YCAM Portal

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)

"HAROLD AND MAUDE"

2010-08-13T06:59:34Z

HAROLD AND MAUDE
1971／America／92min
Directed by Hal Ashby
Cast:Bud Cort

"BREWSTER McCLOUD"

2010-08-13T06:49:36Z

BREWSTER McCLOUD
1970／America／104min
Directed by Robert Altman
Cast:Bud Cort

"Le pére de mes enfants"

2010-08-13T06:29:24Z

Le pére de mes enfants
2009／France／110min
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Cast:Chiara Caselli

"LA VIE MODERNE"

2010-08-13T06:19:54Z

LA VIE MODERNE
2008／France／90min
Directed by Raymond Depardon

"THE NEW RIJKSMUSEUM"

2010-08-13T04:25:49Z

THE NEW RIJKSMUSEUM
2008／Holland／117min／DV-CAM
Directed by：Oeke Hoogendijk

"Yakusoku"

2010-07-13T06:10:41Z

1972／88min
Directed by Koichi Saito
Cast:Keiko Kishi,Kenichi Hagiwara

"Hachigatsu no nureta suna"

2010-07-13T06:01:53Z

1971／91min／NIKKATSU
Directed by Toshiya Fujita
Cast:Takenori murano

"Meguriai"

2010-07-13T05:55:01Z

1968／91min／TOHO
Directed by Hideo Onchi
Cast:Toshio Kurosawa、 Wakako Sakai

"Kenka ereji"

2010-07-13T05:44:54Z

1966／86min／NIKKATSU
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Cast:Hideki Takahashi

"Kawa no sokokara konnichiha"

2010-06-14T11:25:58Z

2009／Japan／112min
Directed by Yuya Ishii
Cast:Hikari Mitsushima

Manatsu no yoru no hoshizora jyoeikai"Nonchan Noriben"

2010-06-14T11:22:45Z

2009／Japan／107min／ＤＶＤ
Directed by Akira Ogata
Cast：Manami Konishi

Manatsu no yoru no hoshizora jyoeikai"The Longest Yard"

2010-06-14T11:19:06Z

The Longest Yard
1974／America／121min／ＤＶＤ
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Cast:Burt Reynolds

Manatsu no yoru no hoshizora jyoeikai"Blue Hawaii"

2010-06-14T11:14:31Z

Blue Hawaii
1961／America／101min／ＤＶＤ
Directed by Norman Taurog
Cast:Elvis Presley

Manatsu no yoru no hoshizora jyoeikai"Chocolate Underground"

2010-06-14T11:05:04Z

Chocolate Underground
2009／Japan／87min／Anime／ＤＶＤ
Directed by Takayuki Hamana

"Yuki and Nina"

2010-06-14T10:53:27Z

Yuki and Nina
2009／France・Japan／93min
Directed by：Nobuhiro Suwa,Hippolyte Girardot
Cast：Noe Sampy

Gallery Tour - Seiko Mikami "Desire of Codes"

2010-04-18T14:10:55Z

Free gallery tour appreciating works with expert staff
Through the tours, participants will discover together with YCAM educational staff, most attractive features of the exhibition.

＊Application: Please visit YCAM 1F Ticket Information prior to each tour

meet the artist 2010 Lecture "Make Your Own Media"

2010-04-17T14:00:15Z

Artist lecture "Make Your Own Media"
Workshop leader Hikaru Fujii will hold a lecture to introduce his previous activities, and explain the purpose and planned schedule of this workshop, with the ultimate aim to encourage visitors to apply for participation.

"Kongara Camera" Tangled Views Workshop

2010-04-16T14:10:09Z

This workshop is designed to provide an experience of how a variety of different viewpoints are being generated through media. Participants repeatedly record and watch each other's video images filmed with cameras strapped to their bodies. Through the experience of understanding the world not from an objective unitary point of view, but based on multiple video footage and their mutual relationships, the workshop discusses issues of memory and observation in a computerized society.

]]> How to apply

Please Send email entitled "Kongara Camera: Application to workshop" with ) Expected date of workshop
ii) Name in full
iii) Address; with telephone number, e-mail address.
iv) Date of Birth Year Month. Day.

7-7 Nakazono-cho, Yamaguchi, 753-0075 JAPAN
Attn: educational staff
TEL: +81-83-901-2222/FAX: +81-83-901-2216
e-mail: workshop10@ycam.jp

"YCAM media kitchen - annual lecture series" vol.1

2010-04-16T14:08:54Z

A host of experts from various fields gathering at YCAM!
Lecture series locating the position of media (art) in daily life
Experts from various fields hold lectures on the connection between our daily routine and media art. While discussing the topics included in YCAM's own mission of "charting new territories in art, media and physical expression" on a level of everyday issues, they will explore the possibilities and prospects of media art. This particular kitchen cooks with media that connect YCAM with its visitors, and serves menus of innovative ideas. A total of three lectures will inspire visitors to discover how to double the fun one can have with the artworks on display here.

