Art

Seiko Mikami new installation "Desire of Codes"

2010-04-14T15:20:22Z

From perceiving cells to the coded individual.

We are pleased to announce the opening of the "Desire of Codes" exhibition introducing a brand new installation piece by Seiko Mikami at YCAM. Mikami chose "information society and the human body" as the central theme of her artistic endeavors since the 1980s, and stepped into the spotlight of the international art scene after introducing computing technologies to her critical and provocative examinations of technology and art in the '90s.
Next to the presentation of a new co-production by Seiko Mikami and YCAM that forms the centerpiece of this exhibition, the "surveillance society and human desires" themed event encompasses also a display of Takashi Ikegami's new installation incorporating aspects of brain science and complex system, as well as a revised version of "gravicells--gravity and resistance", a work on which Mikami collaborated with Sota Ichikawa.

Exhibition website: http://doc.ycam.jp/

- Exhibited work
Seiko Mikami "Desire of Codes" (new work / commissioned by YCAM)
- Related works
Takashi Ikegami "MTM [Mind Time Machine] " (new work / commissioned by YCAM)
Seiko Mikami + Sota Ichikawa "gravicells - gravity and resistance"(revised version / commissioned by YCAM)

]]> Seiko Mikami "Desire of Codes"(new work / commisioned by YCAM)

Large-scale installation at YCAM's theatre hall
The "individual" visitor in a double role as a subject of expression and observation

This interactive installation consisting of three parts is set up in YCAM's Studio A, a space that is normally used for theatre performances.
A large number of devices resembling tentacles with built-in small cameras are placed across a huge wall (Part 1), while six robotic "search arms" equipped with cameras and projectors are suspended from the ceiling (Part 2). Each device senses with insect-like wriggling movements the positions and movements of visitors, and turns toward detected persons in order to observe their actions. In addition, a giant round-shaped screen that looks like an insect's compound eye is installed in the back of the exhibition space (Part 3). Visual data transmitted from each camera, along with footage recorded by surveillance cameras installed at various places around the world, are stored in a central database, and ultimately projected in complex images mixing elements of past and present, the venue itself and points around the globe, onto the screen. The compound eye visualizes a new reality in which fragmentary aspects of space and time are recombined, while the visitor's position as a subject of expression and surveillance at once indicates the new appearances of human corporeality and desire.

detail of the work：http://doc.ycam.jp/work/

Production support: Ryota Kuwakubo, Norimichi Hirakawa, Sota Ichikawa, TAKEGAHARASEKKEI

Organized by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
In association with Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Grants from THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION
Corporate sponsors: AD Science Co., Microvision, Inc.
Cooperation: Tama Art University Media Art Lab.; The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of General Systems Studies Ikegami lab; ATAK; DGN co., ltd.; Perfektron LLC.
Co-developed with YCAM InterLab
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Design: METAPHOR
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

Takashi Ikegami "MTM [Mind Time Machine]"

2010-04-14T15:20:21Z

Takashi Ikegami "MTM [Mind Time Machine] " (new work / commissioned by YCAM)

For the new challenge of this exhibition, by way of extending the theme "Desire of Code" of Seiko MIkami, we at the same time present a new art installation "MTM [Mind Time Machine]" directed by a complex systems scientist, Takashi Ikegami. Ikegami is producing an interactive work of mind time processes from the viewpoint of a self-organizing, subjective timeline.
The concept of this work is based on the American brain physiologist Benjamin Libet's studies. Ikegami will reconstruct the subjective momentary "Now" by producing an optical landscape of human cognition that emulates the network of conscious, unconsciousness, and memory processes.
In this installation, MTM [Mind Time Machine], 15 cameras of 4 different types will shoot the actual movements of the audience as they enter the venue. Those images will be processed and evolved in real time by the programs that originally developed from the ideas of complex systems. The final output of the images will be projected onto the three big screens, which correspond to consciousness/unconsciousness/memory, and the corresponding sound images will be produced with the 3.2 channels.

detail of the work: http://doc.ycam.jp/relatedworks/index_en.html/

Production support: Motoi Ishibashi, evala, Yuta Ogai, Keiichiro Shibuya, Kenshu Shintsubo

Organized by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
In association with Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Grants from THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION
Corporate sponsors: AD Science Co., Microvision, Inc.
Cooperation: Tama Art University Media Art Lab.; The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of General Systems Studies Ikegami lab; ATAK; DGN co., ltd.; Perfektron LLC.
Co-developed with YCAM InterLab
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Design: METAPHOR
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

Seiko Mikami ＋ Sota Ichikawa "gravicells - gravity and resistance" [revised version]

2010-04-14T15:20:20Z

Seiko Mikami + Sota Ichikawa
"gravicells - gravity and resistance"
(revised version / commissioned by YCAM)

World premiere of the revised version
Significant modifications made to enhance the dynamic expression of spatial distortion

The new version of "gravicells" modified and made even more dynamic by the artists with technical support from the YCAM InterLab team. In addition to visuals projected onto the floor, the revised version introduces projections onto four screens that enclose the space. The interlinked visual transformations now take place on a total of five surfaces, resulting in a significantly improved three-dimensional perception from various angles of the spatial deformation caused by the audience's movements and the effect of gravity.

detail of the work: http://doc.ycam.jp/relatedworks/index_en.html/

about this work
The spatial expression of "gravicells" is rendered consistently by the real time calculation of the dynamics. The on-going dynamic movements are composed of the counter powers around gravity. Gravity is not materialized without the reaction force. In this artwork, it is possible for us to develop a new human sense through feeling gravity differently than usual and having new perception of body. The work provides a space with hypothetical dynamics having the opposing forces of gravity and resistance, through special devices and sensors.
Walking freely in the site, audiences are able to feel gravity that they are seldom aware of, resistance to it, and the effects caused by other participants. All movements and changes made by participating visitors are transformed into the movements of sound and geometrical images through the sensors, so that the whole space develops or changes in this interactive installation. Stand or move around on this unstable flat floor (6m x 6m), and audience are participating in the installation. Each participant becomes "an observation point," and another participant joins to make "plural moving observation points." The number of participants at a time is not limited. On the floor are placed 225 units of 40cm x 40cm cell-like grids, in which specially developed sensors are fixed to detect instantly and continuously the changing position, weight, and speed. Additionally, the position of the exhibition space is simultaneously measured by GPS, and with plural linked GPS satellites as part of the work and the moving direction of GPS is shown as the locus. Then the dynamics of GPS is turned into a simultaneously moving site, and thus the installation space involves the outside environment.

