Suguru Goto is a composer/performer, an inventor and a multimedia artist and he is considered one of the most innovative and the mouthpiece of a new generation of Japanese artists. He is highly connected to technical experimentation in the artistic field and to the extension of the existing potentialities in the relation man-machine. In his works the new technologies mix up in interactive installations and experimental performances; he is the one who invented the so called virtual music instruments, able to create an interface for the communication between human movements and the computer, where sound and video image are controlled by virtual music instruments in real-time through computers. Lately, he has been creating the robots, which perform acoustic instruments, and he is gradually constructing a robot orchestra. He was born in Japan. After he studied composition and piano in Japan, he moved to the United States to continue his studies at New England Conservatory in Boston. He preceded his post-graduate studies at Technical University Berlin and HDK in Berlin, Germany and Paris University in France. He studied composition with Lukas Foss and Earl Brown in U.S.A, and with Robert Cogan at New England Conservatory and Dieter Schnebel in Berlin, Tristan Murail and Philippe Manour at IRCAM, Paris.
Net Body by Suguru Goto, interactive system, 2008
In this project, we link the real world to the online reality of Second Life. We do this at the physical level: the bodily movements of a person in the real world control an avatar in Second Life, while an avatar’s movements guide a human being’s.
Second Life is a 3D online digital platform created by its residents. Here, each flesh-andblood
human creates a unique identity – an avatar – to inhabit the digital community environment. The contact between these realities is usually effected through a monitor,
keyboard and mouse. In this work, the whole body takes part; we develop technology that makes communication between the two realities two-way and physical.
A movement-registering mechanism built into the BodySuit allows a person’s movements to
directly control the behavior of an avatar in Second Life to perform Virtual Musical Instruments. Conversely, the Powered Suit contains motors that control the human body like a marionette. It is a sort of robot you can wear, controlled by an avatar, and plays real percussion instruments on a stage.