]]> Hands-on studies of contemporary "media" from commonplace perspectives Discover new values that add color to daily routine

YCAM organizes a variety of programs designed to guide visitors who "never had to do with" but "wish to know more about" new forms of artistic expression using media technology to proper ways of enjoying shows and displays at the Center. This lecture series zooms in on areas in the broad field of "media art" - at once a central theme of our work at YCAM - with a closer connection to real life.
Against the backdrop of increasingly diversified media, and the transformations in society and communication they bring along, it will become more and more elemental for the user to explore methods of making creative use of technologies and tools based on a profound understanding of their mechanisms. YCAM Media Kitchen proposes a new lecture format that approaches media from commonplace topics, and conveys knowledge through practical experience. Departing from subjects like food, clothing and living environments, each of these lectures by distinguished artists and specialized professionals is going to stimulate curiosity with a discussion of media technology as an extension of daily life, highlighting means and functions of informatization as a hidden part of the everyday. The events will be occasions to learn about the skills of applying and utilizing information that are necessary for life in the present age, and discover by way of the unique views of experts new concepts of values.
Even for visitors less familiar with the term "media", the discussion based on such everyday life subjects as dressing, eating and living will be a useful introduction to technologies and tools in information society from an unusual perspective. The dishes prepared in this kitchen range from new ideas to media connecting YCAM and the visitor, who will encounter in these lectures new values that add color to daily routine.

Lecturer at the first installment is food designer Haruna Nakayama, who will talk about the relationship between "food" and "algorithms".

(c) .automeal （BankART1929, 2006）

Haruna Nakayama "QR Cake"（2009）

"YCAM Summer Exploration Tour"

2010-04-16T14:07:15Z

Witness the future of art centers in the full gamut of YCAM's production and promotion work

This special summer holiday event takes visitors behind the scenes of YCAM's facilities, and showcases the backstage work of staff members producing exhibitions and stage performances. Sound and lighting specialists introduce the aims and functions of YCAM, and cultivate future audiences by allowing those interested to take a peek at what normally happens behind closed doors at an art center.

Gallery TourFujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani "CLOUD FOREST"

2010-04-16T14:07:00Z

Gallery Tour
Through the tours, participants will discover together with YCAM educational staff, most attractive features of the exhibition.
August 15 (sun), 28 (sat), 29(sun)
September 4 (sat), 5 (sun), 11 (sat), 12 (sun) 18 (sat), 19(sun), 25 (sat), 26 (sun)
October 9 (sat), 10 (sun), 16 (sat), 17 (sun)
14:00-15:00
* Application: Please visit YCAM 1F Ticket Information prior to each tour

"Surround Garden - Body and Sound in Resonance"

2010-04-16T14:06:58Z

Lend your ear and bend your body: A sound and dance workshop with Tsuyoshi Shirai

Part of the "Walking around surround" series of workshops conceived and conducted at YCAM, this event is designed as an opportunity to experience forms of body expression with choreographer/dancer Tsuyoshi Shirai. Participants will be invited to try and move their bodies according to their own image of sound and how it spreads before it reaches the human body. Tsuyoshi Shirai, an internationally renowned dancer many children in Japan know from NHK's educational TV program, hosts this special summer holiday program with the aim to explore the relationship between sound and body expression based on an understanding of the mechanisms of sound, and how it is translated it into movements and transformations of the body.

* The workshop closes on 8/22 (Sun) with a demonstration by Tsuyoshi Shirai, and a presentation of participants' works. This event is open to the general public (17:00-17:50).

Related event (Hiroaki Umeda performance): Back Stage Tour

2010-04-16T14:06:50Z

This regularly organized backstage tour enjoys great popularity as an on-the-scene showcase of current resident creators' work at YCAM. Participants can witness the realization process of a new production, and learn about the mechanisms of lighting and sound behind the scenes.

"YCAM media kitchen - annual lecture series" vol.2

2010-04-16T14:05:45Z

Hands-on studies of contemporary "media" from commonplace perspectives Discover new values that add color to daily routine

YCAM organizes a variety of programs designed to guide visitors who "never had to do with" but "wish to know more about" new forms of artistic expression using media technology to proper ways of enjoying shows and displays at the Center. This lecture series zooms in on areas in the broad field of "media art" - at once a central theme of our work at YCAM - with a closer connection to real life.

