—Please share what impressions you had from the onsite tour.
We saw many materials and facilities related to ninja on this trip. We found it very interesting that the environment gave rise to the ninja, including the narrative that the nature of the locality, which is distanced from cities, produced a vigilante corps, and the geography of being surrounded by mountains formed the base of typical ninja tactics that used traps and gadgets. We also had imagined that ninja were acrobatic, but felt that actual ninja led existences that were quiet. For instance, they normally lived as farmers and worked as ninja for espionage when necessary.
—Please tell us about the artwork you are planning to create.
We’re using our knowledge of cognitive science that we’ve studied called “biological motion” to combine elements of concealment and hiding found in the ninjas’ lives and their fighting techniques. This allows us to formulate artwork that gives a sense of the “human signs” of “slipping into surroundings to hide and unexpectedly appearing” and “melting into surroundings without notice to become invisible.” Biological motion is an experimental approach born in the field of perceptual psychology that conveys the human form through the movement of multiple points. In this project, we’ll place multiple LED lights in a box covered by tinted glass with the aim of creating expression from which realistic human existence can suddenly be sensed through the movement of the LEDs.. As we thought about this exhibit, we came up with a human model communicated through multiple points that produces a presence and three-dimensionality different from video when observed directly with both eyes. This authenticity can only be experienced through the real thing.
