About the Work
The latest work to utilize real time tracking and face projection mapping using a state of the art 1000 fps projector and ultra high speed sensing, ‘INORI-PRAYER-,’ has been released. This project was born when Nobumichi Asai (WOW) approached collaborators TOKYO (http://www.lab.tokyo.jp/), the dancing duo AyaBambi, and the Ishikawa Watanabe Laboratory at the University of Tokyo.
This project began when songs were created about ‘life,’ a theme proposed by Tanigawa (TOKYO), who acted as this project’s director. Creative and technical director Asai (WOW) and CG director Shingo Abe (WOW) completed visual production and programming based on inspiration they obtained from the songs. Aya Sato added the choreography, and TOKYO completed the project by making it into a video.
‘Radioactive’ is the inspiration that Asai felt from music. ‘Radioactive’ wields destructive power, and from that brings ‘death’, ‘suffering’, and ‘sadness’. And then, the ‘opportunity’ to overcome those things. Accompanied by the overwhelming performance of AyaBambi, a visual synchronization of black tears, skulls, faces being severed, Noh Masks of agony and the Heart Sutra have sublimated into a single piece of work.
The face mapping system made it possible to follow intense performances, which was impossible until now, thanks to the use of the state of the art 1000 fps projector DynaFlash※1 and ultra high speed sensing. The initial dilemma of speeding up the tracking to the detriment of performance latitude was resolved by the WOW team, Professor Watanabe, and Tomoaki Teshima (EXVISION), who trimmed several milliseconds during a trial and error period that lasted approximately three months, enabling the completion of this system※2. The projected image looks like it is integrated into part of the skin, and the expressions on a subject’s face, when it is distorted or transformed, are exponentially enhanced.