]]>
Against the backdrop of increasingly diversified media, and the transformations in society and communication they bring along, it will become more and more elemental for the user to explore methods of making creative use of technologies and tools based on a profound understanding of their mechanisms. YCAM Media Kitchen proposes a new lecture format that approaches media from commonplace topics, and conveys knowledge through practical experience. Departing from subjects like food, clothing and living environments, each of these lectures by distinguished artists and specialized professionals is going to stimulate curiosity with a discussion of media technology as an extension of daily life, highlighting means and functions of informatization as a hidden part of the everyday. The events will be occasions to learn about the skills of applying and utilizing information that are necessary for life in the present age, and discover by way of the unique views of experts new concepts of values.
Even for visitors less familiar with the term "media", the discussion based on such everyday life subjects as dressing, eating and living will be a useful introduction to technologies and tools in information society from an unusual perspective. The dishes prepared in this kitchen range from new ideas to media connecting YCAM and the visitor, who will encounter in these lectures new values that add color to daily routine.
English-speaking participants are welcome to the workshop. e-mail: workshop10@ycam.jp for more information.

Related event (Hiroaki Umeda performance): Workshop

2010-04-16T14:05:05Z

This workshop is designed as an experience of body expression utilizing technologies that artists experiment with during their residencies at the Center. The practice of pieces that are similar in contents to newly conceived stage productions helps participants familiarize with YCAM's technology development, and gain a better understanding of the purposes and concepts behind artists' works.

meet the artist 2010 "Create your own media"

2010-04-15T14:09:07Z

Yearlong workshop to set up a visual-based civic network in Yamaguchi

In the "meet the artist" workshop series, co-called "collaborators" - artists and citizens selected from applications from the general public - work together on the realization of one specific project for the period of one year. Through such long-term collaboration, participants and artists share a creative process, and together formulate profound concepts that emerge from the various ideas and backgrounds involved in the course of their collective work. Instructor for this year's fifth installment is Hikaru Fujii, an artist who has been confronting people's thoughts on social discrepancies and political issues through the medium of film. "Filmic expression" will at once be the central theme that participants in this workshop are going to approach by the methods of documentary. The popularization of personal computers, digital cameras, cell phones and other electronic devices has made video a familiar and casually usable tool for us today. Both citizens and artists will take advantage of this long-term workshop project, to explore the possibilities in the realm of film that these conditions have made accessible.

* Initial project members are recruited between April 1st and May 1st, however applications for later participation will still be accepted after this period.

meet the artist 2010 Final presentation

2010-04-15T06:13:48Z

The instructor and his "collaborators" present the results of their yearlong collaboration. A detailed outline of this event will be discussed and finally determined in the process of the workshop.

Gallery Tour - "gravicells - gravity and resistance"

2010-01-11T00:34:19Z

Free gallery tour appreciating works with expert staff
Through the tours, participants will discover together with YCAM educational staff, most attractive features of the exhibition.

Gallery Tour - Semitra Exhibition "tFont/fTime"

2009-12-28T02:53:58Z

Gallery tour appreciating works while discussing with YCAM educational staff.

Workshop "typo DJ"

2009-11-15T09:49:11Z

Be a DJ and play with "imagery & music" using DVJ system where you can edit sound as well as images.
Learning basic deejaying techniques and spinning records rounds off
the visitor's experience of a new design idea involving time and audiovisual elements.

HIFANA
Duo comprised of Keizo and Juicy, formed in 1998.
Known for highly original live performances centering around rhythms
created with electronic musical devices, percussion instruments and
turntables (scratching).
"Hifana" is a native Okinawan word for "southern wind".

IZPON
Percussionist / producer.
Known as the basist and producer of a garage band "The Flamenco A Go Go" where they established international reputations. Afterwards lived in Cuba for 5 years to learn Bata Drum with one of the most important Bata player, Angel Bolaños. Currently involved in various band activities as well as music projects as a producer.

Demonstrative PerformanceFujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani "CLOUD FOREST"

2010-04-14T15:15:13Z

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.

Demonstrative Performance
August 7 (sat) 19:00-20:00
Venue: Foyer, Patios Admission free
Performance: Fujiko Nakaya, Shiro Takatani, softpad (Takuya Minami, Tomohiro Ueshiba, Hiroshi Toyama)

"polar II" Opening sound performance

2010-04-14T15:15:12Z

The exhibiting artists, Carsten Nicolai and Marko Peljhan will appear together in a live sound performance.

Opening sound live "fmtm"

2010-04-10T02:28:00Z

* Please note that the exhibition of "MTM" in the Foyer will be close on the following opening events: 20th of March from 18:00 till 19:00 and 21st of March from 13:00 till 16:30.

sound tectonics #7 "ATAK NIGHT 4"

2009-03-26T11:39:32Z

Artist change "ATAK NIGHT 4"
Due to member Mika Vainio's sudden illness, Pan sonic, who were scheduled to appear at the "ATAK NIGHT 4" event on April 29 (Wed/holiday), were forced to cancel their Japan tour.
We apologize sincerely for the inconvenience to all those who have been looking forward to Pan sonic's performance in particular, as well as to the members of the press and other related individuals and institutions.

