membrane | 虚実皮膜 is a multidisciplinary collaboration between movement artist Yoko Murakami and audiovisual artist Maria Takeuchi using motion-tracking technology. The work is inspired by the theory of “虚実皮膜 Kyojitsu Himaku,” in which the truth of the art lies in the fine line between artistic fiction and fact. This line or “membrane” is represented by a translucent screen in the space, the line in which the duality is explored.
The work is grounded by the elements- water, air, fire, and earth- as representation of birth, life, death, rebirth and the cyclical nature. The audience will be invited to float in between the dreamworlds without the need to define the experience.
The movement performance by Murakami is captured by a motion tracking sensor and illuminated by bio-inspired generative visuals by Takeuchi. An original score by Takeuchi in collaboration with Alec Fellman, joined by percussionist Nava Dunkelman, accompanies the piece creating a transporting experience.
membrane | was created at the SUITE/Space residency at Mabou Mines in NYC. The work was presented at the Mabou Mines Theater on January 31, February 2 and 4, 2024.
Created by Murakami x Takeuchi
Choreographed and Performed by Yoko Murakami
Visual and Tech by Maria Takeuchi
Music by Maria Takeuchi, Alec Fellman, Nava Dunkelman
Sound Engineering by Alec Fellman
Costume Design by Akiha Yamakami
Lighting Design by L.W. Miller
Tech Supported by John Fistos, Zilvinas Jonusas, Ansel Combs
Stage management by Labhaoise Magee
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Mabou Mines Team
Autumn Angelettie, Ona Martini, Cat Tassini, Morgan Tachco, Carl Rux, Karen Kandel, Sharon Fogarty, Mallory Catlett
Video documentation by Milan Misko
Edited by Yoko Murakami
Music: Chihei Hatakeyama Visual: ÉMU
Videographer: Peter Galgani
Chihei Hatakeyama's performance at St. George's Episcopal Church, hosted by Ambient Church on April 2nd, 2022.
Projection mapping programmed by Eric Epstein
Production managed by Arrien Zinghini
Special thanks to Brian Sweeny, Juna Skenderi, Sarah Pak, and Ambient Church team.
snow drift in moonlight (2021)
sound by MA / visual by ÉMU
MA is the collaborative sound works of ÉMU + insomniac hotel.
This work was streamed at Festival Pleamar 2022, curated by Fernando Molina.
ÉMU & insomniac hotel, presenting an a/v set for Ars Electronica Festival NYC 2021
Live at Culture Lab LIC
Hosted by XRE Ensemble
Directed by Erin Wajufos (Never Knows Better)
Curated by Testu Collective
a trilogy of waves (2020)
i - cells
ii - underground love letter
iii - YURE
A stream of thoughts questioning our perceptions and understanding of our environment.
Imagine, we - as individuals unconsciously construct palaces of cognition within our minds. However, to what extent can we be sure these cognitive constructs reflect actual reality.
The sounds and visuals were created by taking organismic information such as fractals, Voronoi noises, and sound frequencies reflected from natural shapes, then merging into technology to give a glimpse of hope for human beings to coexist and resonate with nature.
The piece was created for
Sound Forms 2020 : A Festival of Sound
presented by
CONT E P ORARY M U SIKI N G
HONG KONG
released June 11, 2021
credits :
mixed by Maria Takeuchi
mastered by Alec Fellman
album cover & video by Maria Takeuchi
Petal
Music by insomniac hotel
Visual by ÉMU
Petal - The beauty of an individual, as expressed through a symbiotic system.
The cycle of life is a balance of growth and decay.
A full appreciation of life's beauty must also take into account beauty's temporality.
Beauty, and its decay.
