Relay Essay

One day, I saw Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic of Freddie Mercury of the legendary British band Queen. The highlight is the scene of Live Aid, the 20th century’s largest charity concert held in Wembley Stadium in London, with an audience of 70,000 people. However, allegedly, this footage was not filmed in the actual stadium, and the audience visuals were recreated via computer graphics using the visual data of hundreds of people.

Well, let’s put cinematography technique topics aside.

I was overwhelmed by the extraordinary performance of Freddie on the screen and immersed in my imagination, visualizing myself looking like Freddie with a slender body—not a chubby guy in reality. I had a glimpse of the possibility of a “metaverse diet.”

Before I start the metaverse diet, there must be something I can do more. The Division of Environmental Studies used to hold a party every fall, and we named the party “Proms” All music lovers, from rock to classical music and even classical vocal music, would mingle with food and drink and enjoy music. The campus sushi bar, Hama, would open a special stall for the night, and we loved it. And we would usually use the lounge or the Frontier Sciences Hall on the first floor of the Environmental Studies Building. However, the event has been canceled for the past few years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, I, as an organizer of the event, have been personally seeking a way to hold it at an outside venue.

One of the options is the Kashiwa Research Complex building’s yard at the eastern end of the campus. The roofed steps can be a good stage. It is open and spacious, and it is perfect for an event with loud sounds. Recently, I tried singing one of Aimyon’s*1 hit songs, “Marigold,” in the fresh rugby field that had just been finished construction on the northeast side of the campus. Aimyon succeeded in her acoustic live concert with an audience of 45,000 at Koshien Ballpark in November 2022. I understood how she must have felt during the live concert a bit. Oh! Maybe the Tensegrity^*2 Dome that will be constructed behind the Kashiwa Research Complex is also a good alternative.

*1 Aimyon is a Japanese pop singer.
*2 Tensegrity is a coined word in the architecture field combining the words “tension” and “integrity.”