As a substitute for Pan sonic, Ryoji Ikeda confirmed his appearance at the event.

For more information on tickets and refunds, please contact the Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion ticket counter (at YCAM): TEL +81-83-920-6111

We are looking forward to seeing you at YCAM.

ATAK NIGHT 4 - Top sound artists touring the world
A group of renowned artists stop over at YCAM to challenge the Center's top-notch sound and video facilities.

This is the seventh installment of "sound tectonics", a series of concerts of sound art created using media technology, designed top quality of the world-class sound and video technical facilities of YCAM. Artists this time are Keiichiro Shibuya, who returns to Yamaguchi after touring Europe with the ATAK Night 4, as well as New York-based legendary sound artist Yasunao Tone, who makes his belated YCAM debut. Completing the lineup are Finnish duo Pan sonic, and Japanese artist Evala. Look forward to a festival of sharp-pointed audio-visual expression as it is possible only in the high-quality sound environment of YCAM.

]]> ATAK NIGHT 4
Four highly original sound artists come to put YCAM's high-quality acoustic facilities to a test in a sensational joint live performance.

After finishing a celebrated tour around Italy, Germany, Switzerland and France, the ATAK Night 4 live concert lands at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]. Four world-renowned artists gather at YCAM, a reputed stage for the production and presentation of novel forms of electronic music and outstanding sound art.
The event's main attraction is the appearance of Yasunao Tone, a Japanese artist who moved to New York in the '70s, and keeps operating in the forefront of experimental music even now that he is in his 70s. Also appearing is the Berlin resident Finnish duo Pan sonic, a leading name in cutting-edge electronic music for over a decade, and ATAK members Keiichiro Shibuya and Evala, both of whom created and unveiled the sound installation piece filmachine at YCAM in 2006, before presenting it in Berlin two years later.

YCAM has been showcasing electronic music made with computers and other devices, reproduced in the highest possible sound quality thanks to the Center's cutting-edge technology and top-notch acoustic environment. Making use of the construction's architectural characteristics, these events are realized with the help of a technical team of experts specializing in the synchronization of acoustic and optical images. Only at this YCAM date of the ATAK Night 4 tour, the audience will be surrounded by an elliptical 8-channel setup that allows for detailed reproduction of computer-generated sounds. Enjoy this long-awaited performance of the celebrated "ATAK Night 4", staged by outstanding sound artists together with YCAM.

YCAM Concert Series "sound tectonics"
Sound art as a manifestation of originality: a station on YCAM's pursuit of new expression and technique

Since its opening, 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 acoustically temporal and spatial qualities that haven't previously existed in art. It has been our mission to explore possible new forms of artistic expression that emerge when reevaluating the human senses of vision, hearing and touch on an equal basis.

Organized by Keiichiro Shibuya (ATAK)
Co-sponsor: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Support: Yamaguchi City, The Board of Education of Yamaguchi City
Produced by ATAK, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media[YCAM]

ENSEMBLES closing live "Networks"

2008-06-13T04:12:33Z

1st set
Choi Joon-Yong(opened cdplayer/Seoul), Hong Chulki(turntable/Seoul), Jin Sangtae(hard-disk drives, laptop/Seoul), Otomo Yoshihide(turntable/Tokyo)

2nd set
Yamamoto Seiichi + Otomo Yoshihide Project

3rd set
FEN [Yuen Chee Wai(laptop, piano/Singapore), Ryu Hankil(inside clock/Seoul), Yan Jun(laptop, voice/Beijing), Otomo Yoshihide(guitar, turntable/Tokyo)], Yamamoto Seiichi(guitar/Kyoto)
]]>

［Organizer］ Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
［Support］ Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education, UK-JAPAN2008
［Co -sponsor］ Asahi Beer Arts Foundation, The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences, the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2008
［Cooperation］ sendai mediatheque, CALLITHUMP
［Special Thanks］ NHK ENTERPRISES, OFFICE SHIROUS
［Sponsorship］ Acoustic Technical Laboratory, Meyer Sound Laboratories Inc.
［Produced by］ Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)
［Technical Support］ YCAM InterLab
［Project Curator］ Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

orchestras opening live "Musics"

2008-06-13T04:02:58Z

1st set: OTOMORCHESTRA

The first set is a session in which participating musicians perform pieces of music simultaneously in many different places in the building of YCAM. Elementary school children and junior high school students participating in the sound workshop join this performance.

Performers: ONJO, Takamine Tadasu, Ameya Norimizu, sound workshop participants, Oto-asobi-no-kai, rewall, Ogawa Kimiyo, Watanabe Hideki, Makino Takuma, Mohri Yuko, Gosho Junko, Yuasa Manabu,
Matsushima Tamasaburo, and many others

2nd set: ONJO(otomo yoshihide's new jazz orchestra)

In the second set, musicians give competitive performances in an installation of scrap materials in Studio A.

