LOW TECH for human excitement
Finance, romance, shopping… the progress in technology is steadily accelerating in many areas. Technology advanced so much to make sure everything goes smoothly without even using our brains, but is this good in all cases？
In 2017, members of Konel took part of a couple of music festivals and started to question the over-use of technology taking direct part of the shows. The music, the lights, the screens, if everything on stage synchronizes perfectly we enter that unique unconscious state of comfort music shows generate.
However, instead of keeping the secret of each performance’s production hidden in a black box, what if we create a cause and effect relationship between the production and the live show itself enhancing the stage experience for the audience. Under this premise is that we decided to develop our prototype.
PLAYJACK (http://playjack.jp/)
PLAYJACK detects vibration and generates light, though radio waves, in a way our aim is to use back-to-basics tech for music events, sports, festivals, etc to take the scene to the next level.
In 2018 we will be launching PLAYJACK at SXSW, the world’s biggest cultural festival to be held in Texas.
This time we are introducing the “BEYOND WORDS” concept along with Mr Iguchi, leading DOKI DOKI Inc, the creators in charge of Sekai Camera and Telepathy on their first world-wide joint exhibition “Transparent”.
Please check here for details about SXSW and for updates on Mr Iguchi’s session.
But what is back-to-basics tech and how did we came up with this project？
The present
We have all at least once had our hearts dancing to the rhythm of the music along with the lights at a music show.
The best way to get a crowd pumped up is through the perfectly synchronized light shows we all know, in many cases the person in charge of lighting adjusts the tempo on the spot, sometimes its digitally pre-programmed.
At a live show, normally no one thinks about the people behind the stage, programming or adjusting the lights. They just concentrate on the artists from the beginning to the end.
Original experiment
During TAICO CLUB 2017, while watching Suiyōbi no Campanella, internationally known as “Wednesday Campanella”, this simple idea was born.
The best way to get a crowd pumped up is when the artist’s movement in conjunction with the spectators’ are what makes the lights flash, everything linked up in real time.
The artist jumps and the seats light up！
The crowd claps and the stage shines bright！
An experience that transcends both spectator and artist making them the main factor of interaction between each other and the stage.
Prototype
Using a vibration sensor and radio waves, we developed a simple prototype that controls light through movement.
Movement and light connects creating an interactive light show that needs no words.
We believe that back-to-basics primitive technology will gradually become more than an experience and more of a indispensable part of the live show itself.
Add-on
Although originally this idea was inspired from the music scene, we believe it works as an add-on that adapts and boost any other similar situations like sports, games, festivals. The interaction between participants heats up the experience, this is why we named this project PLAYJACK.
From now on, we hope to continue to experiment on back-to-basics tech on different areas with many new challenges.
