CNR 2016: Lectures: Cody Poulton (CAN): Spectral Presences of Media and Machinery in Contemporary Japanese Performance
My presentation will use still and video images to enquire into how, in contemporary Japanese performance, media and technology can conjure up spectral experiences. I will examine a range of examples of spectral performance, including those of the vocaloid Hatsune Miku and Hiroshi Ishiguro's Geminoid F in two plays by Oriza Hirata: Sayonara (2010) and its sequel Sayonara II (2012), mostly recently adapted into a film by Koji Fukuda (2015). In these works, nonhuman actors serve as mediums in mediatized performances. All these works enquire into the nature of life, "liveness" (Philip Auslander's term), and the real. The pop idol Hatsune Miku is a video projection that serves as the voice for a synthesizer program; she is a shared imago created by a collective of fans. The nature of life and death is addressed in her Vocaloid opera THE END. In Hirata's Sayonara and its sequel, the mortality of the young woman serves as counterpoint to the android's indestructability. Geminoid F represents the immortality of the soul. But is it human?
Link:
Cody Poulton
[image source: Cody Poulton]
[source: Vive Les Robots!]
Cafe Neu Romance
2016:
Program
Lectures
Movie
Competition
Cody Poulton is Professor of Japanese literature and theatre, and currently a Fellow at the International Research Center, "Interweaving Performance Cultures," at Berlin Freie Universität, preparing a book on "Transhumanities in Japanese Theatre: spirits, animals, technology."
Spectral Presences of Media and
Machinery in Contemporary Japanese
Performance
Cody Poulton will present his lecture "Spectral Presences of
Media and Machinery in Contemporary Japanese Performance" at
Cafe Neu Romance at 10 - 10:30 am on the 26 October 2016 at
IIM (Institute of Intermedia), FEL CVUT (Czech
Technical University) in Prague.
IIM (Institute of
Intermedia)
Hall H25 at FEL CVUT
Technická 2
CZ-160 00 Prague.
Czech Republic