Shin Hanagata "Ergonomic Embryo"

Shin Hanagata, an artist working across performance and media art, focuses on “ergonomics,” the idea of designing machinery and environments optimized for the human body. In this work, however, he attempts to invert this logic, creating conditions in which humans develop in relation to technology. The piece takes the chair as a quintessential example of technology that shapes human behavior. The humans attempt to become chairs in order to present the “embryo”—a hybrid entity not yet divided into human and technology.

The practitioners, including Hanagata himself, wear head-mounted displays, slowly and subtly adjusting their postures in an attempt to undergo a “metamorphosis” into chairs while guided by live AI-generated videos of their bodies being transformed into chair-like forms. Though the practitioners' movements are strange and at times unsettling, Hanagata’s desperate desire to no longer remain human–born from a profound sense of suffocation under the pressure to remain a “normal” human imposed by society and technology–captivates the audience.

This work was selected through the “Meteorites”(refer to projects) open call program at last year’s Autumn Meteorite Tokyo and has evolved through a public experiment titled “Ergonomic Embryo: Protocell.” This main production incorporates bold updates based on the previous performance, including the introduction of new digital technologies such as AI and motion capture, the installation of the theater space as a device that compels the gaze, and further manipulation of the audience’s physical sensations. As technology expands the imagination, we invite you to witness this process.