On Friday 17 February 2017, a concert and symposium titled "Sports Arts Science" was held at the Sogakudo Concert Hall of the Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA) (organized by TUA’s COI Site and others).

This event was a continuation from “Summer Arts Japan 2016” which took place last summer. In addition to the COI Site’s 2020 Initiative group, the Research on synesthetic media group and the Research on robotics & performing arts group also participated in the symposium to plan performances that combine sports, arts, and science programs, and presented on the stage a world view that no one has ever seen before.

On the day, students from Juntendo University, who co-hosted the event, performed "Otomai" again which was well-received in "Summer Arts Japan 2016", with slightly different gymnastics element this time. The athlete put on a sensor, developed by Yamaha Corporation, a COI member company, which caught their movements and transmitted that information to the automatic playing piano. We had a collaboration between sound made by sports and a beautiful performance of a top athlete.

In the symposium that followed, we had the following speakers: Mr Daichi Suzuki, Commissioner Japan Sports Agency; Mr Ryohei Miyata, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs; Mr Hiroshi Komiyama, Chairman of Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (Urban Planning and Sustainability Committee Chairperson of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games); and Mr Masaaki Mizuno, Assistant President of Nagoya University (MEXT COI Research Advisor and a member of the structuring team). Isao Matsushita, COI Site’s Sub Project Leader was the MC for the event, and the speakers engaged in a discussion about the potential of cultural programs and an integrated beauty of “sports, arts and science” as we head towards 2020.

At the end of the event, Kazuki Sawa, President of TUA, conducted a group of nearly 30 koto and shamisen performers as well as an orchestra. We also had dancers join the stage. This was a finale that combined elements of traditional / modern, and East / West. We were able to showcase the beauty of a fusion of a new cultural art both domestically and internationally.

Click here for a detailed pdf poster