Toshio Iwai
Born in japan, he was the first exploring the integration of sound and image as an interactive, new experience.
He played with videao projections to create and animate a creature with sound and lightOn the plus side, he has worked in television, music performance, museum design and digital musical instrument design.
Iwai visualized an image of a piano played by light. Audience members operate a trackball to draw lighted dots on a grid. The flashing dots move, and as soon as they come close to the piano they accelerate and strike a key. With the sound of the piano, a three-dimensional figure pops out of the keyboard. The audience-drawn shapes play the actual piano. The sound then produces colors and figures. This is not a digital sound, but the sound of an acoustic piano controlled by computer. Combinations of computer graphics, liberated from the feel and weight of a grand piano, merge and integrate the elements of our real physical body and virtual body, which makes this work truly innovative.