Release is available here : https://insomniachotel.bandcamp.com/track/petal
Part of Testu Collective's A/V room for Currents FM
COMMON MULTIVERSE INITIATIVE on March 13th.
vimeo.com/528471706
Video by Maria Takeuchi (ÉMU)
Music by otodojo [https://microtones.org/otodojo]
Part of wave~seed II - a compilation for the frontline
https://microtones.bandcamp.com/album/wave-seed-ii
All funds go to Amazon Frontlines' project kick-started by Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo (see give.amazonfrontlines.org/campaign/frontlines-challenge/c313372).
otodojo - 'uproot and replant - an ode to forests’ is a track that starts by bringing in personal field samples from the Amazon and using droning bass and wave-shifting noise to represent the perils of encroaching deforestation. The subsequent filter-enveloped FM accents bring us to an aquatic zone, evoking imagery of oil spills in rivers. Halfway into this journey, there's a distinct transition that sounds like trees falling — followed by sonic imagery of a river moving through with a suite of instruments. The journey ends bittersweet, acknowledging the struggles to come yet bringing in the courage to change it. Maria Takeuchi's visual interpretation of this track was focused on water as an essential for all living things. In appreciation of the beauty that exists within the laws of nature, the visuals were inspired by the movement of fluids and generated to compliment the variety of surreal textures in otodojo’s sound.
wave~seed II - a compilation for the frontline (releases April 22, 2021)
Through over-dependence on fossil fuels, a subsequent runaway greenhouse effect, and deforestation for oil and agriculture, we are approaching terminal decline of delicate ecosystems that harbor more biodiversity in plants per hectare than entire continents. The ones who live and depend on these ecosystems for their livelihood are at the frontlines of protecting them.
This compilation serves as a drop in the bucket to aid the frontlines of this struggle and as a vibrational prayer moving forward. Each track is inspired by a different environment.
All funds will go to Amazon Frontlines' project kick-started by Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo (https://bit.ly/3dsDi0n)
Presented by Microtones
Audio by:
pReconnect
Kenya Kanazawa
Superstitious Fiction
impakt
Ali Berger
Tenkai Kariya
sergio cote barco - @sergioacote
otodojo
Visuals by:
Maria Takeuchi
Julie Malice
ACE
Loveland Studio of Design
otodojo
Album art by:
Ray Difasi - @radifasi
I N T E R V A L V
Movement : Yoko Murakami
Sounds and composition : Serena Stucke & Maria Takeuchi (ÉMU)
Ikebana : Kristina
Filmmaking : Dan Tesene
Editing : Serena Stucke & Dan Tesene (Testu Collective)
@testucollective 2020
I N T E R V A L series are dedicated to finding pauses and inhabiting alternate dreamspaces in the daily survival grind. We invite you to dwell in the short-lived respites and let your imaginary selves take over.
I N T E R V A L V For a brief few days in September 2020, the Testu Collective and friends limited their reality to the ringing summer days of Tivoli, New York. The resulting videos are a one-take improvised story spanning several chapters.
Waterscape
Music by Seiji Kokeguchi
Visual by ÉMU
Waterscape entices listeners to get lost in contemplation as they relish a unique listening experience. This piece immerses you in the sway and flow of an underwater-soundscape. As you progress further and deeper, you will recognize the fluidity and variations of particles. Unconsciously diverging through, over and over, conceivably submerging yourself in a dazzling vortex of distortion. It is a piece that expresses the narrative of the evolutionary process of an emotion. Kokeguchi used a hydrophone to record the underwater sound, an essential element for this piece, to have listeners be made aware of its characteristic sound quality and behaviour. The recording took place at one of the iconic rivers in Helsinki, Vantaanjoki.
ÉMU, a New York–based audiovisual artist, created the video. She not only brought a stunning and delicate visual aspect to the piece, but was able to perceive Waterscape’s world view and express the beauty of impermanence with very simple yet complex images.
Gabor - Gazes Grises
Composed & Produced by Gabor
Video by ÉMU
Track artwork by Pinelopi Gerasimou
Mastering by Benoit B / Perception Mastering
Produced in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City, Gazes Grises is a progressive electronic composition originally made by Gabor for the audiovisual compilation "Solace". Solace was put together by ÉMU and Testu Collective as a fundraiser for IRC's Covid-19 action at a time when New York was the epicenter of the pandemic, it featured unreleased audio and visual works by artists from across the world.
d i ss o lve - I
Sound & Visual by ÉMU
:: d i ss o lve :: is a series of sonic and visual poem, merging organismic soundscapes with projection mapping.