"gravicells - gravity and resistance" tour schedule
＝Premiere＝
2004.5.15-6.20　Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]　StudioB
2004.11.9 -11.21　DEAF04 (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
2005.2.4-8　transmediale 2005　(Berlin, Germany)
2005.2.24-3.1　Share Festival (Torino, Italy)
2005.3.10-3.20　VIA 05 (Maubeuge, France)
2005.3.30-4.9　EXIT 05 (Creteil, France)
2005.9.1-19　Ars Electronica 2005 (Linz, Austria)
2005.11.23-12.25　"Possible Futures:" NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] (Tokyo, Japan)
2006.9.20-10.29　O.O.H 06 festival, Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto (Gijon, Spain)
2007.2.22-3.7　Mois Multi, salle Multi et le Studio d'essai de la Cooperative Meduse (Montreal, Canada)
2007.4.27-6.27　el medio es la comunicación ElTanque, Espacio Cultural El TAnque (Canaryls lands, Spain)
2008.4.19-2009.2.28　"Open Space 2008" NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] (Tokyo, Japan)
＝This exhibition＝
2010.1.24-5.9　Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]　StudioB

Organized by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
In association with Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Grants from THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION
Corporate sponsors: AD Science Co., Microvision, Inc.
Cooperation: Tama Art University Media Art Lab.; The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of General Systems Studies Ikegami lab; ATAK; DGN co., ltd.; Perfektron LLC.
Co-developed with YCAM InterLab
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Design: METAPHOR
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takataninew installation "CLOUD FOREST"

2010-04-14T15:20:07Z

"artistic environmental spheres" formed by fog, light and sound
Large-scale project unveiled simultaneously in three public spaces in and around YCAM

The upcoming CLOUD FOREST exhibition at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] presents examples of newly discovered environmental creation, realized with an "artistic environments" themed fusion of artistic expression and information technology. Currently on show in three different public spaces in and around YCAM will be a large-scale collaborative project featuring "fog sculptures" by Fujiko Nakaya, an artist whose works have gained much attention at various occasions in Japan and overseas, along with the original light and sound art of Shiro Takatani.
These commissioned installations conceived in-residence at YCAM combine artificial fog, sunlight and sound, orchestrating with the help of originally developed devices and responding to changing weather conditions a variety of impressive sceneries. Visitors can experience transformations in their perception as they interact with artworks incorporating information technology while walking in the fog in the patios or surrounding park. While introducing and reevaluating foresighted art and science projects originally presented at the EXPO'70 Osaka, which eventually inspired this new project, the exhibition anticipates the future of environmental creation, "informational spheres" of tomorrow, and possible creative quests through art.

Related events
■Opening events
Demonstrative Performance
August 7 (sat) 19:00 - 20:00
Venue: Foyer, Patios Admission free
Artists: Fujiko Nakaya, Shiro Takatani, softpad (Takuya Minami, Tomohiro Ueshiba, Hiroshi Toyama) In addition to Fujiko Nakaya and Shiro Takatani, the members of Kyoto-based art/design collective softpad, who took charge of the sound design for this exhibition, participate in a special experimental live performance incorporating the fog, light and sound installations in the patios and foyer.

Artist Talk
August 8 (san) 14:00-16:00
Venue: Studio B Admission free
Guests: Fujiko Nakaya, Shiro Takatani　Moderator: Akira Asada
Artists involved in this exhibition appear as special guests in a casual talk session that gives them the opportunity to introduce their works. Moderator will be Akira Asada, a specialist in the field who is familiar with each artist's endeavors to date. While referring to the work of E.A.T. at the 1970 Osaka Expo's Pepsi Pavilion, which inspired this project in the first place, the artists will look back at such trailblazing achievements as Nakaya's "fog sculptures" and David Tudor's soundscapes originally presented at the Expo, and discuss the developments and prospects now, four decades later.
* There will be guided gallery tours offered during the period of the exhibition. Please check the exhibition website for more information on additional event.]]>
CLOUD FOREST
― Prospects of art-inspired new environmental creation

Rather than addressing "environmental" issues only from an ecological point of view, this "artistic environmental spheres" themed exhibition focuses on the mutual relationships between natural, social, mental and informational environments. Aiming to provide a stage for such diverse aspects of the subject matter to function as interfaces for each other, CLOUD FOREST pursues a contemporary form of environmental creation triggered off by transformations in human perception. The shifting perceptual experience of interacting with artworks incorporating information technology and YCAM's architectural characteristics makes the visitor aware of spatial transfigurations, and ultimately commands ideas related to "environments" of the future.

Fujiko Nakaya "Fog Sculpture #47773" Pepsi Pavilion Commissioned by Experiments in Art and Technology (EXPO' 70, Osaka, Japan 1970) photo: ©Takeyoshi Tanuma

■"Environment" as an art form
This exhibition is based on a definition of "environment" as a compound of mutually generative, penetrative and reflective areas. While there have been various movements in the past that proposed environments as stages for or components of art, such as land art or earth art, this exhibition aims to explore the creative aspects of media art for possible new forms of "environments". Think of it as an attempt to generate with the help of information technology open environments embracing multiple interlinked, mutually "environmental spheres". In this day and age, the concept of "environments" manifested through spatial transformations is surely going to write its own quiet yet forceful story.

■40 years after the EXPO'70 Osaka: E.A.T. reinterpreted from a contemporary point of view
　E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) attracted worldwide attention when the American experimental collective presented their work in the Pepsi Pavilion at the EXPO'70 Osaka. At this huge international event, the group of collaborating artists and scientists presented the astonishing results of their pioneering exploration of the relationship between environment and art, driven by the participating artists' innovative ideas. Considering the 40 years between then and the present day as a fundamental period of transition from the material productivity-based viewpoints of progressive science to invisible information capitalism, this exhibition attempts a critical review of the ideas and accomplishments of E.A.T. By interpreting such forward-thinking approaches of art and science with an eye on contemporary information society and perspectives of environmental creation, we aim to disclose a contemporary form of reality and its new environmental components.

"Island Eye Island Ear" Project by Experiments in Art & Technology (Knavelskar Island, Sweden 1974) photo：Fujiko Nakaya

■"Environments" emerging out of human perception and networking technology
This exhibition couples the "fog sculptures" of Fujiko Nakaya with the creative ideas of the late David Tudor, who was in charge of interactive sound when Nakaya's works were first introduced at the EXPO'70 Osaka's Pepsi Pavilion. The "fog sculptures" take on a variety of appearances at the main venues in and around YCAM, shown alongside a new installation piece incorporating Tudor's original concept of soundscapes based on environmental reverberation. Altogether, the displays can be considered as a collaborative attempt of new environmental creation, undertaken by Fujiko Nakaya together with the YCAM staff and such post-Expo generation artists as Shiro Takatani. These works utilizing information technology to incorporate in various ways transformations of both natural surroundings and human perception communicate a sensory idea of critical, totally new "spheres of artistic environments".

