Tokyo-based artist, interaction designer, programmer, and DJ.
Launched Rhizomatiks in 2006. Since 2015, has served alongside Motoi Ishibashi as co-director of Rhizomatiks Research, the firm’s division dedicated to exploring new possibilities in the realms of technical and artistic expression with a focus on R&D-intensive projects. Specially-appointed professor at Keio University SFC.
Manabe’s work in design, art, and entertainment takes a new approach to everyday materials and phenomenon. However, his end goal is not simply rich, high-definition realism by recognizing and recombining these familiar elemental building blocks. Rather, his practice is informed by careful observation to discover and elucidate the essential potentialities inherent to the human body, data, programming, computers, and other phenomena, thus probing the interrelationships and boundaries delineating the analog and digital, real and virtual.
Manabe is an innovator in data analysis and data visualization. Notable artist collaborations run the gamut from “Sensing Streams” installation created with Ryuichi Sakamoto; performances of the ancient Japanese dance “Sanbaso” with prominent actor Mansai Nomura; and Verdi’s opera “Othello” as conducted by Andrea Battistoni. As a recent example, Manabe was selected for a flagship commission and residency program in 2017 at the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics, a national astronomy and astrophysics research center housed at the University of Manchester. His close partnership with researchers and scientists concretized in “Celestial Frequencies,” a groundbreaking data-driven audiovisual work projected onto the observatory itself.
In 2015, Manabe developed the imaging system for Björk’s music video “Mouth Mantra”, and oversaw the production of AR/VR live imaging for her “Quicksand” performance.
In performance with Nosaj Thing, Manabe has appeared at international music festivals including the Barcelona Sónar Festival 2017 and Coachella 2016. Having also directed a number of music videos for Nosaj Thing, his work on “Cold Stares ft. Chance the Rapper + The O’My’s” was recognized with an Award of Distinction in the Prix Ars Electronica’s Computer Animation/Film/VFX division. Further directorial work includes the music videos of artists such as Squarepusher, FaltyDL, and Timo Maas.
As a DJ with over two decades of experience, Manabe has opened for international artists such as Flying Lotus and Squarepusher during their Japan tours. His wide repertoire spans from hip-hop and IDM to juke, future bass, and trap. Manabe has also been invited to perform at numerous music festivals around the globe.
Manabe’s collaborations on dance performances with MIKIKO and ELEVENPLAY have showcased a wide array of technology including drones, robotics, machine learning, and even volumetric projection to create 3D images in the air from a massive volume of rays. Additional data-driven performances have explored innovative applications of dance data and machine learning. These collaborations have been performed at major festivals including Ars Electronica, Sónar (Barcelona), Scopitone (Nantes), and MUTEK (Mexico City) to widespread media acclaim (WIRED, Discovery Channel, etc.)
Manabe is actively involved in the development and implementation of media artist summits (notably, the Flying Tokyo lecture series) as well as other educational programs (media art workshops for high school students, etc.) designed to cultivate the next generation of creators.
Japanese Interaction Designer, Programmer, Engineer and DJ, Daito Manabe is one of the world’s best known media artists. The oriental artist is the fifth and last MTMG guest of 2018 before the summer break. We will meet him on Wednesday, July 18 at 7.30 p.m. at BASE Milano (via Bergognone 34). Sign up!
A specialist in merging different languages and instruments, Manabe’s work moves on the borders between analogue and digital, between real and virtual, following a red thread that never breaks: the desire to break down the boundaries between art and technology. His approach is expressed through various means from sound design to artificial intelligence, drones, interactive installations, theatrical performances and even facial electrostimulation, as in the photo below (taken from the artist’s Facebook profile).
In 2006 he founded a media art company, Rhizomatiks, to promote collaboration between media art and the business world. Manabe has worked with international museums and fashion brands and is at ease at the DJ console – his performances at the Sònar in Barcelona are unforgettably spectacular – as at the university, where he regularly holds courses.
At Meet the Media Guru he will tell why technology is a powerful tool for engaging in emotional relationships with people. To create these “connections” Daito often uses cold technologies like robots, drones and lasers. And the result is almost always surprising, as evidenced by the 24 Drones video, a performance as hypnotic as poetic that sees three dancers interact with a flock of drones.
Another emblematic example of the power of a symbiotic use of different languages and processes is the Border project, an “augmented” dance performance that speaks of boundaries from the very title.
Interviewed by the blog freundevonfreunden.com, Manabe thus describes his project: “The audience wears AR devices and moves on a mobile chair controlled by the computer, so its experience is completely controlled by the system. This experience includes not only the image and the sound, but also the vibrations of the floor, the touches of the dancers, the scent in the air. Everything fades between real and virtual”.
The MtMG evening with the Japanese guru is an opportunity not to be missed for those who love media art, but no less interesting for those who want to explore the increasingly fluid boundaries between different knowledge. An evening that will immerse us in digital culture. Join us at the Daito Manabe lecture.
The photo portrayal of Daito Manabe at the opening is by Shizuo Takahashi.
