With his practice emerging from wearable device research, Shin Hanagata works across various fields, including performance, media art, and contemporary art. The titular “ergonomics” refers to the pursuit of machinery and environment designs that best suit the human body. In this piece, Hanagata focuses on the fact that humans and technologies mutually possess a marginal body that continually fluctuates in its attempt to adapt one with another. Flipping the structure whereby humans “use” artificial objects and technology, he attempts to create a situation in which the self is embryonically formed in relation to technology.

The performers, including Hanagata himself, become the test subjects of his experiment. As they view footage of themselves through their head-mounted displays, AI converts their poses in real-time into various images, such as that of a chair. Their quivering bodies are made to dance as they subtly adjust themselves into more “chair-like” postures. Hanagata explains that once the test subjects have gone through this experience and returned to daily life, their “arm,” for example, metamorphoses and continues to encompass “the back of a chair.” Taking the very “chairs” that the audience members are seated in as its departure point, this ambitious work attempts to overturn our perceptions of the theatrical environment and the physical body.

This exhibition and performance comprises a public experiment in preparation for the full performance in 2026.

Artist

Shin Hanagata

Shin Hanagata

Born in Tokyo in 1995, Shin Hanagata works across performance, media art, and contemporary art. His practice explores the instability of selfhood and humanity within a technologically accelerated capitalist society. Focusing on technologies that mediate between the body and the world—such as communication systems, wearable devices, and prosthetic apparatuses—he engages in a critical examination of what he terms a “torsion of humanity” in the contemporary age.

On sale from

TBA (to be announced prior to the start of ticket sales)

Staff

Engineer

JACKSON kaki, Atsuya Kobayashi

[Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo]

Program Coordinator

Nanaho Kato, Shotaro Kawasaki

Producer

Hirohiko Hanzawa

Inquiries

For ticket inquiries

お問合せ先

Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo Ticket Center (Email)

ticket@autumnmeteorite.jp

お問合せ先

Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo Ticket Center (TEL)

+81-3-6812-1663

• • Weekdays (except venue holidays) 11:00am - 5:00pm

For general inquiries

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Tokyo Festival Executive Committee Office

+81-3-6812-1663

• • Weekdays (except venue holidays) 11:00am - 5:00pm

Organizer

Tokyo Festival Executive Committee [Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)]

Support

Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan Japan Arts Council

Sponsor

Asahi Group Japan, Ltd.

Media Partner

Tokyo Art Beat