YCAM Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media

YCAM invites media artists from Japan and abroad to produce new pieces of art, and presents these commissioned works at its exhibition facilities. Within the realm of interdisciplinary creative work encompassing art, science and information technology, we put emphasis not only on visual art, but on sound and software art as well. YCAM's "InterLab" department generally co-produces works together with artists, and assists them with program development, research, and the design of hardware and interfaces. The results are then applied and further developed in YCAM's educational programs.

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

Date/Time :

2009-10-01(Thu)-2009-10-25(Sun)10:00-20:00
2009-11-07(Sat)-2009-12-28(Mon)10:00-20:00
2010-01-04(Mon)-2010-06-06(Sun)10:00-20:00

Closed :

Tuesday (the next days if it falls on a holiday) and December 29, 2009 - January 3, 2010
* Please note that this exhibition will be temporarily closed between October 26 (Mon) and November 6 (Fri).

Venue :

Patios /

Admission :

Free

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

Date/Time :

2010-01-24(Sun)-2010-05-09(Sun) 10:00-19:00

Closed :

Tuesdays (the next days if it falls on holiday)

Venue :

Studio B /

Admission :

Free

This interactive artwork that was produced and unveiled at YCAM returns to Yamaguchi from a journey around the world
Up-and-coming female artist's extensive solo show

Seiko Mikami continues to produce works of art that challenge her contemporaries, while critically observing technologies and the ideas behind them with a focus on "information society and the human body" since the 1980s. In connection with the large-scale solo exhibition that opens in March 2010. Also Seiko Mikami and Sota Ichikawa's "gravicells - gravity and resistance" will be shown once again in a revised version.
This work was produced and subsequently unveiled at YCAM in May 2004, from where it embarked on a journey around the world. Celebrated exhibitions at twelve different locations in eight countries, including Tokyo, Berlin and Torino, solidified the piece's reputation as one representative work of media art. This 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 audiences are transformed into the movements of sound and geometrical images through special sensors,.whole space develops or changes in this interactive installation.

Seiko Mikami "Desire of Codes"

Date/Time :

2010-03-20(Sat)-2010-06-06(Sun)10:00-19:00

Closed :

Tuesdays (the next days if it falls on holiday)

Venue :

Studio A / Studio B / Foyer /

Admission :

Free

The desire of encoding vs. the human body's refusal of being coded

Seiko Mikami creates precise depictions of the gradually transforming relationship between information technology and sensory perception in artworks focusing from unique perspectives on the human body and its forms of existence. This retrospective overview of her activities is a large-scale solo exhibition centering around a new installation piece (commissioned by and created at YCAM), shown here along with two related new works.

Reference photo: Seiko MIkami new installation "Desire of Codes" (commisioned YCAM) test image

The new piece titled "Desire of Codes", exhibited at YCAM's Studio A with 3 different pieces. One is consists of a wall installation of objects responding to the movements of audiences (see photo), "laser projector" was equipped with 6 robot arms are follow the movement of the audience from the ceiling and special 3.5m screen that resembles an insect's multifaceted eye. The entire inorganic apparatus begins to move like a wriggling living being according to the motion detected by built-in small surveillance camera in the exhibition space. The images recorded by these cameras are mixed with footage from surveillance cameras installed at places around the world. Create own database of audience's images the resulting fragmentary recombinations of time and space are projected onto a large insect eyes compound screen.
The central theme of this exhibition is the state of a society in which programming languages, genetic codes, personal information, and even matters of individual interest and taste are being converted into codes. Audience who experience this artwork stands face to face with his or her own observed and encoded existence, the resulting data/codes, and ultimately, the repercussions of "the body as data" and "the desire of codes." By turning the audiences bodies into both the objects of observation and artistic expression, this work aims to redefine our position in a time when all kinds of environments - including those of everyday life - are increasingly being information oriented society.
*Details will be announced in early February.