Fujiko Nakaya "GREENLAND GLACIAL MORAINE GARDEN" (Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice,Kaga City, Japan 1994) 　photo：Rokuro Yoshida

"CLOUD FOREST"
The exhibition's title, "CLOUD FOREST" is borrowed from the name of a subtropical forestal area that is characterized by a frequent formation of mist about the canopy level. It is a place that can be considered as a peculiar zone of active interpenetration right in the middle between wild nature and the realm of human society.
At the same time, the title is a reference to David Tudor's sound installation/performance piece "Rainforest". Approaching the laws of nature by means of cutting-edge technology, this exhibition pays deep homage also to the innovativeness of the "Island Eye Island Ear" project that Fujiko Nakaya conceived with Jacqueline Monnier back in the 1970s.

"Environmental spheres" in three installations

Patios　　... Interfaces of fog, light and sound
The entirely glass-walled patios - high open spaces that allow wind, rain and sunlight to fall in - are intermediate places combining/connecting the outside (natural environment) with the inside (artificial environment). This exhibition includes large-scale installations involving artificial fog, light (reflected sunlight) and sound, which transform the Center's two patios into interfaces between two different types of environments.
Influenced by the surrounding interior and exterior environments, the artificial fog that is emitted in varying intervals from multiple directions forms convections of various modes and configurations. In addition, a special mirror device is used to redirect sunbeams into the fog. As optical effects will vary significantly according to the fog's configuration, meteorological conditions, and the position of the sun, the displays will continue to take on different appearances depending on the time, position and angle. As locations, sizes, and positions of installed apparatus are different in both patios, visitors can appreciate two completely different installations. Furthermore, special sound systems installed inside the exhibition spaces allows visitors to perceive the soundscapes locally while walking through the fog. Also visible from outside the glass walls are subtle motions of fog and light that one normally doesn't see in the open nature.

"CLOUD FOREST"［Patio］（YCAM 2010）

Foyer　　... Soundscape defined by an intense mixture of sound and light
Exhibited in the foyer, a place flooded with natural light from the patios on both sides, is Shiro Takatani's large-scale installation based on reflections of sound and light [Sound Designed by Takuya Minami (softpad)]. Nine specially built sonic devices - two-meter-high rotary square poles fitted with four superdirective speakers each - are arranged in a grid pattern on the floor in the center of the exhibition space. While the poles rotate at varying speed, all of the 36 speakers emit alternately synchronous and asynchronous superdirective sounds to weave complex sonic carpets. Next to field recordings of natural environmental sounds, the installation uses audio sources prepared by David Tudor for the EXPO'70 Osaka. These components will form a densely complex acoustic environment while echoing in complicated patterns from the venue's walls and stairs. Visitors can look forward to enjoying an absolutely unique spatial experience in a setting bathed in a mix of artificial and natural light.

Central Park　　...Fog sculptures" flowing and merging with the environment
Fujiko Nakaya's "fog sculptures" are exhibited in wide outdoor spaces. Like in the patios, clouds of artificial fog will be generated also in the central park in front of YCAM. Due to rapidly changing wind conditions, here the fog clusters will move in instantaneously shifting patterns. While marveling at these massive formations of fog quite different from the sceneries in the patios, the visitor can witness how these "fog sculptures" flow and merge with the environment.

"CLOUD FOREST"［Central Park］（YCAM 2010）

* Also on display are photographs and video footage of previous works related to this exhibition (Fujiko Nakaya & David Tudor, EXPO'70 Osaka "Pepsi Pavilion", etc.)

Organized by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
In association with Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Grants from THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION
Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2010
Co-developed with YCAM InterLab
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]

Sound Design & Graphic Design Takuya Minami (softpad)
Programming: Ken Furudate

Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

Carsten Nicolai And Marko Peljhan new installation "polar II" [tentative]

2010-04-14T15:20:06Z

Decennial environmental observations in art focusing on a global informational network's polar areas
The "polar" project centers on fixed-point observations of the earth's natural and informational environment from an artist's position. The previous polar I, presented in Tokyo in 2000, introduced a network-based original search engine, developed in order to observe the earth as an environment based on a variety of information. The updating process was translated into images and sounds exhibited in an audio-visual installation. The following ten years have seen significant developments in information technology, which have in turn triggered repeated massive changes in human sensibility and perception. While considering unreachable places on the earth as more or less non-existent, we are directly confronted with an extensive invisible world of information and other data. The aim of this second installment is to establish an original platform for investigations into the diverse environments that surround us in the year 2010. By searching specific information, visitors can proactively explore uncharted polar areas, and discover their meanings. Two of the world's leading artists get together again to highlight current natural and informational environments, and propose methods for us to apply for their research.
(In-residence production period: late October - early November)

Lecture + Dance Demonstration

2009-05-07T08:12:43Z

This is one particularly noteworthy event held as part of this time's exhibition. The artist himself gives a dance demonstration in the same exhibition space where the "Phantom Exhibition" is on view, so visitors will have the unique opportunity to witness how Paxton's ﬂesh-and-blood movement overlap with those on the screens.

Lecture + Talk

2009-05-06T08:51:00Z

Guest: Steve Paxton, Fujiko Nakaya (Artist)
Lecturer/moderator: Kikuko Toyama (Professor for Aesthetics at Saitama University)

This event discusses Steve Paxton's activities and their meaning against the social backdrop of the genre-straddling experimental endeavors in art, dance, music in the America of the 1950s-60s.
The lecture will touch upon Blackmountain College, inter-media, and other important keywords in the current art and contemporary dance scenes, and will be followed by a talk session with the artist himself.

＊English/Japanese Interpretation (in Talk)

Steve Paxton "Phantom Exhibition" / "Body as Interimage"

2009-05-05T00:51:45Z

Steve Paxton
"Phantom Exhibition"

Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

Introducing Paxton's body philosophy reinterpreting the frameworks of various physical sensation and action in a fusion of contemporary dance and art.

A leading figure in American post-modern dance, dancer/choreographer Steve Paxton is visiting Japan for the first time in 34 years. At YCAM, Steve Paxton presents a new video installation, centered around which a variety of events including demonstrations by the artist himself, and lectures with invited experts, take place as a comprehensive introduction to Paxton's body philosophy.
Through the experience of a video installation and other events explaining Paxton's methods and original artistic work, which keep influencing the current dance scene, this exhibition introduces Paxton's work from the contexts of social and historical circumstances in the 1960s, and looks at the present form of the new physical and spatial qualities discovered through media-based artistic expression.

"Body as InterImage"

Media based art drafting the future of the human body.