Using piezo microphones attached to wood bark wound with guitar strings and porcelain bowls carefully tuned with water measurements, Maria plays and conducts the sound-objects with a delicate yet intentional focus. The subtle sound textures created solely with touches by hand, stones, branches, sandpaper, and shells on the handmade instruments, processed for added aesthetic atmosphere. The ocean waves, synthesized noise through fx chains, places the performance in a virtual yet familiar space.
Generated images were projection-mapped onto the bowls, creating a reflected disc, or eye shape, moving and bouncing with the water's physics while the images give life to the "light-object.
d i ss o lve - II
Live sound & projection mapping by ÉMU
A/V online streaming opening performance for a light installation "Edge of Light" curated by Jonathan Sims at Parallax Gallery on December 2020.
Opening A/V curation by Testu Collective
Video filmed by Shintaro Ueyama
Hosted by HOLOCENTER
Special thanks to Alec Fellman
when the sun sets
Sound & Visual by ÉMU
"when the sun sets” was composed by Maria Takeuchi (ÉMU) for the collaborative performance with Morin khuur player Miho at Bubbletecture H in Hyogo, Japan.
’when the sun set’ was inspired by the beautiful Sunset which had given her the emotional healings during the covid-19 lockdown in New York.
Sound & Visual by ÉMU
This is an archived series of "COEXISTENCE x RESONANCE" from 2019 to 2020.
1: 00:00 souon
2: 07:01 sympathy
3: 13:08 unknown memory
4: 16:10 響 (kyou)
5: 19:55 Silent Resistance
The nature lets us alive, and the human development has made us survive, although they apparently inconsistent at the first glance. Nature and technology should coexist by uniting and evolving. "COEXISTENCE x RESONANCE” is a series of audiovisual experience to recreate a beauty of resonance in a search of harmony among human and nature combining technology and organism.
MEMORY THREAD
Conceived and performed by Yoko Murakami
Music by Maria Takeuchi
MEMORY THREAD was created in May 2020, in New York City, during the Covid-19 quarantine. In the spontaneously taped “web” in the hallway of an apartment, the concept of blurring is explored. The blurring of the body with it’s surroundings. Blurring of memories and reality. Blurring of the conscious and unconscious. Navigating a new and surreal reality by accepting, surrendering, and trying to find the presence within.
Silent Resistance
Sound & Visual by ÉMU
Listen / watch / purchase audiovisual compilation "Solace" here
Visit storefront exhibition of Solace artists at ChaShaMa: Open Feb 11th - Mar 8th 2021, Thurs- Sun, 3 - 9 PM
The collective will also be hosting a closing event on Mar 8th with live performances by artists from ‘Solace’ living in the NYC area, as well as streaming sets by those abroad.
///Solace///
The audiovisual compilation 'Solace' is founded by the global community of musicians and visual artists based in NYC, the current epicenter of Covid-19.
This compilation features unreleased audiovisual art works, live recordings, and compositions of 11 projects contributed by 14 artists who are from all over the world coming together to support The IRC fighting against Covid-19, through our creative expression and fundraising.
100% of the proceeds will be donated to The International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC is providing lifesaving programs to vulnerable communities especially hit hard during the pandemic.
This project is entitled 'Solace' meaning consolation in a time of deep distress. 'Solace' is the reflection of what music and visual art has meant to these artists while being in isolation and social distancing during the pandemic. 'Solace' symbolizes the hope for a renewed creativity and inventiveness in all of us during this time of crisis.
