“+1+1+1+” is a dance installation created by world-renowned media artist Daito Manabe in collaboration with the avant-garde dance company ELEVENPLAY. The work had its world premiere on February 18, 2024, at the Toyama Aubade Hall. Continuing Manabe and ELEVENPLAY’s long-standing exploration at the intersection of dance, technology, and visual art, the piece presents a fluid, multidimensional stage language that exists between the real and the virtual.

The stage production of “+1+1+1+” also brings together a top-tier creative team. Rhizomatiks (founded by Daito Manabe） is responsible for stage and visual design, while live string performance is provided by Sonoko Muraoka Strings. Four dancers from ELEVENPLAY—KAORI, SAYA, MAI, and SHOKO—have their movements captured in real time using volumetric capture technology, which is then intricately synchronized with algorithmically generated visual content.

As a result, dance is no longer limited to the visible movement of the human body; it becomes a digitally perceived, algorithmically interpreted presence. Light, imagery, movement, and music interact organically, constantly disrupting linear sensory experience to construct a spatial environment that is multidimensional, ever-changing, and dynamically generated. Here, technology is not merely a supporting tool—it becomes an integral part of the dance vocabulary, liberating human motion from the constraints of physical space.

In numerous interviews, Daito Manabe has emphasized his vision of dance as something that “can be interpreted and reimagined by algorithms.” To him, technology is not merely a tool to support art, but a medium that propels physical expression beyond its natural boundaries and into entirely new dimensions.

Compared to Manabe and ELEVENPLAY’s previous collaborations, “+1+1+1+” places greater emphasis on the ontology of movement itself. While preserving the purity of dance, the work introduces a technological layer that transforms physical expression into an evolving interplay of data, visuals, and sound. This approach not only opens up new creative possibilities for choreography, but also offers deeper insights and forward-looking direction for the integration of digital and performing arts.

Artistic Direction, Music, Visual

Daito Manabe

Born in Tokyo in 1976, Daito Manabe grew up exposed to interactive expression through music, synthesizers, video games, and programming, influenced by his musician parents. In his youth, he immersed himself in hip-hop culture as a DJ, and later expanded his digital expression through programming and jazz band activities. While studying mathematics at Tokyo University of Science, he was influenced by Iannis Xenakis and began researching mathematical approaches to music generation, which became the foundation for his later creative work.

After gaining experience as an engineer and studying media art, he established Rhizomatiks in 2006. Through collaborations with Perfume and ELEVENPLAY alongside director/choreographer MIKIKO, he explored the fusion of technology and physical expression, leading to large-scale projects such as the AR direction for the “Flag Handover Ceremony” at the Rio Olympics closing ceremony. He has also collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Björk, Arca, Nosaj Thing, and handled visual direction and system development for OK Go, Squarepusher, Grimes, Holly, Machinedrum, and FaltyDL. His innovative Audio-Visual performances and installations have been presented at international festivals worldwide, including Sonar Barcelona.

In recent years, he has expanded into works that merge life and machinery through collaboration with neuroscientists and researchers. He has developed “PolyNodes,” a 3D sound generation software evolving from Xenakis’s research, and created works utilizing original biofeedback systems with cultured neural cells.

From his origins in music and mathematics to cutting-edge biotechnology, he pursues expressions that cross art, technology, and science. Currently heading Studio Daito Manabe, he develops innovative works exploring the boundaries between humans and machines, reality and virtual reality, through collaboration with dancers, researchers, and artists.

Creative Collective

Rhizomatiks

Rhizomatiks is a creative collective that explores new possibilities of technology and artistic expression focusing on experimental projects which involve R&D heavy approach, while executing R&D projects and creation with elaborate research on the relationship between humans and technologies. The team consists of artists, designers and engineers and takes responsibility in every process of the project from hardware and software development to operations. The team keeps presenting cutting-edge works and researches through collaboration with other artists, researchers, and scientists.

Since its foundation in 2006, Rhizomatiks has widened the sphere of its activities and developed comprehensive creative strengths, moving between real and online worlds across fields of media arts, advertising, entertainment,architecture, and urban development. In the process of expanding the range of its activities through numerous projects and collaborations, the company launched three divisions to mark its tenth anniversary: Research, Architecture, and Design in 2016.

As the creative R&D division, the activities of Rhizomatiks Research center on research and development and the pursuit of new forms of artistic expression. Moving freely between art and entertainment, armed with our high-level technical expertise and outstanding artistic expression, Rhizomatiks are engaged in almost all of the phase of a project, from planning and development of software and hardware to operations.

With the demands from the society becoming larger in scale, Panoramatiks and Rhizomatiks Research will become Rhizomatiks. By maximizing individual strengths, we will increase the strength of the team, and will continue to bring to society more cutting-edge creative works and research than ever before.

Artistic Direction, Choreography

MIKIKO

As the director and chief choreographer of dance company “ELEVENPLAY”, MIKIKO has been building up her very own creative world with the company’s highly talented dancers.

She has taken an artistic direction and choreographic direction for famous Japanese artists like Perfume, BABYMETAL, Ringo Shiina and more and for various MV, CM and stages.

Her works have gained a highly reputation in the Media Arts world both of Japan and overseas. In the universe of MIKIKO, the mixture of the real and virtual worlds generates immediate fascination with her adept skills in utilizing the newest technology for her choreographies.

She has collaborated with creators transcending a wide various of genres.

Cast

ELEVENPLAY

ELEVENPLAY was founded by MIKIKO in 2009, in the hopes of creating dancers who would possess highly artistic sense and creativity on top of exquisite techniques, body and spirit.

Composed of female dancers from a variety of genre, ELEVENPLAY has diverse methods of expression are diverse from stages to video works and still photos.

We have many collaboration pieces with Rhizomatiks Research, directed by Daito Manabe; we were privileged to present one of such pieces at “Sónar Festival,” “Festival Internacional Cervantino,” “MUTEK MEXICO,” “MUTEK Montréal,” and “Gray Area Festival.”

ELEVENPLAY has been eagerly broadening our playing field worldwide, as seen in Rhizomatiks Research x ELEVENPLAY US TOUR 2018「things」in January 2018 and ELEVENPLAY× Rhizomatiks Research × Kyle McDonald NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2018 「discrete figures」in April that were also a large success.