2nd set: ONJO(otomo yoshihide's new jazz orchestra)
Performers: ONJO [Otomo Yoshihide(g, perc, tt), Kahimi Karie(vo), Okura Masahiko(as, bcl, tubes), Aoki Taisei(tb, flute), Ishikawa Ko(shou), Sachiko M(sinewaves), Unami Taku(computer with objects), Takara Kumiko(vib), Mizutani Hiroaki(b), Yoshigaki Yasuhiro(ds, tp), Kondoh Yoshiaki(live sound engineering)], Ameya Norimizu(noise), UNO-MAN(tentekomai）etc

]]> ［Organizer］ Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
［Support］ Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education, UK-JAPAN2008
［Co -sponsor］ Asahi Beer Arts Foundation, The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences, the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2008
［Cooperation］ sendai mediatheque, CALLITHUMP
［Special Thanks］ NHK ENTERPRISES, OFFICE SHIROUS
［Sponsorship］ Acoustic Technical Laboratory, Meyer Sound Laboratories Inc.
［Produced by］ Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)
［Technical Support］ YCAM InterLab
［Project Curator］ Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

ENSEMBLES opening live "Songs"

2008-06-13T03:15:04Z

1st set:    Kahimi Karie's Invisible Songs
2nd set:    without songs
3rd set:    Otomo Yoshihide's Invisible Songs ]]>

［Organizer］ Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
［Support］ Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education, UK-JAPAN2008
［Co-sponsor］ Asahi Beer Arts Foundation, The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences, the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2008
［Cooperation］ sendai mediatheque, CALLITHUMP
［Special Thanks］ NHK ENTERPRISES, OFFICE SHIROUS
［Sponsorship］ Acoustic Technical Laboratory, Meyer Sound Laboratories Inc.
［Produced by］ Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)
［Technical Support］ YCAM InterLab
［Project Curator］ Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

Ryoji Ikeda audiovisual concert "datamatics［ver.2.0］

2008-01-09T06:17:04Z

Ryoji Ikeda's project datamatics is an art project that explores the potentials to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world.

datamatics [ver 2.0] is the new, fullﾐlength version of Ryoji Ikeda's acclaimed audiovisual concert. Ikeda has significantly developed the earlier version of this piece (premiered in March 2006), adding a newly commissioned second part.

Driven by the primary principles of datamatics, but objectively deconstructing its original elements - sound, visuals and even source codes - this new work creates a kind of meta-datamatics. Ikeda employs real-time programme computations and data scanning to create an extended new sequence that is a further abstraction of the original work.

The technical dynamics of the piece, such as its extremely fast frame rates and variable bit depths, continue to challenge and explore the thresholds of our perceptions.

"datamatics [prototype] showed Ikeda at the height of his powers, building on his own unique and unmistakable artistic language." -The Wire, 2006

MOVIE
extracted from datamatics [ver.1.0] © Ryoji Ikeda 2006-08

concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, programming: Shohei Matsukawa, Daisuke Tsunoda, Norimichi Hirakawa, Tomonaga Tokuyama
co-commissioned by AV Festival 06, ZeroOne San Jose & ISEA 2006
produced by Forma
co-produced by Les Spectacles Vivants-Centre Pompidou and YCAM
supported by Recombinant Media Labs

YCAM performance lounge #2 / Rogues' Gallery Gasoline Music & Cruising in Yamaguchi

2007-10-26T02:51:12Z

You can drive through familiar sights in town while time is felt alive with realistic soundsÑüthe scenery seen from a car window with sound effects of the engine, turn signal, etc.

]]> Citroen XM-X is used, and only two people can experience this drive at a time. Participants experience the drive looking at the scenery in town with not only eyes and ears but also the whole body, along the driving route selected from the artist's point of view.

Please enjoy the art of "space" and "time" as well as the possibility of performing art away from the theater space in YCAM's second Performance Lounge in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Official website: Rogues' Gallery

● Demonstration + Passenger registration
Saturday, December 1, 2007; 17:00~17:30
Venue: Near by the parking lot entrance

"Gasoline Music & Cruising" is demonstrated.
Everyone who is interested in "Gasoline Music and Cruising" and those who want to board the car are invited to attend.
Note: If there are more boarding applicants than the capacity, they are selected by drawing lots.

● Gasoline Music & Cruising in Yamaguchi
December 8 (Sat.) ~ December 16 (Sun.), 2007
(Closed one day during this period)

Admission: Free

The drive is conducted eight times all together.
(One drive per day: the number of participants is up to two each day.)
The drive is conducted approximately for one hour in the evening.
Each participant will be informed of the details of the drive after participants are decided.
Note: Participants of junior high school students and under must be accompanied by their guardians.

