Profile: Keiichiro Shibuya
I sat around at home watching NHK World, Japan's English-language international propaganda channel, mostly because it offers some interesting programs and news stories that don't reach American news media. One such story is that of an A.I. conductor. The more I watched this story, the more I wanted to learn more.
Keiichiro Shibuya is a pioneer of electronic fusion. At 29, he started his record label ATAK, releasing electro-acoustic music. His whole style seems to be mixing seemingly contrarian elements. Sounds familiar?
In 2012, Shibuya released the first Vocaloid opera. If you have seen me geek out IRL, you know that Vocaloid is the future. This opera, The End, features neither orchestra nor human singer. Instead, Hatsune Miku takes the stage and belts her Vocaloid drums out, lamenting of feelings of conflict over life and death. Fundamental to this is her initial question: will I die? I am overjoyed that someone would take a Vocaloid idol, throw her into an electronic opera, and make her sing about whether she--a software singer--will die. If you consider the life-and-death cycle of human pop stars, few make it to their 30s, let alone through them. Human bodies age, and human perception is fickle. Software only gets better with time, especially when connected to a crowdsourced cultural entity like Miku. So for her, this is a really deep question. Of course, no Vocaloid stage production is complete without stellar visual arts, in this case directed by YKBX. Novelist Toshiki Okada developed the narrative, and producer Pinnochio P helped program Miku.
The End
The End can be viewed on Youtube with English subtitles (not my video). If you want to read a rant about Vocaloid, stay tuned.
That production in itself is enough to warrant my attention, but Shibuya's "Scary Beauty" is next-level. Instead of a non-human singer and an electronic orchestra, the music comes from a human orchestra and a non-human conductor. He found a crucial collaborator for this work in Osaka University's Hiroshi Ishiguro. As director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, Ishiguro leads cutting edge research on human-like robots, facial features and all. Takashi Ikegami of Tokyo University also brings in his expertise on artificial life to enhance the realism. This comes in handy when--speaking from experience--you play a piece and need to read the intent of the conductor. Should I play softer? Attack harder? Build gradually? Ritardando? I forgot what bar of rest we're in, please give me a signal when I need to come in! In "Scary Beauty," the machine takes care of all that thanks to a neural network. As Professor Ikegami described in an interview with Billboard:
The android in this project moves while singing, and the movement isn't programmed in advance. --Takashi Ikegami on "Scary Beauty"
Like in a human brain, the software learns to identify patterns during practice or training. Then, when it's showtime, the software picks up on patterns from the sheet music and the audio feedback from the orchestra. On July 22, 2018, "Scary Beauty" premiered in Japan, in which the robot sang and directed the 30-piece orchestra. And no metronome!
Machines can sing, machines can conduct, machines can compose. Will we ever pass the torch completely? What will our role be in the future of music?
Shibuya said two things I want to highlight.
First:
Our show could be seen as a metaphor for the transitional relationship between technology and humans in that people are becoming more and more enslaved by technology. --Keiichiro Shibuya on "Scary Beauty"
Second:
We're aiming to show that when people forcibly comply with an android that conducts according to its own logic and system, a world that couldn't be seen with a human conductor and performers emerges. --Keiichiro Shibuya on "Scary Beauty"
This guy gets it. Technology is cause for concern but also cause for hope. This applies towards humanity's future in creative arts, as in this example with opera. I am excited to see what else can happen as machines continue to experiment with arts.
Keiichiro Shibuya is an artist to watch out for.