Defining Kando

Overview

Joint research by Yamaha and Yamaha Motor, Caltech, and Dr. Mark Changizi aiming to simulate Kando through science and art.

What are the moments that move us?
Playing music. Being in sync with someone else. Feeling understood without exchanging words. We find special value in moments like these. However, we are not yet able to elucidate how these experiences come about.
Enter e-plegona, an experiential installation we created to explore the origins of these experiences.
The installation requires participants to work in pairs, sensing each other’s body movements and rhythms as they collaboratively create a single experience. There are no verbal explanations or instructions. The way they connect through physical sensations and intuitive interaction is the theme of this project.
For more than 130 years, Yamaha has delivered experiences that move people through music, instruments, and mobility. Even so, we have never stopped conducting research to understand the essence of these experiences and apply our findings to future products and services.
This research is currently moving forward in collaboration with Shinsuke Shimojo, Daw-An Wu, Amir Vala Tavakoli, and Mark Changizi. Together, we are exploring the value and connections generated by human interaction both scientifically and in terms of design.
e-plegona is not a finished product. It is an experimental prototype designed to explore the moments that move people emotionally, an opportunity to study the intersection between science and art. The aim is for participants to make new discoveries through the relationships and physical sensations that arise in the moment.
Do moving experiences arise from superior functionality or performance? Or do they emerge naturally from human relationships?
We do not seek to provide answers through this project, but instead to offer an experience that provides an opportunity to reexamine what kinds of moments move us.
Beyond that, new relationships with other people and technology may unfold, which is sure to offer clues for creating the experiential value of the future.

e-plegona

The installation has two people experience it at the same time, with players repeatedly communicating to each other through non-verbal and intuitive means. Each player creates a "note" on the round touchscreen and sends a rhythmic pattern to the other player. At the same time, touching the note sent by the other player creates a "tone" and thereby plays the rhythmic pattern created by the other player. Based on the results of our unique research combining science and art together with our research partners, this experimental prototype artificially stirs the emotions with non-verbal, intuitive communication to produce a connected vibe between people─like jazz improvisation─or the same sense of connection people often feel toward musical instruments or motorcycles in order to simulate experiences of Kando*.

Designer: Kazuya Washio/Yamaha Design Laboratory, Teruhiro Hayashi/Yamaha Motor Human Research
Researcher: Takashi Suegami/Yamaha Motor Human Research, Shinsuke Shimojo/Caltech, Daw-An Wu/Caltech, Amir Vala Tavakoli/Caltech
Scientific Advisor: Mark Changizi
Design Partner: WOW inc.
Composer: Masato Hatanaka

Links

Yamaha Motor recreates Kando through art and science in collaborative HMI research

A discussion of collaborative HMI research by two researchers at Yamaha Motor who are tackling the difficult task of defining Kando.

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