KAGAMI

A Ryuichi Sakamoto quote from in 2023 emblazoned on the floor of the meeting room sets the scene for an engrossing performance.

“There is in reality a virtual me. This virtual me will not age and will continue to play the piano for years, decades, centuries.”

KAGAMI takes his rightly renowned music and combines it with an image of him playing and other images to create a virtual reality for the audience to inhabit.

Ther is quite a bit of preparation for the magic to happen. The audience members have to wear cumbersome, but manageable glasses. Unfortunately for people who need prescription glasses their own glasses do not fit under the virtual reality glasses. This was managed by having on hand people to work out what you need to see adequately and the most common corrective lenses which are added to the virtual reality glasses. Seating is arranged in a circle and everyone is given a headset. We were told to look for the big red rotating block. I put the headset on and, there it was, a big red rotating block.

The music started and some audience members moved towards the mandala in the middle of the floor which had been pointed out as being the performance space. At the end of the first piece people clapped. The music is delicious, but I wasn’t sure the visual presentation of a big red block quite deserved applause! After the second piece of music and more applause, I found one of the people who had helped with setting up the headsets. Yes, I was supposed to be seeing more than I was.

After trying several other headsets, I finally saw why people were applauding. There he was, playing a grand piano and it was if I was sharing the stage with him. His hands were mesmerising. I could see his muscles moving under his coat. I stood and gawked.

There were other images projected around the space. For me the most effective was the Milky Way and other stars. Buildings zooming around made me slightly motion sick, there were also reflections in a lake and a growing tree to accompany the music. There was mention of scents being used but I did not smell anything.

People clapped because they were hearing the music of a master and for me there was also an element of applauding the bravery of people who are innovating and pushing technology as far as it can go. At the moment, it is still a bit glitchy and difficult but there is a new artform in the making which we will be privileged to see emerge. Ryuichi Sakamoto has already asked some important questions for us to consider.  The last lines of his reflection read, “What about music? Will there be empathy there? Empathy that spans hundreds of thousands of years. Ah, but the batteries won’t last that long.”

Ruth Richter

Photographer: Michael Pham