Ms. Nishimoto is active as a world-class conductor. On the other hand, she is also engaged in research under the Moonshot Research and Development Program.

Nishimoto  The Moonshot Research and Development Program is a science and technology innovation project let by the Cabinet Office, operating under the banner of a moonshot, symbolizing an unprecedented grand challenge. Nearly 100 R&D programs are currently underway. Similar to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are nine “moonshot goals” aimed at addressing the social issues facing Japan today. Each R&D team is dedicated to achieving its specific goals.

Moriwaki  Which goal are your team working toward?

Nishimoto  Goal 9. This goal aims to realize a spiritually rich and dynamic society by 2050 through increased peace of mind and vitality. We are striving to achieve our goals by scientifically analyzing and utilizing the power of music.

Moriwaki  What kind of team is working on the project?

Nishimoto  We promote R&D using fusion and integrated knowledge by researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Moriwaki   So the challenge for the future is to provide scientific evidence for the power of music to energize and heal people. Specifically, what kind of scientific analysis of music are you pursuing?

Nishimoto   We are conducting various biometric measurements such as brain waves, heart rate, and respiration, as well as surveys, fieldwork, and outreach research studies.  Above all, by experiencing the wonders of music together with teachers and children in educational settings, we aim to collect voices from the field on what is needed, and we want to reflect them in this research.

Moriwaki   So, in addition to experiments with performers and researchers, you are also conducting workshops with children. Do you have any plans for how the results of such verification will bear fruit in various aspects?

Nishimoto   We are researching the wonders of music so that they can be incorporated into compulsory music classes, including music therapy and the scientific aspects of music that children can use themselves. While music classes in the past were associated with moral education, we now hear the team STEAM education (an educational approach that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). Indeed, within such a framework, the role that music can play will be very significant.

Moriwaki   I think the background to the change in educational policy lies in a significant shift in the overall framework for advancing science and technology. In 2021, the Science and Technology Basic Law was revised as the Science, Technology, and Innovation Basic Law, and was enacted. This represents a major shift in national policy towards integrating the arts and sciences, advancing technology development by integrating science and technology with the humanities and social sciences.

Nishimoto   In the junior high school mathematics textbook Chugaku Sugaku 3 (2012-2015 edition), my preface message was published, although it may seem forward of me. Music is originally an art field with scientific aspects. If children learn about the effects of music based on scientific evidence at school, bring it back home, and utilize it for their mental and physical well-being, I believe that more people can achieve increased peace of mind and vitality through music.

Moriwaki   Recently, there have been high expectations for a new research field that integrates perspectives from both science and technology, as well as the humanities and social sciences. Researchers refer to this as “integrated knowledge,” and it seems that fields such as the scientific study of frequency and auditory perception in music align well with it.

Nishimoto   Musicology, in its broad sense, has already seen various experiments and verifications regarding music conducted in many ways, and their effects have been demonstrated. Within what you referred to as “integrated knowledge,” it seems that this also includes the “traditional knowledge” that music has historically accumulated.

Moriwaki   Speaking of the history of music, it’s said that the world’s oldest “flute,” made from mammoth tusks and bird bones, was excavated from the Hohle Fels cave in Germany, dating back to around 35,000 years ago, during the late Paleolithic period. There are other examples like this as well. It’s symbolic that instruments were confirmed before the existence of written language or speech, during a time when it’s uncertain if they even existed. While recent legislative changes and shifts in educational policies might be perceived as the first encounter between science and technology and the humanities and social sciences, the arts, such as music and fine arts, have been meeting and intertwining with science since ancient times, and there is a shared history between them.

Nishimoto   In the past, there was a prevailing notion that music and science were separate entities, but since music has scientific aspects, they cannot be separated.

Moriwaki   Being trapped by such prevailing notions is the last thing that should happen in the realm of art. Considering integrated knowledge and traditional knowledge, concepts in science and technology are also changing, and so are the concepts of music. With that in mind, it feels natural that music classes would change as well.

Moriwaki   Both your Moonshot Goals and the Space Art Tanegashima I’ve been involved in can be seen as efforts to explore the fusion of art and science.

