In this article, I review the work “TPBG” by artist “kengoshimz” who participated in NEWVIEW CYPHER 2021.
NEWVIEW CYPHER is a project in which artists and creators who are active outside of XR activities create XR using STYLY.
Twelve artists and creators are participating in this project, and we will be featuring reviews of their scenes in Pick Up Scene.
kengoshimiz
About kengoshimiz
kengoshimiz
Born in Saitama in 1996.
After he entered a high school, he started making clothes on his own. A few years later, he started composing music.
At Musashino Art University, he majored in fashion. At that time, fashion was not about making clothes.
As a result of continuing to develop a system that could create various fabric products by recombining parts, which he presented in his graduation project, he came to the conclusion that fashion is not about making clothes, but about proposing things that are connected to everyday life.
The desire to pursue pure novelty, and the desire to present his work in a place with objective evaluation standards.
He started his contemporary art career with “wow”, “much newness”, “many pop”, “such faithful”, and “very lovely”.
He is also in charge of music for the runway of Rakuten fashion week, and provides beats as a beatmaker.
Twitter : https://twitter.com/htksk4
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/kengoshimiz
HP：https://www.kengoshimiz.jp/
He creates not only music but also works with knitwear. One of his past works includes a knit piece using the internet meme “Doge”.
“Doge” Knit mosaic
Detail about his works：https://www.kengoshimiz.jp/items/47669854
About “TPBG”
This scene is only compatible with VR devices; you cannot experience it with a web browser, so please watch it from VR.
When you start up the scene, you will see a deformed girl and a boy with a trumpet.
Boy and girl
The position of the controller and the shape of the boy are synchronized. Therefore, when the player moves the controller or the player himself moves, the size of the boy changes.
Combined with the fact that there is not much information in the scene itself, this boy’s movement is memorable.
In addition, when the trigger button on the right controller is pressed, the trumpet sounds.
This work is designed to be experienced interactively with the controller.
Interacting with the controller
However, the purpose and theme of this scene cannot be understood just by watching it.
kengoshimiz has been creating works dealing with Internet memes. What is an Internet meme anyway?
An internet meme is a piece of information, such as an image, video, or text with a strong story element, that is copied and spread through the Internet. “A ‘net meme’.”
(quoted from “Zebra Glossary”) https://makitani.net/shimauma/internet-meme
One of these Internet memes is a video and image Internet meme called “Trumpet Boy”.
Trumpet boy
Using a single image of a boy with a trumpet blowing it at a girl, a parody video that combines the boy’s shape with music by changing the boy’s shape became a topic of conversation, and was spread mainly overseas.
This Internet meme was a video that found its meme nature by amusingly expressing the shape-changing function of image software like Photoshop.
In kengoshimiz’s works, the nature of Internet memes is replaced by VR. The point of this work is that the experience is transformed by this substitution.
Internet memes, like other contents on the Internet, are expressed in the form of “videos” and “images”. However, by incorporating the interactivity of VR, their nature is transformed.
It becomes a “physical experience”, which is a characteristic of VR. Therefore, TPBG also allows you to view the work while you are in the act of manipulating and transforming the meme. While I am the viewer of the Internet meme, I am also, like the original Trumpet Boy, in the position of creating the Internet meme itself.
While the subject matter of the work is a single Internet meme, I think the structure is such that each time a new Internet meme is created by the viewer.
If we read it that way, we may be able to read about the nature of VR and the changing nature of Internet memes.
Scene
I have introduced the relationship between the physicality of VR and Internet memes.
You may find new discoveries not only from perspectives other than those mentioned above, but also by viewing them carefully.
- Experiencing the scene from PC / VR
Click on the image below to access the scene’s page in the STYLY GALLERY. Select a device and experience the scene.
TPBG
You can use STYLY FORUM to solve the problem. STYLY FORUM is a place where people can discuss a service or technical issue on STYLY, or provide bug reports on STYLY.
https://en.forum.styly.cc/support/discussions