between #1#2#3
URUSHI / FRP
2017




「日本の伝統工芸を歴史や文脈を持たない新しい知性が解釈したらいったいどのようなものになるのか」という問のもとに、現代のイメージを学習させたAIに日本の伝統的な漆工芸を解釈させ、職人の手によって彫刻化した。
電子機器や都市の建築物といった「現代のイメージ」のみを学習させた画像認識AIに、メンバーの一人である漆職人が作成した漆塗りの仏壇の画像を読み込ませた。
AIから見た仏壇には、ロボットのパーツのようなものや、深海生物のような正体不明のオブジェクトがニョキニョキと生えており、まるで新しい心霊写真のようだった。
これらのAIが生成したイメージをもとに、立体造形化し、漆塗りを施した。我々は仏壇から生まれた正体不明のオブジェクトを、一種の仏具として解釈し、伝統的な仏具の最小構成要素である「3つ組」をモチーフに、彫刻を作成した。
我々は正体不明のこれらのオブジェクトに、現代のイメージしか知らないAIと我々のぎこちないコミュニケーションの距離を意味する「between」と名付け、それぞれにナンバリングを施した。
Based on the question of "what kind of a thing will it turn out to be when a brand-new intellect with no history or context tries to interpret a traditional Japanese craft item?",
we made AI which had experienced learning through contemporary images interpret the traditional Japanese Urushi lacquerware and had a craftsman then create sculptures by hand.
We uploaded an image of an Urushi-lacquered Buddhist altar (a stand for placing Buddha statues and mortuary tablets. They are commonly used as items for worshiping the ancestors in Japanese families.), created by an Urushi craftsman who was one of our members, into an image recognition AI which had learned only through "modern images" such as those of electronic equipment and urban buildings.
Things resembling robot parts and objects of unknown identity similar to deep sea creatures grew one after another out of the Buddhist altar when it was “seen” by AI, and they looked like new photographs of supernatural beings.
Based on the images generated by AI, 3D shapes were created and painted with Urushi. We interpreted the unknown objects born from a Buddhist altar as a type of Buddhist altar fittings and created their sculptures with a motif of a "trio" which is the minimum constituent element for traditional Buddhist items. We named these unidentified objects “between”, implying the distance between our clumsy communication with AI which only knows modern images, and added numbers for each of them.
ディレクター:石橋友也/漆芸職人:京田充弘/原型師:嶋光太郎/プロジェクト・マネージャー:沼俊之/デザイナー:橋本孝久/AIエンジニア:水落大/プロジェクト・マネージャー:引地悠太/コピーライター:新宅加奈子
Director: Tomoya Ishibashi/Urushi: Mitsuhiro Kyoden/Modeler: Kotaro Shima/Project Manager: Toshiyuki Numa/Designer: Takahisa Hashimoto/Engineer: Masaru Mizuochi/Project Manager: Yuta Hikichi/Copywriter: Kanako Shintaku