During 2019, Climent followed the trails of Zeami (b. 1363) from Kyoto to Sado Island, a Japanese playwriter who is considered to have perfectioned Noh (能) Theatre in Japan. In this traditional form of dance-theatre, Zeami uses the Mask as a creative mechanism to transcend our own perception of the self and make yours the player's experience. Inspired by the role of the Noh Mask as a ‘portal to the inner-self’, Climent made use of emerging technologies in media and artificial intelligence to re-embody the Self (of a beatboxer performer). With the help of his team, he created a vocal stravaganza at the intersections of modern and traditional Culture to explore alternative representations of the musician’s DNA. The piece is a collaboration between the Ricardo Climent, Greek beatboxer champion GG (Giorgios Gargalas), Hongshuo Fan (Machine Learning) and Manusamo&Bzika (3Dmodels and rigging).

Ricardo Climent

Ricardo Climent is Professor of Interactive Music Composition at University of Manchester (UK), where he serves as director of the NOVARS Research Centre. He is founder at Keep•It•Human a social venture at the intersections of video-gaming and digital altruism, aligning NGOs and video-gamers in the ownership of social challenges.

For the last few years his research has focused on the potential emerging technologies, using “the aural” as the primary source for navigation and communication of the narrative. He previously held a lecturing position at SARC (Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast), and was composer in-residence at the JOGV Orchestra (Spain), the Conservatorio de las Rosas Unesco-Aschberg (Morelia, Mexico) and the Sonology Department at the Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo).

During 2017-2022 he is project leader for EASTN-DC University of Manchester, as part of a Culture Europe Programme on Digital Creativity. EASTN-DC.uk EU Project. Webs: http://game-audio.org/