At the occasion of the Steve Paxton exhibition, YCAM hosts a special exhibition introducing the works of three up-and-coming artists as a further step in the Center's exploration of "art, media and physical expression."
The "own body" and the "image of the body" have been rediscovered and exhaustively featured in media-based works of art. While focusing on the double quality of the body - the "Body as Interimage" - the event explores the possibilities and relationships between media technology and the human body today.

□Works in the exhibition
newClear + Alessio Silvestrin "skinslides"
Shinichi Takashima "Pascal pass scale"

□Screening
Saburo Teshigawara "Friction of Time - perspective Study vol.2"

Steve Paxton "Phantom Exhibition"
Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Support: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Co-organizer: DANCE DOCUMENTS JAPAN COMMITTEE (DDJC)
Co-sponsor: Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, The Saison Foundation
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Technical support: YCAM InterLab
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)
Design direction: Shun Kawakami (artless)

＊This event is part of the "Touch, Contact, Bones Steve Paxton + Lisa Nelson Dance Project 2009.4.26 - 8.31" series co-hosted by art-related organizations and facilities across Japan.
Organizer: DANCE DOCUMENTS JAPAN COMMITTEE (DDJC)
Co-organizer: Hot Summer in KYOTO, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, Wacoal Art Center, The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Global COE Programme, Dance Research Course, Waseda University, Kinki University International Center for Human Science, Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Cooperation: Aomori Public College, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre AIR Committee (tentative), Contredanse, Videoda
Sponsor: Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, The Saison Foundation

Steve Paxton "Phantom Exhibition"

2009-04-20T04:53:57Z

A leading ﬁgure in American post-modern dance, dancer/choreographer Steve Paxton is visiting Japan for the ﬁrst time in 34 years.

Steve Paxton has been integrating Aikido, Yoga, Vipassana meditation, and other Asian body techniques into dance. This exhibition introduces his understanding of the body, and his works based on that. At YCAM, Steve Paxton presents a new video installation, centered around which a variety of events including demonstrations by the artist himself, and lectures with invited experts, take place as a comprehensive introduction to Paxton's body philosophy. Through the experience of a video installation and other events explaining Paxton's methods and original artistic work, which keep influencing the current dance scene, this exhibition introduces Paxton's work from the contexts of social and historical circumstances in the 1960s, and looks at the present form of the new physical and spatial qualities discovered through media-based artistic expression.

Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

]]> Introducing Paxton's body philosophy reinterpreting the frameworks of various physical sensation and action in a fusion of contemporary dance and art.

Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

Discover new physical sensations by abandoning yourself to a space completely ﬁlled with images
Steve Paxton liberated the body from conventional forms of ballet and dance, in order to carve out his own original dance style. In the 1970s, he advocated "contact improvisation" (*) as a new dance concept that would ultimately be introduced to the realm of contemporary dance as a groundbreaking new technique. This exhibition marks the ﬁrst occasion in Japan to show a new video installation based on the "Material for the Spine" system that Paxton has been developing since 1986. Five large screens surrounding the exhibition space show images of Paxton and other performers moving according to that method, as well as dance moves simulated with computer graphics, along with poetically rhythmical explanatory narration. Within this overwhelming visual setting, the visitor perceives with all his senses the relationship between the human body and gravity.

(*) Contact improvisation is a form of dance improvisation based on movement triggered by contact with other performers. It is a dance and communication method that enables the performer to experience new forms of movement beyond existing dance patterns, by entrusting his body to the generated energy.

■Works in the exhibition
Video Installation
"Phantom Exhibition"

Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

Steve Paxton has been developing "Material for the Spine"(*) as a method for exploring the center of the body since 1986. The installation consists of five large screens showing video footage of Paxton and other performers who move their bodies based on this system, as well as computer-generated images analyzing those dance moves. Within a space that is entirely surrounded by images, visitors will encounter a new form of physical sensation by perceiving with all their senses the relationship between the human body and gravity, the body's interior and exterior, and the structure of its bones. The work was created by Paxton together with two Belgian video artists, and will be reproduced in a high-quality spatial installation as it can only be realized with the help of YCAM's own studio equipment and technology. Unveiled in Belgium this April, the talked-about piece is now staged at YCAM (and nowhere else in Japan).

(*)"MATERIAL FOR THE SPINE, a movement study." Steve Paxton. Contredanse Editions. Brussels 2008. DVD-ROM (PC-MAC) 240 min. English original version, English and French subtitles. www.contredanse.org

Steve Paxton, Florence Corin + Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse)
Originally produced by Contredanse with coproduction of Bozar Dance, Charleroi/danses, with the help of WBI.
Sound environment: Philippe Jelli

■Lecture + Dance Demonstration
May 24 (Sun) 13:00‒14:30 (the venue opens 30min before)
Venue: Studio B
Performance: Steve Paxton

This is one particularly noteworthy event held as part of this time's exhibition. The artist himself gives a dance demonstration in the same exhibition space where the "Phantom Exhibition" is on view, so visitors will have the unique opportunity to witness how Paxton's ﬂesh-and-blood movement overlap with those on the screens.

Admission Free [Capacity: 70]
＊Tickets will be available from 10:00 am on the day of the performance
＊On the day of the event, the "Phantom Exhibition" will be open to the general public from 15:00.

■Lecture + Talk
May 24（Sun） 15:00‒17:00
Venue: Foyer
Guest: Steve Paxton, Fujiko Nakaya (Artist)
Lecturer/moderator: Kikuko Toyama (Professor for Aesthetics at Saitama University)

This event discusses Steve Paxton's activities and their meaning against the social backdrop of the genre-straddling experimental endeavors in art, dance, music in the America of the 1950s-60s. The lecture will touch upon Blackmountain College, inter-media, and other important keywords in the current art and contemporary dance scenes, and will be followed by a talk session with the artist himself.

Admission Free ＊English/Japanese Interpretation (in Talk)

■Gallery Tour
June 7 (Sun), 14 (Sun), 27 (Sat), 28 (Sun)
July 5 (Sun), 11 (Sat), 18 (Sat), 25 (Sat), 26 (Sun)
August 1 (Sat), 2 (Sun)
14:00‒15:00
August 29 (Sat), 30 (Sun)
11:00‒12:00

This event aims to communicate the theme of this exhibition along with basic knowledge about contemporary dance. Through the experience of both lecture and displays, participants will discover together with YCAM's expert staﬀ the central, most attractive features of the exhibition.

Admission Free
＊Application: Please visit YCAM 1F Ticket Information 30 minutes before the start

■Film and Document Displays
Venue: Foyer, Gallery 2F

Steve Paxton's work, as well as his "Material for the Spine" system of body movement, will be explained in visual documents. The program combines excerpts from his latest DVD-ROM, released in 2008, and video footage from the 1970s, to trace the history of Paxton's achievements.

