Playfully probing the border between the real and the virtual

From “a throw of the dice” (2018), a real-time simulation of the titular act in which different scanned landscapes each from a previous throw appear on the screen depending on where the die lands, to “The Big Browser 3D” (2016), in which a large three-dimensional browser is viewable by controlling an avatar of the artist, the new media artist Akihiko Taniguchi’s sharp and witty work strives to redefine the border between the real and the virtual. He here presents his first ever theatre work, especially created for F/T. This new piece combines two types of places: a children’s soft play area, which is made entirely from soft materials, and a virtual space, which is designed as a simulation of reality. Into this environment appears Taniguchi’s avatar, controlled by the artist himself. His unique take on a theatre “performance” that does not require a specific place, let alone an actual body, questions our assumptions and the possibilities of the medium.