Shuhei Matsuyama Born in 1991. Visual artist and programmer. Director of THINK AND SENSE at T&S Co., Ltd. He specializes in exhibitions, art, and interactive performances that utilize cutting-edge technology, and has been involved in projects such as the "Pokémon GO AR Observatory" and "AR Roppongi x Ingress," which utilize Microsoft's mixed reality device, "HoloLens." He is affiliated with the creative label nor. His publications include "Visual Thinking with TouchDesigner."

"What I want to do is explore the street style of the next generation."

──Mr. Matsuyama, you usually work as a manager at THINK AND SENSE, but what was the opportunity that led you to collaborate with MINOTAUR INST.?

My job is usually to create new experiences using technology.

This is especially true in areas like these, where progress is ongoing and new expressions are constantly being born. As the term XD represents, I view digital as a tool, and while I understand the role of technology as a form of innovation that updates existing things, I am also in a position to think about how to interact with various technologies through the production of works that make full use of technology.

The method we're using in this collaboration with MINOTAUR INST. is one of the "generative art" methods. Just like there are people who draw pictures with a pen, we create videos and pictures using programs. Some of my work caught the eye of Eiichi Izumi of MINOTAUR INST., and that's how it all started.

The technique known as generative art involves building a system that generates images and pictures, and the resulting picture changes depending on the "material" data input into the system. In other words, this in itself has no meaning and is no different from the "drawing with a pen" technique mentioned above.

What I felt every day while creating using this method was that the method itself has no meaning, so in order to raise it to the level of a ``work of art,'' I thought that the data as ``material'' and the system as ``pen'' needed to have meaning and a story.

It was at that time that I met Izumi-san from MINOTAUR INST. In order to fit it into the form of output known as fashion, designs with various meanings and intentions are necessary. I thought that by designing a system for that purpose and preparing meaningful data, it might be possible to create something on the level of a work of art. Also, because MINOTAUR INST. is a brand with an urban theme, I had high hopes that by creating something using new design methods, we might be able to arrive at the next urban or street feel.

──You have been collaborating with MINOTAUR INST. every season since 2018. We understand that "generative art" is a consistent design method, but how do you think about the designs?

MINOTAUR INST. gives us concepts like "city," but they often emerge from casual conversation. We create one T-shirt per season, each with its own concept. For example, for 19AW we dealt with alternative cities as seen by others, and the graphic base we constructed was made up of countless photos posted on Instagram with the hashtag #Shibuya.

We come to Shibuya every day because we have a company there, but I think that in today's world, more people see Shibuya through social media or television than actually visit the city. Perhaps it's not Shibuya seen directly with one's own eyes, but through the media or the internet as "other people's eyes." For AW19, we attempted to generate graphics that represent an alternative Shibuya constructed from the perspectives of countless others. We felt that there was something modern about being created from the anonymous, mass perspectives, rather than from a specific person.

──I see.

Whether it's fashion or tech is just a matter of technique; what we want to do is explore the street style of the next era. When we think of "street," we imagine people skating around town on skateboards or spray painting like Banksy, but with this project we are thinking, "What is the next generation of street?"

Even though street culture emerges in relation to the city, in this day and age it no longer feels necessary to go to that place or location. The evolution of technology has greatly changed the way people interact with cities, and I think this is a major turning point. It's not just a matter of work going remote; I think it's okay to think of a culture that could only exist if it was site-specific as abandoning its place-specificity as something completely different, a next dimension. I'm pursuing the streets of the next era through the expressions that arise from this change.

──What do you mean by a street feel that transcends physical location?

A recent, slightly unusual trend has been hacking Twitter to allow users to type programs into the 140 characters and create videos there. This is almost the same as finding a cool spot in town and spray painting it, and the feeling is completely street-like. The collaboration to make graphic T-shirts is an attempt to produce a glimpse of the concept of street style that is not bound by such physical elements. Also, we are not particular about packaging it as a product.

We have T-shirts, we're thinking about projects using AR, and we're also collaborating with music and video. In a way, I think culture isn't born from a single form of expression, but rather a movement that grows naturally from a number of diverse activities. For example, in the process of creating a music genre, it wasn't born when someone said, "I'm a rock fan." People start following and appreciating that person's music, and gradually a place is created where people who like that music can gather.

In other words, this project aims to create a "new culture" by combining the cultures of fashion and technology. We're not trying to create fashion using technology, so to put it simply, we're using technology in a way that isn't technological innovation. The process of creating a product is just the middle ground, and the ultimate goal is to create a movement. There are people wearing the kind of clothes we make, and they're connecting with each other and doing interesting techy things. I think it would be interesting to get to that point, and that's my goal.
<To be continued>