"MNM" Turns Lucky Cat Statues Into Interactive DJ Installation

The omnipresent Lucky Cat figurines, (aka Maneki-neko), are being appropriated for an interesting audio-visual system that allows anyone to become a DJ, regardless of experience.

In a project called MNM, artist Christian Graupner is using the figurine as a physical interface that allows users to control and tinker with a triptych video screen and pre-recorded sounds. When they pull on the Lucky Cat's big golden arm, a synchronization between the vinyl records and the visuals appears on the triple screen behind the rookie DJ. MNM subsequently generates new visual and musical clusters, which can be remixed by playing with some push buttons, levers, and a turntable interface.

The artist decribes this as "a new form of 'musique concrete," as "the weirdest abstract sounds start making sense and we can observe the DJ and the videos' protagonists touching them." Not to mention, the process of watching a new soundtrack form through a simple haptic motion is a creative way to watch involuntary surprises or "nice accidents" happen in a live setting.

The project is part of Graupner's Humatic Re-Performing series that turns observers into co-performers with no learning curve. A corresponding project in the series, called No More Nukes, also aims to call awareness to rejecting nuclear power in favor of solar energy, including art pieces with Lucky Cats donning nuke symbols painted on their porcelain bodies.

As to why he chose the Lucky Cat to be the face of these interactive projects, Graupner noted "It is POP. It is confusing. It is a ready-made. We introduce well known stuff in a new context and leave it open to the visitor…to find a totally new interpretation." Watch some videos of the cat in action (as well as a second video explaining the No More Nukes initiative), and see Graupner's site for more.

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