Rhizomatiks

Rhizomatiks was founded as a collective of creative people in 2006 in Tokyo to work on large-scale commercial projects. Some of its early projects were in collaboration with the Japanese pop group Perfume, on their single Polyrhythm in 2007, which led to touring with the band. They first gained traction with a video piece published in 2008 called Electric Stimulus To Face, which gained more than a million YouTube views within the first month. In 2014, Rhizomatiks collaborated with dance troupe Elevenplay, making an appearance at the Festival Internacional Cervantino. It also participated in the Art Fair Tokyo of 2015 with the display of its "mega-synth system," which worked like a regular synthesizer. In 2023, the company collaborated with two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu in the creation of his solo ice show Gift, the first ice show to be held at Tokyo Dome. ==Members==

Rhizomatiks is a combination of creators from various fields such as architects, visual artists, media artists, designers, musicians, engineers and programmers. The founder of the group is Daito Manabe, an artist, composer, programmer, designer, DJ and VJ. Manabe came from a traditional media art environment, with a degree in dynamic sensory programming from the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences and a degree in mathematics from the Tokyo University of Science. He is currently working on the development of new artistic methods touching on both the visual environment and the elaboration of engineering solutions in terms of artistic production and interactive public spaces. Founding member Seiichi Saito studied architectural design at Columbia University in New York and worked in advertising, before returning to Japan and joining Rhizomatiks. He is noted for his three-dimensional interactive commercial artwork, based on architectural concepts. Alongside being the director of the company, he is a part-time lecturer at the Tokyo University of Science. Another founding member is Hidenori Chiba, who has a background in website development. Currently, he is in charge of web design, system engineering and programming. Other members of the company include Satoshi Horii, Daisuke Nakahama, Hiroyasu Kimora, Sumito Kamoi, Ichiro Kojima, Youichi Sakamoto, Muryo Honma, Keisuki Arikuni and others. ==Work and artistry==

Rhizomatiks produces interactive materials, crossing the boundaries between design, art and entertainment. Rhizomatiks seeks using new ideas for artistic expression and commercial projects. Its commercial pieces tend to be large-scale due to the funding they receive, with leadership varying over projects. The company's founder Manabe claims "Rhizomatiks is like a music label". CTO Shunichi Shimizu claims "People with similar values gather and each person pursues different projects. They’re a challenging group of people, whether the project's commercial or noncommercial in nature, and they aren’t able to stop trying something new. They are not just artists, they’re also Japanese craftsmen who focus on detail. This might also explain why they are essentially ‘process driven’ in their approach to projects". ==References==