Admission Free

Cooperation: Contredanse/Videoda

Material for the Spine

Begun in 1986, it is a simple dancing system based in sensation and evolved self-imagery for the skeletal elements of head, spine and pelvis. In other words, an exploration of the center of the body. The Material is abstracted from Contact Improvisation, which will be used in the class to some extent, but Material is more technical and meditative, with emphasis on breathing and precise exercises done solo. Connections may be noticed to extant dance techniques, and their mostly unstated use of the pelvis. Material for the Spine cannot avoid the rest of the body: so far it has extended to the hip sockets and thighs, the shoulder blades and arms.
(2007/08 by Paxton)

Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Support: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Co-organizer: DANCE DOCUMENTS JAPAN COMMITTEE (DDJC)
Co-sponsor: Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, The Saison Foundation
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Technical support: YCAM InterLab
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)
Design direction: Shun Kawakami (artless)

＊This event is part of the "Touch, Contact, Bones Steve Paxton + Lisa Nelson Dance Project 2009.4.26 - 8.31" series co-hosted by art-related organizations and facilities across Japan.
Organizer: DANCE DOCUMENTS JAPAN COMMITTEE (DDJC)
Co-organizer: ot Summer in KYOTO, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, Wacoal Art Center, The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Global COE Programme, Dance Research Course, Waseda University, Kinki University International Center for Human Science, Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Cooperation: Aomori Public College Aomori Contemporary Art Centre AIR Committee (tentative), Contredanse, Videoda
Sponsor: Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, The Saison Foundation

"Body as Interimage"

2009-04-20T01:32:02Z

At the occasion of the Steve Paxton exhibition, YCAM hosts a special exhibition introducing the works of three up-and-coming artists as a further step in the Center's exploration of "art, media and physical expression."
The "own body" and the "image of the body" have been rediscovered and exhaustively featured in media-based works of art. While focusing on the double quality of the body - the "Body as Interimage" - the event explores the possibilities and relationships between media technology and the human body today.

]]> ■Works in the exhibition
New installation work
newClear + Alessio Silvestrin "skinslides"［commissioned by YCAM］

Conceived as an interface for a permanent preservation of the dancer's movements, this video dane piece is based on the novel idea of producing images and sound first, and subsequently programming a data-choreography out of the single elements. Three displays are embedded in the venues floor, while sensors detect the visitors movements. The displays show vivid projections of the dancer's contact points with the floor and by moving around in the exhibition space, the visitor adds an element of chance to the generated sequences of footage on the displays. （All the sequences are consisted by five parts of scenes, which includes 55 footages.）The soundtrack is composed of the sounds of the body movements and of their contacts with the floor, and music performed by Otomo Yoshihide based on footage of body movements.

Construction: Richi Owaki
Performance: Alessio Silvestrin
Sound: Otomo Yoshihide
Programming: Satoshi Hama (YCAM InterLab)
Technical support: YCAM InterLab

New installation work
Shinichi Takashima "Pascal pass scale"

"Pascal pass scale"

One old and one new work themed on the human body and imagery are being displayed symmetrically in two separate exhibition booths, inspiring the visitor to think about the way we grasp things that are very familiar yet not directly perceivable. By assuming a situation in which body and space can only be dealt with in a prejudiced way, the piece pursues the question "how we can construct our edifice of ideas if neither the real world nor our own perception of it qualify as premises."

■Screening
Video Dance
Saburo Teshigawara "Friction of Time - perspective Study vol.2" （2008）

Saburo Teshigawara "Friction of Time - perspective Study vol.2"

Saburo Teshigawara, a world-renowned dancer and plastic artist who has also been involved with filmic art since the 1990s, produced a video piece in collaboration with the YCAM InterLab staff. Recorded with high-speed cameras as used in sports engineering, car safety experiments and space exploration among others, the artists produced a dance video that focuses on the human body from a new perspective, capturing in a beautiful way and down to the subtle motion of the muscles the movements of Teshigawara's dance.

Co-produced by KARAS, YCAM

Semitra Exhibition "tFont/fTime"

2009-04-10T04:54:29Z

"tFont/fTime" Exhibition website

First exhibition of Semitra, a group of creators combining great informational media sensibility and technology
"Typeface with a temporal element" themed displays at YCAM's exhibition space and on the Internet

"Semitransparent Design" is a creative team that has been connecting the realm of design with cutting-edge informational media technology in works ranging from web design to graphic and interactive design since starting off in 2003.
YCAM now presents "tFont/fTime", an exhibition of the "Semitra" group of artists that emerged from this collective.
Semitra have been attracting attention with their design work on various commercial websites, films, displays and other advertising media (digital signage). With a special focus on typeface design, this exhibition introduces a new work based on the unique idea of creating a font that changes hour by hour. The installation space creates unique typeface-scape which has connection to website in realtime, allowing visitors to participate/interact directly at the venue or via the Internet.

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Design of Time × Font
Observing a continually transforming typeface in an installation and online

With a special focus on font design, this exhibition introduces new works based on the unique idea of a typeface that transforms hour by hour. Centering around four new installation pieces (shown at Studio B) incorporating the "tFont" typeface with an added element of time, as well as "fTime", which expresses time through typeface design, the exhibition allows the visitor to witness the generation and processing of this particular kind of font design via networks and visual relays. In addition, a number of large-sized signboards displayed in and outside the Center complete the ever-changing "fontscape" that pervades YCAM in a combination of real and informational environments dedicated entirely to the design of typeface and time.

Participate while viewing real-time images of the exhibition space via the Internet
An exhibition to be experienced from 12 locations in and around YCAM, and from your own computer

"tFont/fTime" stands for "time-font/font-time", and represents the result of an attempt to explore font design based on the novel idea of visualizing the transformation process of a gradually changing typeface.
The letters of messages supplied via a special website (http://www.semitraexhibition.com/) or email (m@semitra.com) become parts of artworks that ultimately emerge at YCAM's exhibition spaces. Messages are displayed in the original "tFont" typeface, and once placed on the "fTime" time axis, they are processed through visitors' actions and such media as cameras and monitors. The font's transformation process can also be observed in the form of "fontscapes" in images of the exhibition transmitted in real-time via the Internet. In addition to four new installation pieces exhibited at Studio B, these fontscapes unfurl at a total of twelve locations inside and outside the YCAM building, including the foyer and the Chuo Park.
All exhibited works are fed with common data of visitors' actions and supplied messages, which are then translated into configurations of typefaces, lighting, etc. to affect each respective work.

