Imagine sound responsive video projections mapped onto the outside of the tsunami damaged timber church on the island Nakaze in Ishinomaki, located in Miyagi prefecture, Japan. With a performance by local musicians using voice and playing tsunami damaged instruments, projected using LED projectors and all powered by solar energy!

The ambitious project concept was initially developed in Tokyo in November 2011 in a meeting between me, Richard Byers, an Australian new media artist, and Japanese architect Noriko Shindo, using google translate to assist with language, sketches and gestures and a cup of coffee.

This project hopes to use light projections as a way of looking towards a positive future for Ishinomaki people. A ceremony of light projection that celebrates the communal energy as a foundation for rebuilding, which incorporates remembering the events but re-directing the energy towards strength and momentum for healing and reconstruction both of the city but more importantly, the people.

Your support will help to make this project a success, funding will be spent on weatherproof microphones, materials to build weatherproof boxes for the projectors and help with the expenses of travel and accommodation in Ishinomaki while I develop the work and collaborate with locals towards the opening on April 11, 2012. Thank you! cheers, Richard

About Ishinomaki city:

The city of Ishinomaki was devastated by the March 11 2011 earthquake and tsunami that the world saw unfold graphically on TV and online. The church built in 1880, a national cultural asset of Japan, incredibly survived the 6m tsunami's force when most other buildings on the small island were destroyed. A year on, the cleanup and rebuilding has progressed but the rebuilding of the spirit is of the people is a more difficult task.

[ Learn more about Ishinomaki situation, watch this incredibly moving short documentary by Australian Paul Johannessen , Then and Now ]

The details:

The opening of our project will be a performance by Tokyo musicians Richard has worked with previously and involve local Ishinomaki people. The performance will take place in early April after the anniversary of the disaster on March 11. The work will remain installed for 1 month, allowing the local people of Ishinomaki to interact and hopefully be inspired in the ongoing tasks of creating their future direction.

Casio Japan are our first major sponsor of the event and have supplied 4 x Laser & LED projectors for the project! Yay! thanks Casio!!

Solar panels will be installed beside the church in order to powered the projectors. We are in discussions with a local rental company to supply them at a reduced costs.

The dream is to donate the solar energy panels to the people of Ishinomaki following the event. Noriko has been presenting the idea to companies in Japan to find sponsors, but wouldn't it be amazing if through crowd funding Australian people could raise the money needed! Our backup plan is to rent the solar panels for about $3600 as there is limited power currently on the island, this is one of our primary goals.

The project team:

Richard Byers, an Australian new media artist from Sydney has been living and working in Japan, Berlin and Australia for the last 3 years. Richard has traveled extensively through much of Japan since 2000 and has developed a strong network of musicians, artist and friends. In October 2011, Richard volunteered with the Dutch based Tanemaki Project and Save the Children Japan, in Higashi-matsushima, Miyagi prefecture to create a mural and a painting workshop for children at a temporary nursery school. The Tanemaki project experience had a strong influence on Richard and the seed was planted for his own project. Richard's other major collaborative project is sound.transmission.light, with performances in Tokyo (2009), Sydney & Brisbane (2010) and recently at the Australian Embassy Berlin (2011). View the Berlin performance on vimeo -  http://vimeo.com/34308756  - http://richardbyers.tk

Noriko Shindo, an architect and event planner from Tokyo, she has been working with damaged or decaying buildings over the past 5 years. She is currently documenting significant buildings along the tsunami effected coastline including the church on Nakaze, Ishinomaki for the next 2 years. Noriko has had many meetings with the Ishinomaki city office for all the approvals required and meetings with local people interested in the project.

History:

Richard and Noriko have previously collaborated together on a project in 2008, on a series of performances and a video art installations in an old office building in Tokyo (Kudanshita Terrace). They met again in Tokyo in November 2011 and discussed collaborating on this project, combining the church building Noriko was documenting at the time and Richards interactive performance art; with the goal to create an inspiring event and involve the local community of Ishinomaki, and to help promote the situation in tsunami effected areas.

Considering the scale of the project and limited time frame it is an ambitious project, but both have a passion about creating an event with the people of Ishinomaki and to inspire them further for the ongoing task of re-building their city and lives.

A documentary by Japanese film crew will be made of the project and this will be made available after the event. It is also planned to use Ustream to broadbast online the opening live from Ishinomaki, watch website/facebook for details about that.

It is hoped you might also share this passion and donate to help fund this ambitious creative art project. Every single donation is very appreciated and will help immensely and although there are no tangible rewards, I hope people are inspired by contributing and being part of the project. Thank you! Maybe it will also inspire other artists to run projects in the future.

Technical details:

The proposed installation will consist of projecting interactive audio responsive graphics onto 5m high transparent screen around the church. These screens are now around the church as part of this art project and the preservation project.

The projected graphics, created by software written by Richard, will be effected by live audio collected by a weatherproof microphone installed on location, which the musicians and members of the public can speak or sing, clap or shout into and watch the building move to them.

How the funds will be spent:

Everyone in the project team is donating their time towards this project for free.

I have bought my flight to Japan for the preparation of the event and I will be bringing the my own computer equipment for the installation and Noriko has paid for the mesh screens and rigging to be installed around the church building.

The costs we would spend the funds on are;

• materials for 3 weatherproof enclosures for the projectors = estimated about $300 to $500AUD (marine plywood, fasteners etc)
  
• weatherproof microphone = $300AUD, if we get enough support we can have 2 microphones for better audio coverage around the church!
  
• projector cabling (~50m) = $100AUD
  
• assistance towards travel & accommodation = about $1000AUD/month
  
• Whatever assistance towards the solar panels rental we can receive is greatly appreciated! $3600AUD for rental and $36,000AUD to buy for the community.
  

The first goal is to reach $1000. This money will to go primarily towards materials for constructing the weatherproof enclosures, buying the weatherproof microphone, and a small portion toward travel from Tokyo to Ishinomaki and accommodation costs.

More support than the initial goal will allow us to buy extra microphone for improved audio coverage around the church for a better experience for interacting with the work. Any further money will go towards rental of the solar energy panels, accommodation and other expenses that might come up as the project develops.

We will be keeping everyone updated with development of the project and how the donations were spent for the project through the website

http://ishinomaki.richardbyers.tk

twitter, facebook page and through updates on this Pozible site.

best wishes,
Richard Byers