STORYWEAVER

An Immersive Literary Experience Woven by Piano

Storyweaver is a piano performance that weaves a story through sound and visuals, utilizing the Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space to create a “physical live experience.” Deep Space is a vast projection area that brings ultra-high-definition visual worlds to life. Eight stereo HD projectors display crystal-clear images across a 16×9-meter wall and floor. Based on the famous Japanese folktale The Crane Returns a Favor, this project aims to share Japanese culture with a wide and diverse audience through an immersive, experience-based performance.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, made those of us living abroad realize just how beautiful—and how threatening—nature can be, as it shapes our Japanese spirit, culture, human relationships, and society. In response to the question raised by Japanese pianist Maki Namekawa, based in Linz, on how to creatively collaborate with Ars Electronica to share this unique Japanese culture with people worldwide, the project came to life with the involvement of h.o and other collaborators.

Storyweaver connects digital piano signals with animated visuals projected on the walls and floor of Deep Space, creating the illusion that the story is being woven in real-time. In the folktale The Crane Returns a Favor, the crane “weaves” as a form of repayment. As the pianist begins to play, threads dance across the walls and floor, and the story unfolds as if she is weaving it herself. By optimizing Deep Space’s “L-shaped” structure and vast immersive environment, this project offers a truly unique physical experience. It is not merely a picture-story show or a PC screen—the entire surface of the screen moves and sways.

In the past, Japanese folktales were passed down orally, transmitting culture and national spirit from one generation to the next. Storyweaver seeks to artistically reconstruct this aspect of “shared live experience,” retelling stories that are no longer passed down through oral tradition.