● You are invited to send in information on attractive driving routes in Yamaguchi!
Application period: November 1 (Thurs.) ~ December 6 (Thurs.), 2007

Roguesﾕ Gallery office in YCAM
http://rogues.ycam.jp/ (available from November 1)
You are invited to introduce attractive driving routes and spots in Yamaguchi, online or at Roguesﾕ Gallery office in YCAM.

Please send us information about attractive driving spots for the night that you would recommend among familiar sights, such as a night view with bright lights of a shopping center seen from a highway, or a hill where night view is beautiful. Roguesﾕ Gallery will produce Yamaguchiﾕs original driving routes referring to your information.

Note:
_Your information is used only as a good guide to Roguesﾕ Gallery works, and will not be open to the public.
_We might make a request that you accompany Roguesﾕ Gallery to visit a specific spot to make a preliminary inspection some day from December 1st to sixth. In that case, we will inform you directly.
_Your personal information is not used for the purpose other than Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion and this project of Roguesﾕ Gallery.

*YCAM Performance Lounge
This series introduces artists who are searching for potentials of new performing art. You can enjoy a great line-up of artists trying to communicate ﾒthe presentﾓ through a good command of different ways of expression, including theater and dance.

opening event "Corpora in Si(gh)te" laptop sound concert

2007-09-24T12:58:30Z

laptop sound concert
]]> Ticket information

Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion (in YCAM):083-920-6111

The ticket booking system is available only in Japanese. To use the online ticket booking service, membership registration (free of charge) is required. To register online membership and book ticket(s), please click here.(only in Japanese)
At the window / by phone (only in Japanese)
Ticket information, Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion (in YCAM)
Tel: 083-920-6111
(Office hours: 10:00 - 19:00 / Closed on Tuesday, or the following day in case of holiday)

Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Support: Embassy of Switzerland, Embassy of the Republic of Hungary in Tokyo, Yamaguchi City, The Board of Education of Yamaguchi City
Special Cooperation: University of the Arts Zurich (ZHdK), Department Interaction Design, Zurich Switzerland, Nextlab, Budapest Hungary
Cooperation: The Asahi Shimbun
Produced by: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)
Co-production: YCAM InterLab
Project Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

サン・ラ・アーケストラ / 太陽が招く宇宙のドラマ

2007-09-04T15:06:27Z

JAZZから実験音楽まで、世界のあらゆる音楽シーンから多大なリスペクトを浴びているサン・ラー・アーケストラ。サン・ラー存命中に制作された秘蔵映像とともについにYCAM来演。

サン・ラー・アーケストラのリーダー、マーシャル・アレンと、ギタリストR.E.マホニー、映像作家ジェームズ・ハラーが繰り広げる映像×音楽によるスペシャルプログラム。太陽系と深い宇宙の闇を突き抜けてたどり着いた美しい旅が、ついにYCAMに舞い降ります。

]]>
今回の公演は、ジェームズ・ハラーが作り出したミステリアスな映像が、マーシャル×R.E.マホニーによる即興演奏にジョイント。ネイティブアメリカンの彼の本名は、現地の言葉でライジング・サンの意味を持ち、ジェームズとマーシャルの出会いは運命に導かれた出会いともいえるでしょう。さらに今回は、60年代末〜70年代前半にアーケストラが遊び心たっぷりに撮影し撮りためていた日本未公開フィルムの上映も敢行!公演時間中ひと時も目を離す事のできない注目のプログラム。しかもスペシャルゲストは山本精一(BOREDOMS、ROVO)という豪華ナイトです。

"YCAM Foyer Concert" by Tokyo Metroporitan Brass Quintet

2007-08-01T08:39:29Z

*This event also will be held from 16:00 on the same day.

"Street Concert" by Tokyo Metroporitan Brass Quintet

Venue : Front of Chimakiya Department Store
Admission : Free

Organization : Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion

Tsuyoshi Shiraishi + YCAM video dance project"Choreography filmed: 5 days of movement"

2010-08-24T02:51:57Z

Original video piece co-produced by YCAM
Exploring relevant possibilities of "video and the human body" through live Internet streaming

Continuing our pursuit of new forms of artistic expression focusing on body expression and current film culture, the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] is currently producing the second video (dance) piece since the Center's opening.
Based on the idea behind one of choreographer/dancer Tsuyoshi Shirai's most well-known dance pieces, "mass, slide, &." (first staged in 2004), this project is an attempt to reconstruct the piece into a video in a collaborative process with the YCAM staff and the artist. The half-year-long project includes five days of filming and Internet streaming of all footage, and will culminate in a screening event with the artist, scheduled for January 2011. The idea is to pursue new forms of dance/video expression that emerge in the process from production to presentation from video images of the body, and from the choreographic component in the visual composition. In addition, the project's outline embraces technical aspects of filming and editing, as well as audio-visual environments including issues of distribution and access, with the aim to a examine the relationship between video and dance in the present age.

