Reads- 2025 NTT Arts NOVA

 

Where Imagination Expands: Light Becomes Shape, and Sound Blooms into Color

Poshan Wu | Interdisciplinary Arts Producer & Curator

Every creation is a fragment of an artist's dialogue with the world—a delicate aperture through which we are invited to reexamine our own existence. This year, the NTT Arts NOVA series unfolds as a voyage into the boundless realms of perception and imagination. Each work opens like a fissure, granting us a rare glimpse into the hidden essence of the world. Here, the tangible and the ethereal intertwine, as reality dances with illusion. Light carves shapes from shadows, while sound, infused with rhythm, blossoms into hues of vivid color.

Don Quijote endures as a timeless metaphor for the pursuit of ideals. Yet, when these ideals collide with the weight of reality, do dreams become obsessions? Do adventures descend into reckless folly? Day-Night Reversal Don Quijote employs AI-generated imagery, absorbing and rearticulating texts and sounds to conjure new realms of imagination, as if the machine itself were dreaming. Within these unfolding dreamscapes, we embark on a journey of discovery, catching fleeting traces of allegories that refract and reveal truths about our reality.

fuse*'s Sál delves into impermanence, vacuity, sleep and dreams, and entanglement, unraveling the fragile boundaries between life and death, soul, and consciousness. Through the analysis and transformation of meditative physiological data, the dancers traverse the fabric of space and time, weaving light and sound into a poetic narrative that is subtle yet deeply resonant, expressed through the movements of the body. While the mysteries of life and death remain ineffable and consciousness defies capture, this work offers a transient vision of existence—where all things emerge, evolve, and fade.

Tracing the contours of the human journey, tiaen tiamen Episode 2 breathes new life into ancient ballads and traditional melodies, intertwining them with the transformative embrace of electronic music. The dancers evoke a contemporary lexicon of movement and gesture, distilled from the essence of tribal rituals and embodied expression. Together, they conjure an enchanting sensory realm—a hypnotic space where all things flow, converge, and ultimately return to the "heart."

With over 30 years of history, Maywa Denki's performances are celebrated for their whimsical yet profoundly absurd humor, consistently delivering surprises beyond imagination. This time, we eagerly anticipate the world premiere of New Century of Ukiyo-e, a collaboration with the visual creative team Hello Edo！ Reimagined through the lens of AI, the performance seeks to harmoniously blend the aesthetics of cyberpunk with the festive essence of traditional Japanese celebrations, crafting a vision of a futuristic landscape.

Blur merges AR (augmented reality) and motion capture technology to craft a space where the virtual and the real seamlessly intertwine. Drawing inspiration from the cloning and resurrection biology depicted in Jurassic Park, this theatrical production evolves into a contemporary myth—a meditation on loss, remembrance, and the elusive dream of immortality. "Virtual" reality is never entirely virtual. Rooted in the material, it relies on physical technology and the human body's perception, anchored in the real world, to extend spatial possibilities. 8 Degrees of Freedom invites audiences to become active participants, exploring the groundbreaking fusion of VR and theatrical language.

Theater, wrestling, and circus acrobatics converge seamlessly within the confines of a wrestling ring. SLAM! is an unprecedented form of theatrical expression, brought to life by the ingenious director Robert Lepage, who once again transcends the boundaries of artistic conventions. This absurd, darkly humorous costumed spectacle orchestrates a precise symphony of the senses and imagination, leaving the audience enthralled in its audacious performance.

As vision dims, the imagination expands through sound. Deep Lake Man unfolds within the theater, where the "d&b Soundscape" system precisely constructs a 3D auditory world. Through the harmony of Western, Eastern, and percussion instruments, interwoven with electronic music and human voices, it paints a vivid tapestry of joy and sorrow drawn from the spectral tales of the Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

As twilight descends, towering walls loom, echoing the mournful cries of capitalism's ghosts. Akram Khan reimagines the Romantic ballet classic Giselle, transforming it into a visceral masterpiece. Mark Henderson's sleek lighting and Tim Yip's fluid, minimalist costumes shape the dancers into vivid forms, captured in fleeting steps and spins. Classical orchestration intertwines with electronic music as ballet ascends in weightless elegance, while Kathak roots itself firmly in the earth. The dancers' pounding footwork echoes like an urgent basso continuo, carving rhythms of life, death, and separation.

With dance movements striking the rhythms with clarity, Manifesto unfolds as a celebration of life—an unrestrained and fervent display of sorrow, anger, and joy in all their dazzling authenticity. The pulse of jazz drums conjures the roaring, kaleidoscopic spirit of the 1920s, immersing the soul in a rapturous ecstasy.

In 2024, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to AI scientists Geoffrey E. Hinton and John J. Hopfield. From that moment, science transcended fiction, and the virtual became reality. Reflecting on the world of art, perhaps we have long acknowledged that true "reality" surpasses the material—a realm where humanity can fully come to understand itself.

Among this year's Arts NOVA creations utilizing AI-generated imagery, we seem to catch glimpses of a future that diverges from the bleak, Asian-Futurism-inspired visions of Ghost in the Shell. Yet, what remains unchanged is our relentless quest for the soul and our exploration of how the material world beckons human perception. The ultimate question lingers: how might human perception breathe a new soul into the novel material world crafted by AI?