Yamaha will take its "e-plegona" art installation to the Berlin-based Tech Open Air Festival and hub.berlin in the coming weeks, following the artwork's debut at the 2023 SXSW convention.
"E-plegona" is an artwork created as a collaboration between the design departments of Yamaha Motor and Yamaha Corporation, and is designed to generate an experience of "Kando," which is a Japanese word for "the simultaneous feelings of deep satisfaction and intense excitement that we experience when we encounter something of exceptional value," a Yamaha press release reads.
To do this, the installation requires two people to operate it, and they communicate non-verbally with each other by creating notes on the installation's touchscreen that sends "a rhythmic pattern" to the other user, Yamaha says.
"E-plegona" will be exhibited at the hub.berlin show on 28-29 June, and at Tech Open Air Festival on 5-7 July.
This article was originally published on 27 February 2023 and was updated on 20 June 2023 with the above text. The original article can be read below.
Yamaha has announced it will be displaying an art exhibit at the South X Southwest (SXSW) convention in Austin, Texas next month.
The South X Southwest (SXSW) convention is one which brings together music, film, comedy, and much more in a week-or-so-long event.
Yamaha’s exhibit will be held during the Creative Industries Expo segment of SXSW which will take place between 12-15 March.
The display is actually a collaboration, between Yamaha Motor and Yamaha Corporation, and is called "What revs your heart and makes waves?". There is also a third collaborator, Dr. Mark Changizi, and a fourth, Shinsuke Shimojo from the California Institute of Technology.
It is an interactive artwork, requires people to interact with it, and is designed to create an experience of Kando, which is a Japanese word “for the simultaneous feelings of deep satisfaction and intense excitement that we experience when we encounter something of exceptional value,” Yamaha says. The experience is created by communication between the two people interacting with the artwork. The communication itself is non-verbal, but seemingly sent between the two users via the use of the artwork.
Yamaha says “The team is working together to explore how to further clarify the essences of the experience itself through science and art as well as how it can be reproduced.” The idea of the installation is to combine science and art to make progress in the team’s research.
More about SXSW can be found on sxsw.com.