* The progression of the entire project can be followed via a special website (http://c-filmed.ycam.jp/) that is now open.

Filming & Internet live streaming:
August 24 (Tue) - 28 (Sat) 13:00-20:00
http://c-filmed.ycam.jp/
Performance: Tsuyoshi Shirai(choreographer/dancer)
* Please understand that we might not be able to respond to inquiries on Tuesday, August 24, as YCAM is closed that day.
Screening of a new video piece:
January 23 (Sun) 14:00
Venue: YCAM, Studio C
Guest: Tsuyoshi Shirai Admission free

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Tsuyoshi Shiraishi + YCAM video dance project
"Choreography filmed: 5days of movement" test scene (2010)

Tsuyoshi Shiraishi + YCAM video dance project
"Choreography filmed: 5 days of movement"
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] residency video production & screening

In this project, YCAM and choreographer/dancer Tsuyoshi Shirai examine aspects of movement and choreography in video film, and explore relevant possibilities of "film and the human body".
Over the period of five days, Shirai's dance is filmed, broadcast live, and subsequently edited (choreographed) as a video piece, whereas the (edited) video itself weighs just as heavy as the question how the viewer experiences it. This project was designed as an opportunity to explore the meaning of producing a video/dance piece, and of the discussion itself of the relationship between dance and video.

"A Tribute to Pina Bausch - The World of Dance in Word and Image"

2010-04-15T03:17:45Z

Special event illustrating the history and fascination of dance in conversations and rare footage of Pina Bausch

This special program consists of three documentary films and a talk event recapitulating the achievements of the world-renowned choreographer who suddenly passed away in June 2009. In various rare footage, and a conversation with her former manager and supporter for 16 years, the event portrays a unique artist whose continuous impact exceeded by far the boundaries of dance, theatre and art, since the 1970s, and even after her death. While looking back on the transition of performing arts from modern to contemporary, visitors will be invited to surrender to the irresistible charm of Pina Bausch as a choreographer and as a person, and explore the possibilities of the human body as captured on video.

]]> [Screening title]
"Auf der Suche nach Tanz"
1991 / Director: パトリツィア・コルブード / 29min / DVD
※ドイツ語音声（音声ガイドによる日本語通訳）translation: Ayako Kuwabara

"One Day Pina Bausch has asked"
1983 / Director: シャンテル・アカーマン / オリジナル58分の抜粋版／DVD
※ドイツ語音声（音声ガイドによる日本語通訳）translation: Ayako Kuwabara

"Pina Bausch"
2006/ Director: アンネ・リンゼル / オリジナル43分の抜粋版／DVD
※ドイツ語音声（音声ガイドによる日本語通訳） translation: Akiko Yamashita

applications and inquiries:
Please Send email entitled "A Tribute to Pina Bausch: Application" with i) Name in full
ii) Address; with telephone number, e-mail address.
deadline: April 11 (sun)

7-7 Nakazono-cho, Yamaguchi, 753-0075 JAPAN
Attn: Performing arts staff "A Tribute to Pina Bausch"
TEL: +81-83-901-2222/FAX: +81-83-901-2216
e-mail: pina@ycam.jp

Related event
"ELA NAVE VA"（1983 / Director: Federico Ferrini / 127min / DVD）
April 18 (sun)13:30, April 19 (mun)14:00
Venue: Studio C Admission free

YCAM Performance Lounge #5 faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock"+ contact Gonzo's Performance

2010-04-14T13:39:40Z
"YCAM Performance Lounge" is a series of events designed to convey the fun and fascination of a stage production, allowing the audience to experience dancers and actors up close. Held every year in the spring, the program aims at once to function as a stimulator encouraging people to come back and watch dance and theatre performances at YCAM, and to communicate in a direct manner the power of an up-and-coming new type of physical expression. As an additional gateway enhancing the enjoyment of performing arts, a temporary café invites visitors to exchange with the artists after the performances.
(faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock": Performed in Japanese with English supertitles. )

]]> Theatre company "faifai"

faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock" (2010, Tokyo) photo: Kazuya Kato

The company consists of members from various backgrounds and nationalities, most of them in their late 20s. Filling each of their shows with lots of ideas borrowed from the fields of dance, video, music, party and even catering, faifai operate far outside the ready-made concept of theatre, and always make sure to offer their audiences an explosive mixture of fun and amazement.
Generally performed in a freely experimenting manner, their portraits of multilayered identities using cell phones or blogs, and cool parodies of mass consumer society, result from the members' sharp observations of contemporary society. Looking at reality from a unique standpoint, faifai focus on the positive side of things, and suggest through their works to simply enjoy each moment in life. This approach reflects intensely the body sensation and sprachgefuhl of this new generation of artists that are gaining popularity among a broad audience in the realm of theatre and beyond.

