Technical direction for “Ryuichi Sakamoto + YCAM | Forest Symphony”

In charge of technical direction for the installation piece “Forest Symphony”, which was created as a collaboration work of Ryuichi Sakamoto and YCAM, exhibited at Joeiji Temple in Yamaguchi city.

“Trees convert sunlight to energy through photosynthesis, meaning they are a genius at capturing electromagnetic waves. I want to turn that nature’s cycle into music.” Ryuichi Sakamoto Sakamoto had always been deeply intrigued by forests and trees…following the Great East Japan Earthquake, this intrigue transformed into a concrete form of artistic expression; the Forest Symphony project. Forest Symphony spurred from the idea of shifting human eyes to the forest and the environment which man lives in. The project and its technical development efforts are being undertaken in collaboration with the YCAM InterLab of the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] and its outputs will be presented as installations and on the website as an art project. This project has developed an original device dedicated to measuring the bioelectric potential of trees, working around the concept of taking this gathered data and Sakamoto converting it to music; a symphony played by trees in forests from around the world. In addition to its exhibition as an installation, the purpose of this project is to gather worldwide data and YCAM has opened the initiative to the public as an open source so that tool kits for gathering trees’ bioelectric potential can be delivered to those wishing to collaborate. Also, we will publish the data of the bioelectric potential gathered from trees around the world.

Links:
Ryuichi Sakamoto + YCAM Forest Symphony