The chance hidden in a paradigm shift

 

---The state of emergency in Japan, lacking any legal restraints, may not have been very severe compared to other country’s lockdowns. Through the creation of this film, did you feel any difference of awareness to self-isolation from non-Japanese crew members?

 

Mirai　I didn’t notice anything in particular. Of course, the relationship between the Israeli army and its citizens is not something we can imagine in our own daily lives, like the pressure applied upon them, like how they could be thrown down onto the ground by the army if they go outside without a proper permit. In OUTSIDE, there is a line that reads “You have a vague memory of a skinny kid just sprouting a mustache throwing a stone at you”. This is an event the man reminds the woman about, of her own life before the four month lockdown. When I was in Israel, I was spat on by an Arabic kid from the top of a building. I wondered if I was the target of a classic prank, or of some kind of discrimination toward Asians, either way I just happened to be in a certain place at a certain time. After I read Etgar’s writing, I realized it was just one of those day-to-day incidents carrying disparity and opposition, which any normal Israeli would experience.

 

This kind of detail may not apply to some people, but in a broader view, I thought the overall story is universal enough to be shared with anyone in the world. Just like this remote communication we are experiencing right now,the process of people getting close or distant is something universal.

 

---There were numerous online experiments done in Japan. How did you feel about them after experiencing the creation of OUTSIDE?

 

Mirai　Hmm, I can’t have an overhead view of this situation just yet. The moment some kind of content is shared via the Internet, it becomes open to everyone globally, but considering the creation itself, we are in a situation where we need to create locally and domestically. After driving towards globalization, Japanese train stations became so similar to each other after development, and now you can could go to the same fast fashion stores in any city in any country of the world. People improved the system of connecting to each other from afar, but as a consequence, we ended up hardly making any actual sense of it. But the creations happening during this pandemic period may hold the chance to stimulate consciousness.

 

---True, it is hard to make conclusions about something in the midst of a paradigm shift. What exactly is this “chance”?

 

Mirai　Creation happening during this time in the world is likely to be made through limited physicality and time, holding harmony of energy, roughness, and technique. I think there is some kind of incompleteness while pursuing quality, so I wonder how it is perceived.

 

What happens when people with abundant careers and techniques keep experimenting? Some new creations may remain as new media with the new generation. This hypothesis makes the way we look at current creations differently. It may be a specific piece or the act itself –we never have a clue about what will be created in the future and what will change our values, but it makes me feel excited.

 

-This particular time lets us see the balance of familiar and unfamiliar in a different way.

 

Mirai　At first I was resistant to remote communication, but eventually you get used to it. When you meet someone in real life later on, it makes you surprised like, “Oh you’re 3D!” (laughs). It made me appreciate the things that do take place in real life. Maybe one day when we create something through real life communication, I may be more strongly moved by it.

 

---Those kinds of emotions may change the way creation and media relate to each other.

 

Mirai　One thing I always thought, even while participating in other online streaming project during the lockdown, was that I did not want it to end up as a cut-out movie archive of a stage performance. I did not want viewers to think “I wish I could go to the theater and see it live instead”. When a work is shown through film, it should be seen because it is film, not as a substitutional medium. This is what I felt during this period of time. I hope OUTSIDE will create possibilities for a new form of expression.