored up.

Though I wouldn’t want to become the waste product after someone’s detoxing, but it may lead toward someone’s opportunity to detox and be reborn anew.

I have just delved into the service business area of new universities. Now is a time to strengthen communication with the digital community, so I don’t have time to think about decluttering. Yet, it would do me good to be careful not to let my aging leak out as waste.

But decluttering isn’t the goal, is it? What do we do with weight off our shoulders? While you downsize, COVID has put society at a standstill. What does my friend think about this? 

When I asked her, she replied back with, “Wait to be burned out.”

Hm? What does that mean?

“Wait to be burned out. Do nothing. Stay still.

There is no work for me, but nobody else can either. Our community will be destroyed.

I will die out.

Once that happens, I can start over from zero.

And I look forward to that.”

The Kyoto people’s sense of time, looking ahead after the “Onin War” in the 15th century,  is to let COVID be an opportunity to burn oneself out.

Once they’re burnt down, the game is on.

The catchphrase for the 2015 Kyoto International Film and Art Festival was,

“Kyoto likes the weird and disorderly ♡”

“Kyoto creates. Creates, and then destroys.”

“Kyoto destroys. Destroys, and then creates.”

Those phrases must be true.

Hmm…

I am halfway to become a Kyotoite.

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Introducing two punk films.

■ Introducing two punk films.

Here are two punk music films I watched during the COVID pandemic.

First is “AMERICAN UTOPIA,” a collaborative effort between David Byrne and Spike Lee.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

The Broadway production is 107 minutes long with 21 songs.

Most of that time I spent crying.

Am I a rare case because the live show I saw 40 years ago is ingrained in my mind and body?

Not at all. Young people who see it for the first time will be shaken it by it.

It was the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hB7Wl4BNSk

The stage and costumes are stripped of all decoration to create a thrilling, interesting, and dynamic space with primitive expression of the body, instruments, performance, and dance.

Political messages of diversity and inclusion are present throughout.

The production shows that music still carries such profound possibilities.

Even then, David Byrne is already 70 years old. Ugh.

I was right to see the play in a small and loud theater called “Demachi-za” in Kyoto.

Though, this is not something to be seen while sitting down silently with a mask on your face. It was something meant for the audience to participate in.

I can’t wait to get back to that sense of unity. 

Next time, I’ll watch it on the super big screen, shouting with everyone else!

Here’s the next film.

“THE PUBLIC iMAGE IS ROTTEN.”

A documentary by Public Image Ltd. and John Lydon. 

I dropped the needle on their first album, PUBLIC IMAGE. The first song, “theme,” with Wobble’s heavy bass and Walker’s drumming, was immediately followed by Levin’s guitar, a shock I will never forget. 

The evolution from Sex Pistols to PiL was tremendously unbelievable. I have decided to make punk my life’s path.

Though, this movie shows that punk isn’t just about the crazy madness of young people, but something much more profound as a musician and a person.

There are images of when PiL visited Japan in 1983.

Kyoto was very close to the movie theater where I saw their performance.

After the performance, I was having a drink with Bo Gambos and others not far from the theater when John Lydon came over and gave me a piggyback ride! It was a great time.

The year after, I became a bureaucrat, and the year after, I went to see PiL in Tokyo.

I went with Yasuhiko Taniwaki, who was my classmate at the time.

In suits and ties, we were getting wild at Shibuya Public Hall.

We were probably the two most conspicuous people in the area. 

When I’m in “university president” mode, I wear PiL and Sex Pistols badges instead of my family crest. I still haven’t been found out. 

David Byrne and John Lydon.

They were British men who were active in New York and London at the same time.

For me, they are the two great heroes of punk.

It is no coincidence that I met them twice in Kyoto—as a teenager, they gave me inspiration in deciding what I wanted to do with my life, and now, in my sixties.

My punk path still has a long way to go. 

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Theory of JIZAI Body

■Theory of JIZAI Body

“Theory of JIZAI Body” written by Masahiko Inami et al.

The “Inami JIZAI Body Project” is led by Professor Inami, our boss at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Advanced Study and the co-chairman of the Superhuman Sports Society.

I was drawn in by the self-introductions by young scholars of brain, science, psychology, information engineering, mechanical engineering, information engineering, mechanical engineering, and media design, who gather under the umbrella of body informatics.

In the modern era, technologies of transportation, production, and information have developed. Dr. Inami calls it “de-embodiment” and “liberation” from drudgery.

Yes, and I believe that further development of technology will bring about a “super nothing-to-do society.”

Yet, Dr. Inami says the next step is realizing the “jizai (autonomized) body.”

He says that robots and avatars will be made self-reliant, and that the human body will be turned into a cyborg robot.

The term “autonomization” refers to “the ability of a person to freely handle the expanded capabilities of a machine.”

Those who have seen “MetaLimbs,” which attach a third or fourth arm to the body, will immediately get the idea.

The idea is to extend, distribute, and share such capabilities in both real and virtual space.

Dr. Inami’s project has five research themes.

1. Enhancement of the senses (extrasensory)

2. Enhancement of the physical body (super-body)

3. Design via the separation of body and mind (astral projection/transformation)

4. Alter ego

5. Union of the body

Dr. Inami’s previous books are full of references to science fiction and pop culture, and this publication is a genealogy of his work.

The goal of his project is to establish the basic technology to realize a “digital cyborg,” i.e., “a person who freely manipulates superhuman abilities by freely traversing across physical space and cyberspace.”

The MIT Negroponte “bit and atom combination” will be reincorporated into the body. This is the birth of a “new mankind.”

For this purpose, design via the separation of body and mind (astral projection/transformation) will take place.

The hardware and software of a person are separated and deconstructed layer by layer. 

Then, the outer body will control a robot or avatar as if it was its own; one can wear a machine and feel it as oneself. 

Letting a distant robot avatar take over your actions with automation technology.

Manipulating real robots and virtual avatars back and forth with one’s own self, switching between automatic and manual control.

You will have N bodies in N real + virtual locations.

Dr. Inami explains the “ubiquity of consciousness,” likening it to the ubiquity of machines advocated by Mark Weiser of Xerox, or ubiquitous computing.

The ubiquity of consciousness and the body, or the ubiquity of the self. It stirs the human desire to conquer the earth.

On the other hand, it also scrutinizes the domination and sharing of the self by others.

The “union” of many people into a portable shrine-like structure is also a theme of Dr. Inami’s research.

The possibility of sharing one’s body with others or AI is also being discussed. Experiments are underway in which others can control a robotic arm attached to one’s body.

Extending one’s possessions or body through the process of sharing is also mentioned.

Actions are digitized. Distributed and shares as data. Globally.

The masses could be guided or even controlled and managed by themselves.

Immeasurable impact.

The academic fields appearing this book are mechanical engineering, information engineering, control engineering, brain science, neuroscience, psychology, physiology, and emergency medicine, as well as the aesthetics, ethics, and cultural anthropology of Daisuke Uryu from the University of Tokyo.

Research is the “middle ground,” but additional factors are required. This assumes that social implementation includes the dispersion and sharing of the self, philosophy (what is the self?), economics (output, employment, distribution), and law (freedom of expression and public regulation).

Quite exciting to think about.

It was 20 years ago that I published “Digital Toy Box” after two years of study, research, and interviews at the MIT Media Lab to understand MIT Negroponte’s coupling of bits and atoms.

Dr. Inami’s book is an impactful one. It is sure to motivate you that much more to dive into his theory of the autonomized body.

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