"tFont/fTime" Exhibition Works
(new work: commissioned by YCAM)
01. Movable Type（Studio B）* Live Straming
02. Typesetting（Studio B）*　Live Straming / Messages are displayed
03. California Job Case（Studio B）*　Live Straming
04. No Flash Photography Allowed（Studio B）*　Live Straming / Messages are displayed
05. LCD/CRT（Foyer）*
06. No Flash Photography Allowed - Projection（Foyer）*
07. Large Scaled Sign - LED（Foyer）
08. Large Scaled Sign - Sculpture（Central Park）
09. "tFont" Photograph Installation（Gallery second floor）
10. Large Projection from Studio B（Gallery second floor）*
11. Semitransparent Design's activities for Commercial Works（Information Space "BIT THINGS"）
12. Terminals for Access on the Web site（Information Space "BIT THINGS"）
* These works are linked each other and shared visual deterioration system on typeface by central server.

＜Main Woks＞
01. Movable Type

A font that can be played like music
Six turntables are set up in the exhibition space. Playing records on them triggers displays of letters from A to Z in alphabetical sequence on a screen in the front. By operating the turntable in a DJ-like "scratching" fashion, the visitor can change (distort) the shapes of the letters, and enjoy the resulting combinations of visuals and sounds demonstrating how this font design happens on a directionally manipulable time axis just like music or a movie.
At the same time, the letters gradually decompose during their repeated "playback" throughout the Center's opening hours. While the operation of the turntables results in a "distortion" that highlights a momentary relationship between the body and letters, the additional time axis introduced via the server causes further "decomposition". In this work, actual time as manipulated by the visitor overlaps with the notion of time added by the media, to produce a composite time axis that represents a new type of "fontscape".

02. Typesetting

Messages supplied via the Internet are displayed in the "tFont"
Text supplied via a special website or email address is displayed in the font that is concurrently designed in "Movable Type" (see above). In other words, this work synchronizes the timing of message posts to the website with the constantly updated data of the font's decomposition inside the exhibition space, in order to make participants' messages visible. Real-time footage of this process is streamed on the Internet, allowing those who posted messages to witness the decomposition process of their own letters in the physical exhibition space. The synchronized timelines interlinking the venue and the Internet, visitors and exterior participants, overlap with the aspect of time introduced through the media used, while the typeface's appearance keeps changing. The work as a whole can be interpreted as a visualization of the unique sensation of time in today's information society, along with the exchange of messages between an unspecified group of users.

03. California Job Case

Overlooking the transformation process of the original "tFont"
In this work, the visitor can observe the decomposition process of a font on a projected chart of letters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9). Manipulating the playback speed with a turntable results in a layering of multiple time axes that cause the typeface to change its appearance by the minute. The chart - in a sense a list of samples of the "tFont" - demonstrates on 33 examples how letters gradually transform into a distinctive font.

04. No Flash Photography Allowed

Messages that only become visible when photographed
Countless blinking dots of light representing text messages supplied via the exhibition's special website or email are being displayed on a screen in the original "tFont". The viewer can only read these messages by photographing the dots of lights and adding a temporal aspect to create an "animation". With an exposure time that is different to that of the human eye, the camera captures what seems like nothing but an accumulation of blinking lights, and reveals readable text information. The operation (photographing) of a third party as a subsequent creative/communicative element suggests an alternative form of creativity that, inspired by the unique sensitivity of skating and street culture, generates new scenarios in urban settings. This is the foundation the members of Semitra base their interpretation of the unique aspects of perception and speed in web design upon.

05. LCD/CRT
Experience a font that changes its appearance through media
This installation consists of a total of ten monitors (composed of both LCD and CRT) that display a font designed in "fTime". Here the decomposition process is demonstrated on single letters extracted from "fTime" (which is continuously updated at the exhibition space and via the Internet), appearing in random order and with varying speed on monitors with different reproduction systems and resolution. The work is a symbolic hint at the emerging various relationships between typeface, time and output media.

07/08.
Neon and other signs shaped like the exhibition's key letters

Large-sized displays in the shapes of the exhibition's key letters "T" (time) and "F" (font) are installed in the foyer. These T- and F-shaped objects are made of moving LEDs that change colors each time a message is posted via the exhibition's website. More huge Ts and Fs are placed in the Chuo Park, serving as benches among others. Visitors can enjoy the daily changing "fontscapes" of letters blending into the environment of the YCAM building and its surroundings.

12.
Website for message posts and real-time images from the exhibition
Websitehttp://www.semitraexhibition.com/
During the exhibition period, this special website can be used at any time to access the venue. Users who post messages can witness by way of real-time footage how the text they supplied is being displayed in a gradually transforming font.

"tFont" is a two-dimensional typeface with an added element of time. Dots of light arranged in seemingly random patterns describe in fact the shapes of letters that can only be read when photographed with long exposure. This typeface consists of dynamic and in their original state unreadable blinking lights, so it requires the additional step of photographing or filming in order to become readable. In other words, "tFont" is a typeface that was designed based on the premise of being shaped/modified by a third party. The web specific transmission of culture through shaping/modification that happens here hints at the various possibilities of creativity on the Internet.
The exhibition at YCAM this time is made up of an installation made out of the "tFont", and another one incorporating the newly developed "fTime". In the latter, the designers place a typeface on a time axis, and "play" the letters just as if they were playing music.
(Ryoji Tanaka / Semitra)

"tFont"

■Related Event

Opening Event : Artist Talk
Sep 19 (Sat), 2009 15:00-17:00 Venue: Foyer Admission Free
Panelist: Semitra Guest panelist: Yugo Nakamura (tha), Yosuke Abe (tha)
Moderator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM), Daiya Aida (YCAM)
Talk event in which the artists themselves discuss their work with guests Yugo Nakamura and Yosuke Abe from the noted web and interface design studio "tha ltd."

*Also planned is a workshop program, as well as a guided gallery tour and other related events.(For details, please check the website.)

Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promorion,
Agency for Cultural Affairs
Support: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Sponsor: Color Kinetics Japan Incorporated
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Technical Support: YCAM InterLab
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version"

2009-04-10T02:53:29Z

Reverberating sound installed in YCAM's patios
Enjoy piano soundscapes you will not experienced elsewhere

The next work to be introduced in the "sound tectonics installation" series of media technology-based sound art taking place at YCAM's patios is a new sound installation made from piano recordings.
A unique piece of sound art that makes use of computers to charge music with aspects of spatial expansion and translocation, this brand new work based on high-grade piano recordings is introduced to visitors in the familiar setting of YCAM's own recreation oases. Come and explore the fascination of sound art in an exhibition that showcases the multifarious ways of spatial representation of the piano's timbre.

