I imagined this work from the concept of the girls in “Ne mo Ha mo Rumor” winning the Japanese dance championship and then appearing at the world championship as Japan’s representatives next. When I was told about this MV project, I wanted to incorporate something new, so aside from the giant monolithic structure that appears in the video, everything was newly developed for this MV. That includes 20 battery-powered wireless moving lights, 40 LED poles, and the WAVING LED RIBBON that appears in the bridge section. The stage set itself does not move, and I wanted to break away from the idea of “things that are behind the performers.” So I decided to try a theme where the artists and the space become one. In this MV, ribbon performers come right up close to the members’ faces, and by making the moving lights wireless, they can be placed even on the dance floor, allowing beams of light fused with the members to dance together. The LED poles also continuously change shape, dancing alongside the members by mimicking the hand motions of their right and left arms. While keeping the artists at the center, this MV keeps expanding the space around them. I have mainly worked on live performance direction up until now, and AKB48 also value the kind of live, in-the-moment experience you get in theater performances, so this MV was produced with the image of watching one show all the way through. I think there is a certain comfort in watching a performance continuously, and there are always new discoveries no matter how many times you watch it, so I hope people will watch it again and again. I don’t think I’ll be able to pour this much passion into something for a while（笑）。

Introduction Video for Offshore Wind Power Generation Project

JACKSON kaki creates works about virtual reality, the metaverse, and art. In this exhibition, the artist presents a performance using VRChat in order to examine corpses in the age of virtual reality, and exhibits the recorded footage as the artwork. The metaverse has become such a common term that many people can readily imagine it. JACKSON kaki critically observes the business-oriented and tool-oriented metaverse, which is treated as a kind of utopia, and explores expression by connecting it to the body, space, society, and culture in physical space. This work focuses on the phenomenon of the “corpse.” In the metaverse, it is possible to express the body through avatars; unlike social media, which is built through the exchange of text, images, and video, it enables more immersive experiences and the formation of human relationships that differ from those in reality. The artist began this work by questioning how corpses are perceived and handled by humans in spaces where avatars are used. In many currently available metaverses, the “depiction” or “programming” of corpses has not been prepared. JACKSON kaki interprets this state as a culture in which awareness of and understanding of corpses has not been formed, or has in some sense regressed, and undertook this work as an artistic examination and practice of expression. As a means to this end, the artist creates a “story” that references ancient civilizations shaped by mythology and gods, and connects them to the contemporary metaverse. Based on that story, a “ritual” for handling corpses is constructed, and this ritual is performed and recorded. Through the body in performance within metaverse space and the “handling” of corpses, this work asks how we perceive and recognize corpses in the age of virtual reality.

Filmed only with the GoPro MAX.