Takuto Fukuda »Simulacra«

Work-in-Progress concert


[06.05.2022]


Takuto Fukuda: »Simulacra« (2019 – 2022)
for five cellists and audiovisual electronics, 34’ European
premiere


»Simulacra« is a composition for five cellists and audiovisual
projections. This piece reflects Jean Baudrillard’s concept of
“simulacrum” defined as a “copy without original,” and addresses
the following question: what is it that engenders a sense of
‘authentic’ concert experience in the age of simulation? In his
book »Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture« (2011),
Philip Auslander asserts that the authentic object for listeners
in pop music concerts has changed from performers' actual
musicianship to a simulation of recorded performances that have
never existed in the real world, but were created with the
extensive use of studio production techniques (e.g., lip-synced
performances). Drawing on this historical transition of
authenticity in concerts from actual to fictional performance,
this composition presents the hybridity of corporeal performance
and audiovisual imagery as a new authentic experience in a
concert. The piece reflects the concept of “simulacrum” in
theatrical and musical ways. Theatrical simulacra are achieved by
the use of multiple visible “copies” of a single main cellist.
The copies may be other performers whose identity is
unidentifiable, as they wear a mask, perform off stage and
perform in a virtual world created in the video projections.
Musical simulacra are brought into being by the use of audible
“copies” of a cello performance. This copies may be created by
splicing recorded performances, using physical modeling synthesis
and immersive audio projection systems. These approaches enable
»Simulacra« to merge the actually existent and fictionally
projected performances into an unrealistically augmented real
performance.


Fundamental to the realization of the piece is the collaboration
with cellist Esther Saladin, who is scanned during her playing in
order to reproduce the processed recordings in the concert space.
This virtualization of the cellist's playing in Takuto Fukuda's
work is realized by using Volumetric Capturing. The process makes
it possible to record, edit and store scenes in their
three-dimensional reality. Volumetric capturing is an elaborate
process that scans the instrumentalist from all sides using a
large number of sensors distributed throughout the room and
reassembles this data into a complete image. The process makes it
possible to change the viewing angle afterwards.


Esther Saladin is in demand as a soloist and chamber music
partner of various trio formations and ensembles in the field of
contemporary and classical music on the stages. She often
combines music with other art forms in her productions.