]]> Opening up new artistic and technical horizons for originality in sound art

Since its establishment, YCAM has been exploring the original expressive potential of electronic music and sound art. When focusing on the usage of media technology not only in video and other forms of visual expression, but especially also on its function in the realm of sound, we can perceive temporal and spatial acoustic qualities that haven't previously existed in art. This series pursues the new possibilities of artistic expression that emerge when the human senses of vision, hearing and touch are reconsidered on an equal level.
These possibilities include among others the installation of a 5.1 channel sound system that creates a unique acoustic sensation of sound "welling up from the floor" of the glass-walled patios, which generate the YCAM foyer's pleasantly relaxing atmosphere. The idea behind the "sound tectonics installation" series is to produce in the unique environment of these patios opportunities for visitors to appreciate sound art in a daily life setting.
Such commissioned works are created and exhibited at YCAM with the ultimate aim to establish a "platform" for expanding the possibilities of artistic experience and expression through the dialogue with artists and their works.

Commissioned sound art series at YCAM's patios "sound tectonics installation"
#1. Taylor Deupree + Christopher Willits
"LISTENING GARDEN" (2004)

new sound installation [commissioned by YCAM]
Keiichiro Shibuya + evala
"for maria installation version"

A sound space filled with processed, decomposed and reconfigured piano sounds
This sound installation piece is based on data taken from the latest piano solo album "ATAK015 for maria", composed and performed by musician Keiichiro Shibuya. Sound data of all pieces included in the CD were repeatedly processed, decomposed and reconfigured with a computer program, introducing new layers in order to redefine the relationships between the single tracks, and ultimately create a body of sound that is completely different from the CD's contents.
Two versions of the work are installed in two of the YCAM's Patios, known for their unique "wall of sound" effect, using 5.1/5.1+2 channel speakers with a distinctive sound embedded in the floor. In response to the Patios' different architecture and spatial acoustics, the respective installations work with differently programmed sound. The programming by Shibuya himself together with sound artist evala was designed to create a sense of three-dimensional movement within a constantly transforming sound space and shifting sonic layers.
Fragments of a high-quality DSD recording (128 times higher resolution compared to a conventional CD) of Shibuya's piano performance were processed, decomposed and layered with a special computer program, with the aim to establish a sonic environment in which sound seems to be traveling three-dimensionally. As the resolution of the original sound recording is on a totally different level from commonly used field recording or computer music data, the work was artfully conceived as an endless process of continuous transformation of sound that pervades the space as organically as smoke. Employing computer programs to fully explore the possibilities of spatial expansion, the sound processing is so complex and diverse that it is hard to believe that it is all based on the same data, presenting the visitor with music and sound that seems absolutely new. Listening to the sound as it moves around inside the Patios gives the visitor an acoustic experience of a soundscape that is perfectly unique to this exhibition.

Keiichiro Shibuya + evala
Keiichiro Shibuya and evala are two of the driving forces behind ATAK, a label that has been attracting attention around the world with releases of elaborately produced experimental music. Having initiated the "third term music" project with Takashi Ikegami, a scholar in the field of complex systems science and professor at Tokyo University, they keep operating on the cutting edge of computer music. In 2006, they unveiled "filmachine", a three-dimensional sound installation created in-residence at YCAM. This piece was awarded an Honorary mention in the Digital Music section at Ars Electronica, and subsequently exhibited in Berlin. A worldwide tour of the "ATAK NIGHT4" live music event in 2009 helped solidify the artists' international reputation, and expand the range of their influence.
The new work that is unveiled at YCAM this time marks for both artists the first occasion to build a sound installation out of piano sounds, and focus on sound (through a 5.1 channel speaker system) alone without adding visuals.

Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promorion
Support: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Cooperation: ATAK
Technical Support: YCAM InterLab
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]

YUDA ART PROJECT "Artist Talk"

2008-11-11T13:36:38Z

YUDA ART PROJECT
Related Events

This artist talk holds the presentations and discussion with three participating art group, exonemo, SHINCHIKA, and United visual Artists.

Subject to discussion: The meaning of art with media technology in public space.
]]> Guests: exonemo, SHINCHIKA, United Visual Artists
Moderator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)
＊ English/Japanese consecutive translation

YUDA ART PROJECT

2008-11-11T12:48:41Z

YUDA ART PROJECT unfolds in the town of Yuda Onsen in Yamaguchi.

Three groups of up-coming artists who are actively working at home and abroad use media technologies (image, sound, network, etc.) to produce new works on the theme of light and interaction, and each of the three artist groups shows their work at a different place.

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exonemo [JP]
renewal version, commissioned by YCAM
The Terminal for Pilgrimage
Venue: Yuda hot spring area

A stroll around Yuda Onsen looking for art works

While making their original portraits by using the special photographing and printing terminals (photo booths) installed at four places in Yuda Onsen, participants can enjoy this work strolling around the town of Yuda. Citizens as well as tourists of Yuda Onsen can make their unique souvenir photos by using this work. At each terminal, participants can photograph only photos of faces and fragments of the background scenery. When they go through all terminals taking a photo on the same paper each time, all fragments are connected so as to complete their original portraits. In addition, those portraits are transmitted to the Internet server, and consequently they become "new faces of the town," going beyond each participant's specific character, to be shown on a huge screen set in downtown Yuda Onsen during the exhibition period every night. Participants can experience via this work the encounters between people and the town as well as people and people at crossovers of space and time.
The Terminal for Pilgrimage web site

SHINCHIKA [JP]
new work, commissioned by YCAM
Tour of ☆ FOOT-SPA Timer
Venue: Yuda foot-bathes hot springs

By up-and-coming artist units, Footbath Project

The Yuda footbath hot springs where many tourists and local residents come and relax are used. What is proposed in this work is a new space for communication through image expressions by using monitors and projections. In this animation film appears an animation character original to "YUDA ART PROJECT" produced by SHINCHIKA. The theme is the relation between "town" and "individual," and the character develops a fictional story navigating the original promotional movie. This animation of a new style blending different types of expression from two-dimensional illustrations to three-dimensional computer graphics will renovate the footbath hot springs.

United Visual Artists [UK]
new work, commissioned by YCAM
Array
Venue: Chuya Nakahara Memorial Museum

The latest work of British artists using the whole outer garden of Chuya Nakahara Memorial Museum.

London-based United Visual Artists (UVA) work primarily with light as their medium. UVA, who are actively working worldwide, have produced a new installation for this exhibition. The whole outer garden of Chuya Nakahara Memorial Museum located in the central part of Yuda hot springs is the setting for the exhibition. The installation is a responsive work utilising elegant pillars of LED light and sound that rely on ultra sonic sensors to detect human presence. A forest like sculptural grid will echo the form of the garden, drawing the audience into the space. Inhabiting the work is an ephemeral spirit that reveals itself unexpectedly and then, like many of its kind disappears as you try to approach it. UVA have attracted attention by their unique image expression and formative design for public installation works such as 'Volume' at the V&A Museum in London and also for their live show design for musicians such as Massive Attack & &U2. This year in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo UVA were commissioned to create the installation 'Contact' for the opening of the UKJP08 programme by The British Council. Their works reflect changes in the audience and the surrounding environment. They show such a high degree of perfection that they are talked about a lot all over the world. UVA have always created innovative trials to challenge the established concepts. This time, there is every reason to expect that they will successfully meet our expectations with their installation in a public space of Chuya Nakahara Memorial Museum.

