The Future of Music: A Digital Revolution by Kagura

Music is an art form and a language. It can help you express or interpret your own feelings. And as music technology evolves rapidly today, we have an increasingly diverse number of ways to express ourselves.

Shikumi Design is a Fukuoka-based company trying to make it easier for anyone to be creative. Their main product is Kagura, an interactive digital music application. Kagura refers to ancient Shinto music – known as “the entertainment of the gods.”

Getting started with the Kagura application is easy. Simply move and gesture in front of the screen. Kagura’s software combined with a webcam will capture your motion and generate music with visual effects. You can add background music by appending your voice, as well as arrange the tempo of the music and the visual effects.

The video below can give you more insight into the concept.

Kagura performed by Shunsuke Nakamura, CEO of Shikumi Design

How Kagura Made Disruptive Technology The New Normal

Shunsuke Nakamura, CEO of Shikumi Design, explained why he intentionally did not use cutting-edge technology when he visited the btrax San Francisco office two months ago. Instead, Kagura is a new type of instrument that creates a unique experience for music amateurs.

Another notable thing about Kagura was that it was designed from a music beginner’s point of view. As Nakamura pointed out: he was not good at playing music, so he wanted to help other beginners to get an easy start on playing new instruments.

The point here is simple: technology has evolved significantly and changed our lives beyond recognition. However. these changes are not always comfortable for new users and may take time to get used to. Shikumi Design wants to place a heavy emphasis on their users’ outcomes. To do so, they design smooth and comfortable interactions for their users to experience.

Shikumi Design was the biggest name in the interactive signage industry in Japan up until a few years ago. With that, it seems that their fundamentally user-centered philosophy comes from what they’ve learned since then – in particular about how to create disruptive technology that users will be comfortable using.

Workshop at the DISTRICT in Abu Dhabi (from Kagura’s official Facebook page)

By the end of August 2015, Shikumi Design had raised more than $28,000 with 176 backers on Kickstarter.  A free trial of Kagura is now available on their website.

SHIKUMI DESIGN Inc. is based in Fukuoka, Japan. For more information, contact Tetsuhisa Nakamura, a manager at the firm. via phone ((+81)92-474-0153) or email (info@kagura.cc).

Find out more about Shikumi Design on their website: http://www.shikumi.co.jp/