Naoko Tosa is a new media artist interested in creating new value mainly from the relationship between sound and image. Her early work, An Expression (1985), which generated sound in real-time from the brightness of video images, is in the MoMA collection. There are various “patterns” in traditional Japanese culture. She found that an asymmetrical triangle, a pattern of Ikebana, can be generated by giving sound vibration to fluids and photographing the shape of the fluids with a high-speed camera. She created a video art called “Sound of Ikebana.” This work was screened every night for 3 minutes at NY Times Square for one month in April 2017 when she served as Cultural Envoy of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. Currently, she is developing fashion using her digital new media art.
Naoko Tosa’s brand is characterized by turning her new media art into fashion using digital textile printing technology. A high-speed camera with a speed of 2000 frames/second captures the shapes born from a baby’s first cry and heartbeat that cannot be seen with the naked eye. One frame of this video is made into fashion using Epson’s digital textile printing technology. While using Ikebana as a motif that evokes an oriental ZEN atmosphere, the fashion is stylish and stateless, which leads to simple is best. The fashion will blow a new wind that has never existed before. The fashion can be worn when deciding whether it is public or private. It will be called Power Fashion: Sound of Ikebana. In addition, it is gender-free clothing, and all ages can wear it.
STORY
Professor Tosa has been engaged in activities aimed at appealing to people about Japanese beauty and culture through his art via a wider range of media. Creating and exhibiting art fashion based on Tosa Art is part of these activities, serving to promote Japanese beauty and culture. Additionally, he has undertaken the unique endeavor of developing disaster-resistant fashion using Tosa Art designs, demonstrating how art can contribute to disaster prevention. This time, he aims to add dance to this mix, seeking to appeal to American audiences through an event that integrates Japanese beauty and culture via fashion and dance performance.
Japan possesses four distinct seasons, each with its own unique charm, and people have developed rich Japanese beauty and culture corresponding to each season. This event expresses Japan’s four seasons through fashion and dance performance. Model-dancers wearing art fashion suited to each season will perform dances expressing Japanese culture, portraying the changing relationship between the Japanese people and the seasons. Furthermore, the performances will express fusion not only with Japanese culture, but also with closely related Asian cultures, Western cultures, and others.
Spring: The Radiance of Life
Spring is the season when life is born and shines brightly. Across cultures, people express their love for this season through flowers. Models adorned in fashion featuring designs inspired by Japan’s iconic cherry blossoms and the iris beloved in Europe and America will present a performance.
Summer: Prayers to Ancestors
Summer is the season when people entrust their thoughts for their gods and ancestors to prayer, a practice shared by people across cultures. Japanese prayer is expressed through the Gion Festival, while Western prayer is conveyed through an homage to Martha Graham’s dance.
Autumn: Celebration of Harvest
Autumn is the season to celebrate the fruits of people’s labor. Here, this is expressed through West Asian dance and Japanese hand clapping. The Japanese hand clapping evolves into Slavic dance rhythms, representing New York’s melting pot of races and the crossing of cultural boundaries.
Frames of animation are printed directly onto the dress.
When the dancer moves and the strobe lights flash, the images come to life as animation.
Please enjoy the world’s first animated dress fashion experience.
This video is for illustration purposes.
Winter: Memories of Battle
Winter is the season to recall past battles and transform them into prayers for peace. The scene depicting the death of Atsumori, a representative moment from The Tale of the Heike depicting the Genpei War, is performed. Similar tales exist across East and West, evoking in people a sense of melancholy alongside a longing for peace.
Furthermore, since the battle against nature is also a significant theme in modern times, the models wear fashion with disaster prevention functions.
