NextLOOK: Yoko K.: Pre-22nd Century Nostalgia Mars Pop (OFF-SITE)
Washington, DC
NextLOOK: Yoko K.
![Shuhei Matsuyama artwork](https://d7.theclarice.umd.edu/sites/default/files/event-images/Yoko-K.-Artwork-by-Shuhei-Matsuyama_376x251.jpg)
Yoko K. + Aliens of Extraordinary Abilities
Event Attributes
Presented By
Yoko K. is an electronic musician, composer, and producer, a two-time winner of Wammie's “Electronica Artist,” and a past artist-in-residence at Strathmore (2011-2012).
Yoko’s ensemble will perform live electronic music and video art to create an immersive multimedia experience – a space conducive for participants to imagine something out of the ordinary.
Her aim for the NextLOOK residency is to examine how post-apocalyptic representations of the future shape our sense of the present, and to playfully explore an alternative: “What would the most optimistic future look like?”
Audience members will be invited to participate in the showing as visitors from the fictional 22nd century. Her ensemble will also engage the audience through post-performance discussion, as well as an online forum to understand the non-immediate impact of the work.
Yoko writes: "I am synthetic life form 'Yoko K.,' assembled in the US with components made in Japan. I am designed to assume the role of an 'electronic musician.' We, Aliens of Extraordinary Abilities, are sent to this time to plant magical thinking in people through the use of 'pre-22nd century nostalgia Mars pop music.' Our mission is to make people imagine a more beautiful, optimistic future, covertly altering the course of human history to prevent its eventual self-destruction. We play for those who are tired; who feel slightly out of place; who feel that technologies separate them from their own humanity, and from others; who have forgotten they are allowed to dream; who long for a home to which they have never been. We immerse you with sound and visual into a dreamlike experience where boundaries cease to exist - between the spiritual and the sensual, ancient and future, organic and technological, you and I.
Aside from myself, performers are Nicolas Laget (Kolai), flute and tenor sax; John Tyson (Capsaicin), video art, creative direction; Ian Brundage (Nature Rage), music production; Shuhei Matsuyama (Mijote Strange), illustration and 3-D animation; Bobby Chang, videographer.