Daito Manabe is gradually establishing his own unique aesthetic for using technology, but where does his overwhelming sense of authenticity come from?
He was born and raised in a musical family: his father was a double bassist active in jazz and musical theatre, and his mother was a keyboard player. He continued piano lessons from an early age, but in junior high, "I didn't want to play the piano so much that I cried and had to quit (laughs)." From high school, he performed as a DJ at club events, where he discovered the entertainment value of music.
He majored in mathematics, which he had always loved and excelled at, at Tokyo University of Science. After graduating, he joined a major electronics manufacturer and gained work experience as a systems engineer before moving to a web venture company. There, too, he was involved in the development of a variety of content with a strong entertainment element.
After leaving his job, he enrolled at the Gifu Prefectural International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), where he acquired cutting-edge programming art skills. "I loved math, music, and programming, but I never became a specialist in any of them. I guess I'm naturally drawn to the musical and mathematical."
As Manabe continues to experiment not only in the entertainment industry but also in the art world, such as museums and galleries, his current focus is on "works that actually touch society."
His new work, currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo's "Usagi Smash" exhibition, is an incredibly radical project: creating actual trading on a real stock market (First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange).
"I'm visualizing and audibly converting market data in real time. This project is being supervised by a researcher named Yoon from CMD Lab, and we're considering putting more effort into the analysis part and ultimately conducting actual trading. I decided to create this work because I felt there must be a more unconventional approach."
Such planning and execution skills are only possible because of the agility of a digital creator.
While I feel a slight sense of dread, if this leads to a transformation in society itself, it also makes me feel a little more optimistic, thinking that perhaps the role of media art is already showing signs of change. The scope of Manabe Daito and Rhizomatiks' activities will likely know no bounds and will continue to expand in the future.
As artists who represent the use of technology, I hope that they will use their strengths, their reliability that comes from "research and development" and their "on-site feel" that directly commits them to society, to neatly realize ideas that will make the world a better place, even if just a little. After all, Disney is the model to follow!