Nishimoto   I saw information about the Space Art Tanegashima on the website. The idea of exhibiting art on Tanegashima island, which is known for a rocket launch complex, as the stage is unique

Moriwaki   This art festival started as a result of an initiative from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Within JAXA, there has been discussion about considering people’s lives and culture in the space age. In the 2000s, a research group in the humanities and social sciences was established, and symposiums were organized primarily by artists and curators.

Nishimoto   JAXA and the art festival, it’s really fascinating.

Moriwaki   Before starting collaborative work with JAXA, speaking for myself, I’ve been interested in the intersection of technology and art since my student days, and I have been involved in the field of media art. Intuitively, I felt that space offers many perspectives. Since participating in the “SPACE ODYSSEY” exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, in 2001, this feeling has become almost a conviction. After that, with voluntary members from JAXA, artists, researchers, curators, and others gathered to establish the “Space Art Community beyond” and began research activities in space art. In 2014, the exhibition “mission [SPACE×ART]–beyond Cosmologies” was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and momentum for connecting space and art began to increase. And thus, in 2017, the Space Art Tanegashima began as a “co-creation space” for nature, art, and science.

Nishimoto   At the Space Art Tanegashima, there must have been various initiatives, but what stands out as distinctive?

Moriwaki   Particularly noteworthy was the planetarium event held inside a natural coastal cave. The Star Cave, which featured a planetarium device called MEGASTAR developed by planetarium creator Takayuki Ohira, garnered nationwide attention.

Nishimoto   So, it’s a piece where the starry sky is projected inside a cave.

Moriwaki   Unlike planetariums shown in science museums and other facilities, inside the cave, the universe unfolds while experiencing the wind from the coast, the sound of the tide, and the sensation of sand underfoot. It truly became a project symbolizing the theme of the Space Art Tanegashima, “the fusion of nature, art, and science.”

Nishimoto   I feel like it’s a project made possible precisely because it’s on Tanegashima island.

Moriwaki   Through faithful bodily artistic practices that resonate with human senses, one can feel something beyond scientific theory. I believe there’s a common thread with what you pursue in the world of music.

Moriwaki   At the Space Art Tanegashima, we conducted “Children’s Space Art” workshops to provide children with firsthand experiences of space as something familiar. While this is an educational activity aimed at connecting with the next generation, rather than merely passing on knowledge, our goal was to encourage children to unleash their creativity. It was our hope to pass on our passion for challenging the realms of space to the future by nurturing children’s ingenuity.

Nishimoto   I see. I’ll also continue working towards ensuring that many children can participate in the national research project called the Moonshot Goals in the future.

Moriwaki   Currently, I’m conducting activities for the “Space Humanities and Social Sciences Research” at the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences. This association was established amidst a growing consensus that, amid stagnation in space development from a scientific and technological standpoint, incorporating deeply humanistic and social elements is necessary for progress.

Nishimoto   It seems there’s a common philosophy shared with the Moonshot Goals.

Moriwaki   Yes, indeed, there’s a shared awareness of the issue. Our goal is to establish research activities in the humanities and social sciences towards building human societies in the Earth/Moon orbit. Scientists, artists, and members from various companies are participating. One of the members, an employee from Kajima Corporation, is advancing the concept of a virtual project called space architecture. When you rotate an object, centrifugal force creates outward gravity. Utilizing this principle to create artificial gravity, it’s a grand plan to live there.

Nishimoto   By rotating buildings in space, you can recreate the same environment as on Earth.

Moriwaki   Even within the same architecture, the outer part experiences the same gravity as on Earth, but as you move towards the center, gravity weakens, and the central part becomes weightless. We discussed turning this central area into a square where everyone gathers, floating in zero gravity, enjoying concerts and events. When I heard about it, I immediately thought of you.

Nishimoto   Actually, even before the Moonshot Goals, during the Millennia Program stage, I proposed the idea of holding a space music festival on a planet different from Earth, perhaps through avatars. Amidst the sense of confinement caused by the pandemic, I suggested realizing it in a vast world like space.

Moriwaki   A music festival in space, it’s a truly dreamy idea. This concept is not just a fantasy; they are considering it at a level where it could be realized in a few decades. The era of the fusion of art and science is truly upon us.

Image of space architecture. Image courtesy of Kajima Corporation
Editors: Yoichiro Takemi + Yasuna Asano
Cooperation: Takayuki Komuro
Translation: Kae Shigeno