Shoto Hayakawa

A performance work created as an homage to the wildly popular 2020 video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Created amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, this work emerged from the concern that “the real and the virtual will never fully replace each other” within Japanese society, where virtual communication has become commonplace. Audiences can engage with the piece from anywhere using their own smartphones or computers. Actions taken by the audience through the game screen determine the behavior of performer Yamauchi himself in the exhibition space. At the venue, viewers can see the living, breathing Yamauchi following commands such as “Eat a banana” and “Carry the box,” or sometimes refusing them. In the game, Yamauchi’s avatar moves according to the instructions of the real Yamauchi. Yet while the online avatar remains cheerful and relaxed throughout, the actual Yamauchi becomes exhausted and expressionless as he overuses his own body. This gap makes the difference between the virtual and the real strongly felt.