Reintroducing an indigenous culture with digital art entertainment
Situated in the New Chitose Airport domestic terminal is a four-by-four-metre box, which at first glance appears to be an empty room with nothing but blank white walls. However, by taking just a step inside, one is invited into an ethereal space of lights and sounds that evoke the “invisible” yet rich history of the local culture and its native people.
This booth is in fact a digital art installation produced by Japanese creative company NAKED, INC., and is part of the nation-wide “Culture Gate to Japan” project headed by the Japanese Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Tasked with an exhibit that encapsulates the culture of the northern prefecture Hokkaido, NAKED joined hands with the indigenous Ainu people and scholars to create an artwork that shines light on their stories.
The completed installation, titled “Imagine ainu”, is an immersive experience of shapeless shifting colours that accompany Ainu music and narratives playing from a surround-sound system. Visitors are asked to rely on these sounds to guide them through an “unseen” Hokkaido landscape rich with nature, leisure activities, foods, and Ainu spirit.
This intentional omission of explicit visuals is an homage to the oral tradition that has been long practiced among the Ainu people. By stripping the experience down to the components of sound and light, the installation seeks to evoke a deeper story and sentiment that simply cannot be captured in images.
At the same time, for those that opt to, NAKED offers a special feature in which audiences can use their smartphones as an augmented reality (AR) window to peer into another — this time animated — world of the Ainu and Hokkaido.
“Imagine ainu” isn’t NAKED’s first collaboration with the Ainu — past collaborations include a stunning 26-metre wide animated LED mural “The Breath of KAMUY” as well as a 40-metre stained glass window display “100 Years of History”, both of which involved and feature Ainu artists and scholars.
This series is merely one facet of NAKED’s numerous undertakings tagged under the company’s “Regional Revitalisation” and “Tradition and Innovation” projects. While best known for their fantastical and stunning immersive digital art exhibitions, this is NAKED’s attestation that the digital art medium is not all about dazzling, photo op displays.
Rather, in this age of of constantly evolving technology and high-speed networks, “Imagine ainu” is a soft beckoning to the audience to step in, absorb, and then lean further in to uncover the treasures it carries. This unassuming approach stays true to the Ainu ethos whilst employing NAKED’s wide range of digital media capabilities to breathe fresh life into the core themes of the project.
“Imagine ainu” is on display at the domestic terminal of the New Chitose Airport until 30 September 2021. The experience is entirely free of charge.
Find out more about NAKED, INC.
Official website: https://naked.co.jp/
Instagram：@naked_inc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nakedinc/
Facebook：@NAKEDINC.official
YouTube：https://www.youtube.com/c/NAKEDINC
