Entrevista a Daito Manabe en Sónar+D CCCB 2023

We interviewed Daito Manabe on the occasion of his participation in the online edition of Sónar+D CCCB on September 18th.

Manabe is a multitalented artist, programmer and D.J. His works have been displayed in museums and festivals like Ars Electronica (Linz), Resonate (Serbia), STRP Festival (Eindhoven) or Sónar (Barcelona). He has been awarded at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Titanium Grand Prix, D&AD Black Pencil or the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize, and distinguished with the Ars Electronica Distinction Award. Björk, Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, Ryuichi Sakamoto or Squarepusher are just a few names of the long list of artists that have collaborated with Daito Manabe. He launched Rhizomatiks in 2006. Since 2015, has worked alongside Motoi Ishibashi as co-director of Rhizomatiks Research.

Alterna2: First of all, congratulations for your work! A few weeks ago we watched a video performance of Morphechore at Sónar+D CCCB. Please introduce this innovative project.

Daito Manabe: A technique called brain decoding allows you to reconstruct an image you are imagining in your mind from your brain. The concept is to create choreography using this technology. Although it is not done yet with actual data for this time, I gave a presentation assuming that it will be available in the future.

A2: Body movement is one of the keys of Morphechore. You explained in the performance introduction that you mapped your own body for this project. Besides, you worked with dancer Shingo Okamoto and choreographer MIKIKO, with whom you collaborated in the past. Explain the role of music in this creative process and how you orchestrated all these elements.

Daito Manabe: In my case, mathematics and music are sources of inspiration, and that is the case for this time as well. However, for the sake of the piece, I had to first create the music and obtain the choreographic data for the choreography. The music is just for the purpose of creating the choreography. Then I converted the choreographic data using various techniques, and created the music again to match the resulting dance data.

A2: Let’s talk about your studio Rhizomatiks. What’s its mission and what type of projects do you work on?

Daito Manabe: Our mission is to create things that nobody hasn’t seen yet. From Research and Development, Production, Sharing, to Education one set.

A2: Your career is very prolific and goes from research and technology to dance and music. In which discipline do you feel more comfortable?

Daito Manabe: Research is an important phase, but I still think creation itself and collaboration is the meaningful part.

A2: You’ve participated several times in Sónar Festival. To name a few, a dance and drones performance with Eleven Play in 2014, the Phosphere premiere in 2017, a keynote with Yukiyasu Kamitani in 2019 and the live performance of Dissonant Imaginary… Describe your experience at Sónar.

Daito Manabe: My first performance at Sónar was 2011. Sónar is my favorite festival and I started attending it in 2004. Since 2011, I’ve been to Sónar almost every year, even when I’m not presenting. There are many other festivals that focus on music in connection with science, media art and education, but the significance and history of Sónar is very special. It’s the most important festival in my career. When you present your work at Sónar, you get a lot of feedback and it opens up a lot of doors for the future. There were a lot that I got to take from Sónar.

A2: From your perspective as a multidisciplinar professional and artist, what could we expect from the future of art, music and live performances? How technologies like VR and artificial intelligence will change the creative ecosystem?

Daito Manabe: I think the concept of using AI to analyze brain data and make what you imagine in your mind a reality has been around for a long time, but I think a variety of new works will be innovated once it is implemented into reality. It’s not very often that a completely new concept is created from scratch, but as a creator and artist, I’m happy that the development of science and technology has made it possible to do things that were not possible in the past, and I think I am the one who got benefited more than enough from those developments.

A2: Could you share with us any artist or institution you would like to work with? Why?

Daito Manabe: There are so many people I would like to work with that I can’t even name them, but Arca and I did a project together last year in New York and I felt like there’s a lot more we can do, so I’d love to do it again.