Installation from Battles Tonto by UVA Photo: John Adrian

Organizer: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Support: Yamaguchi City Board of Education, UK-JAPAN2008
Co-sponcer: Agency for Cultural Affairs
Special Support: British Council
Sponsorship: SHIMADA CORPORATION
Cooperation: Yuda support committee
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]

minimum interface

2008-10-14T15:28:04Z

A look at communication design from the position of the interface
The theme of this exhibition, "the future of the interface," was chosen to reflect the particular cultural diverseness of today's information society. On display are a variety of works from the fields of film, photography, animation, sound, architectural sculpture, product design and others, selected based on the principles of "art + physical expression" as an original discipline pioneered by YCAM. A total of eight artists/units from Japan, America, Netherlands, and Spain present their newest pieces of art and design - including commissioned works - at several points across the venue.

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Connections established through media and the human body

The term "interface" is generally used to refer to a device that a person uses for navigating a computer. The keyboard, for example, connects the user's thoughts with the computer, functioning as a writing tool instead of a pen, but from a different point of view, one can also interpret it as an instrument that expands the abilities of the human body by way of the act of writing. Different ideas and systems are interlinked through the existence of an "inter-face", and the resulting communication makes us aware of new body sensations and images we aren't normally conscious of, while highlighting the connections between body and mind. By approaching the dynamic relationship of the body and its perceptions from the viewpoint of interface-based perceptive affordance, this exhibition aims to showcase the variety of spatial setups effected by the artworks on display. Visitors are invited to experience visually, acoustically and tactually some truly unique ideas for interfaces connecting media technology and the human body.

An exhibition to design the relationship between artworks and audiences

"Minimum Interface" tackles the subject matter with the aim to encourage a redefinition of the relationship between exhibit and audience, and to review the role of an art center. Regarding the navigation plan for the exhibition as a meta-interface for the works on display, the event proposes an original interpretation of the presence and flow of information at the venue from this perspective. The show adopts a unique interface/navigation tool for the entire exhibition space, designed by the partaking members of Leading Edge Design, as an attempt to give visitors an opportunity to discover and unlock new channels of sensation and active conception.

＜Artists＞
Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger, Marcos Alonso
(Music Technology Group,Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain) [Spain]
reacTable
The reacTable has been receiving international attention since it was used on stage during the "Volta" concert tour of the renowned singer Björk. At this exhibition, the instrument is introduced in the form of a hands-on installation that allows visitors to get in touch and play with it. The player of this novel kind of electronic musical instrument can manipulate sounds and its visual representations by moving or turning multiple objects on
an illuminated round tabletop. Sonic and eventually musical structures are created based on the objects' orientation, distance and the relationship between them. The instrument can be played by two or more
persons at once, while the spectators can monitor the other's performance and tangible manipuation of the sound elements, in order to study and acquire performance skills intuitively.

reacTable (2003-2006) photo: Xavier Sivecas

Daan Roosegaarde [Netherlands]
new work (commissioned by YCAM)
Liquid Space 6.0
This organically configured architectural object is slightly bigger that a human body.
When a visitor approaches the object, sensors measure the position and distance from the object, and trigger an expansion or contraction of the three-armed structure, comparable to an underwater creature. In addition, LEDs integrated in the arms emit differently colored lights, while sound coming from the object's body change accordingly. The visitor can observe the transformations of the large object's shape and spatial construction that take place when he approaches or walks through it.

Liquid Space 6.0 by Studio Roosegaarde

Akihiro Kubota [Japan]
new work (commissioned by YCAM)
Pureφ- Abstract Painterly Interface
A dynamic pictorial image is projected onto a large screen as an abstract interface. Without using diagramatic graphical user interfaces (GUI) as symbols or icons, the random dot image that looks like mere noise when motionless is mixtured through optical flows. With this new piece, the artist explores minimal interface affordance by stimulating direct perceptional interaction out of rapidly transforming textures.

LEADING EDGE DESIGN [Japan]
Floating Compass
LEADING EDGE DESIGN have been focusing on future-oriented product design while consciously integrating aspects of human physicality and the way we relate to objects around us. This time the group propose a new interface for the navigation of the entire exhibition space. The display that lacks conventional explanatory elements is expected to unlock new sensual and intellectual channels in the visitor. Also exhibited is a work titled "Floating Compass", based on superhydrophobic technology to convey through a water strider motif the delicate sensation of "touching" a water surface.

Floating Compass (2007)　photo: Yukio Shimizu

Zachary Lieberman, Theodore Watson [USA]
new work (commissioned by YCAM)
Card play
This work is based around an interface in the form of a card game - a magician's tool for catapulting aspects of chance and destiny into the realm of the unreal. The installation invites visitors to become illusionists and perform all kinds of magic tricks. Turning over playing cards switches on music or introduces a story. The American leading program developers and media artists have unveiled another fun piece for people of all ages to enjoy.

SHINCHIKA [Japan]
new work (commissioned by YCAM)
H2Orz
Shinchika extract a variety of designs from Japanese subculture between the 1980s and today, and string them together to unique animated films combining elements of illustration and 3D computer graphics. This time they present a sculptural installation of objects that were plastically modeled after blueprints based on data from their own animations. Here the visuals as such integrate different methods and forms of spatial representation, to form interfaces depicting parts of reality.

JSCO (2008)

Chris Sugrue [USA]
Delicate Boundaries
Small bugs are wriggling on a computer screen. When a visitor touches the screen, the bugs gather at that contact point, jump out of the computer and onto the visitorﾕs hand, and crawl up his arm. The artist employs dexterously programmed sensing technology to explore the boundary that separates/connects virtual existences with physical bodies in the real world.

Delicate Boundaries (2007)

Shunsuke Takawo [Japan]
new version
Depth of the Field - Processing Photography Blink Series
Humans receive visual information while involuntarily opening and shutting their eyelids. This photographic installation works with sensors that were programmed to detect the blinking of a human's eyes, using the eyelid as an interface to manipulate the speed of a sequence of projected photographs. The images are shown on monitors of two different sizes, enabling the visitor to compare how the visual perception and experience of the photographs changes according to varying affordance and the amount of information perceivable on the monitor.

Processing Photography (2008)

Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Co-sponsor：Agency for Cultural Affairs Support: Yamaguchi City, The Board of Education of Yamaguchi City
Produced by: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Graphic Design: good design company
Navigation Design: LEADING EDGE DESIGN
Project Curato: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)