Takuto Fukuda

The Japanese composer Takuto Fukuda created the mixed reality composition »Simulacra« for cello and electronics using Volumetric Capturing and holographic projections. The piece describes the blurred boundaries between a real and a virtual performance in the context of an audiovisual performance and raises the question: What is it that creates the feeling of an "authentic" concert experience in the age of simulation? Today's pop music concerts focus on simulating the mediated image of the singers rather than conveying their musicianship. This calls into question the role of the performers – is their presence an embodiment of the performers' intention or an incarnation of a simulation?

Fundamental to the realization of the piece is the collaboration with cellist Esther Saladin, who is scanned during her playing in order to reproduce the processed recordings in the concert space.