This compilation is dedicated to all those who have lost their lives to Covid-19.
released May 1, 2020
Album Art by Fernando Molina
Compilation Curated by Testu Collective and ÉMU
Sound / Visual / Programming by ÉMU aka Maria Takeuchi
This project is an ongoing project supported by the artitst residency program by Société des arts technologiques since April 2019. ENN is inspired by people. We have to give a distance from each other physically at a time like this but I feel a stronger connection in mind. Please stay well beautiful humans.
--ENN--
"ENN" means circle, "ENN" means ties, and a profound connection among human beings and matters. The concept of the project "ENN" represents a philosophy of existentialism in an abstract manner whilst adding interactive movement from the audience.
Each individual experiences a sensation of overcoming difficulties in life, and we may face others. The particles which refer to individuals will transform into different shapes as if we grow and mature, then it will show that we are all connected in the end.
It's a cycle of all existence and the appreciation of the bonds with all the beings.
Live A/V performance by ÉMU aka Maria Takeuchi
This concert was performed at Flux Factory on December 21st 2019 for the opening of the light exhibition "SOLSTICE" curated by Jonathan Sims.
--SOLSTICE--
Solstice is a convening of ten artists on the night of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. Each of these sculptors, installation artists, and performers incorporate light as a central element of their practice. To celebrate the darkness of the midnight sun, the typical gallery lighting will be removed and the Flux Factory gallery plunged into blackness. To celebrate the coming return to longer days, all light in the space will emanate from the LEDs, digital projectors, fiberoptics, and incandescent bulbs in the artists’ work– reflected, refracted, directed, and lensed into being.
Installations : Luba Drozd, Laurent Fort, Sizhu Li, Lindsay Packer, Ksenia Salion, Jonathan Sims.
On December 21, the night of the winter solstice, four artists will present audiovisual performances that push the boundaries between the digital and analog media :
ÉMU / Night Shining / Paloma Kop / Testu Collective
Live A/V performance by ÉMU aka Maria Takeuchi
0 \\ 2019 PUBLIC VISUALS 2 @ Synesthesia on June 8th 2019. filmed by Shintaro Ueyama
The nature lets us alive, and the human development has made us survive, although they apparently inconsistent at the first glance. The nature and the technology should coexist by uniting and evolving, and this is the art form to challenge recreating the beauty of resonance in the natural law.
we live with the noise
we live in the noise
we create noise
we are made with noise
The ambient audio visual live "souon" is an expression of us surrounded by noise. "souon" is the fifth series of Audio Visual Experience “Coexistence and Resonance” in a search of harmony among human and nature combining technology and organic creation.
This event 0 \\ 2019 PUBLIC VISUALS will create various live audiovisual performances with composers, audiovisual artists & contemporary artists.
Live performance by ÉMU aka Maria Takeuchi
from A/V events - 0 \\ 2019 PUBLIC VISUALS @H0L0 on April 4th 2019. filmed by Shintaro Ueyama
The nature lets us alive, and the human development has made us survive, although they apparently inconsistent at the first glance. The nature and the technology should coexist by uniting and evolving, and this is the art form to challenge recreating the beauty of resonance in the natural law.
The ambient drone A/V live "drowning in the depth" is the emotional piece created for the fourth series of Audio Visual Experience “Coexistence and Resonance” in a search of existentialism.
This event 0 \\ 2019 PUBLIC VISUALS will create various live audiovisual performances with composers, audiovisual artists & contemporary artists.
Microcosm
Visual - Maria Takeuchi
Music - ÉMU aka Maria Takeuchi
Microcosm
Visual - Maria Takeuchi
Music - ÉMU aka Maria Takeuchi
This is a making of the live immersive audio visual performance from August 2018 at Bubbletecture H in Japan.
Experimental project using Xbox One Kinect for motion data capture.
Making of
Gallery
Official website
Credits: Music and Direction : Maria Takeuchi
Visuals and Direction : Frederico Phillips
Performance Artist : Shiho Tanaka
Camera Filming / Support : Samuel Blalark
Camera equipment : Jason Guerrero
Experimental project using Xbox One Kinect for motion data capture.
The film
Sound : “soil” by Maria Takeuchi