Performance group "contact Gonzo"

contact Gonzo photo: Toda Yoichi

Based on "contact improvisation", an improvisational dance method focusing on the direct mutual transfer of body weight and power through body contact, the group has developed an original style incorporating forms of "contact" known from the realm of martial arts, such as punching, kicking, timing and defense. The group's sudden appearances at museums and public spaces that are securely maintained for whatever purpose cause instant transformations of the respective setting, that stimulate the senses of those who witness these performances. The four artists' almost excessive looking bodily encounters propose a new form of communication that reactivates our senses as we are entombed in the safe and sound environments of daily life.
The show this time features special guest Tetsuya Umeda, an artist known for sound installations and live concerts utilizing objects found in his direct environment.

performance piece　faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock"
The fantastic melodrama situated in an after-school daycare center generated a strong response. When it was first shown in Japan two years ago. The play now comes back in a longer remastered version!
Children's interests never meet adults'convenience, but they meet at Y o'clock.

faifai "A Story of R O'Clock" (2007) photo: kazuya Kato

A Story of R O'Clock, a fantastic melodrama set in a daycare center that generated a strong response when first staged in 2007, returns in a longer, upgraded version. The piece incorporates elements of puppet theatre, anime, computer games and other formats, to illustrate an entanglement of childlike worlds and adult rules. The contrast of a child's half-dreamed, half-imagined reality, and the adult sphere surrounding it, will refresh every grown-up viewer's childhood memories, while arrangements and gimmicks that everyone of us has surely dreamt up once or twice make this performance highly enjoyable for young and old alike.
(Performed in Japanese with English supertitles. )

"Performance + Theatre + Cafe"
The fascination of performing arts condensed in an annual spectacle!
Prior to the opening of the "faifai" performance group's latest production, A Story of Y O'Clock, there will be a performance by Contact Gonzo. In addition, the "After Hour Cafe" that opens temporarily after the show at the same venue provides visitors with a place to meet and exchange views with each other and the performers. The Cafe will also host special events for the ultimate one-day experience of performing arts and all the fun around.
Special events this time will be a laptop live performance by Shuta Hasunuma, who is responsible for the music in A Story of Y O'Clock (on 5/15), and "Let's play with faifai!", an occasion to join the faifai members and play around with the various stage props used in their performance (on 5/16).

Schedule

May 15 (sat)
18:30 start
contact Gonzo's performance
Venue: Hoyer etc Admission free
↓
19:00 start
faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock"
Venue: Studio B * Entry with performance ticket
↓
play through
"After Hour Cafe"
Venue: in front of Studio B * Separate ticket required
Special event
laptop live performance by Shuta Hasunuma

Close　16:30

May 16 (sun)
13:30 start
contact Gonzo's performance
Venue: Hoyer etc Admission free
↓
14:00 start
faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock"
Venue: Studio B * Entry with performance ticket
↓
play through
"After Hour Cafe"
Venue: in front of Studio B * Separate ticket required
Special event
"Let's play with faifai!" by faifai members

Close　16:30

faifai "A Story of Y O'Clock"
Text: Yoko Kitagawa
Direction: Chiharu Shinoda
Cast: Mai Nakabayashi, Kouji Yamamoto, Yasushi Takeda, Shiro Amano
Stage management: Megumi Sato
Stage design: Ayami Sasaki
Lighting / Object design: Goh Ueda
Video: Shiro Amano, Ayami Sasaki
Sound: Daisuke Hoshino
Music: Shuta Hasunuma
Costume / Puppet design: Kyoko Fujitani
Diorama：Yui Yamamoto
Flyer design: Kensaku Kato (TOKYO PISTOL)
Photo: Kazuya Kato
Character design: Naoko Shinpou
Managed by: Mihoko Kawamura
Special thanks to: HEADZ

contact Gonzo's performance
Cast: Yuya Tsukahara, Keigo Mikajiri, Itaru Kato, Yu Kanai
Guest: Tetsuya Umeda

Organized by: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
In association with: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Agency for Cultural Affair
Produced by: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]

Hofesh Shechter "Political Mother"

2010-04-14T13:00:24Z
Up-and-coming UK company visits Japan to show a captivating mix of energetic dance and reverberating percussion
This performance series was installed with the aim to showcase next-generation performing arts as represented by specially invited budding young artists from all corners of the globe. This year, we are happy to introduce Hofesh Shechter, a choreographer who relocated to the UK after working with Israel's own Batsheva Dance Company, and in recent years has won high acclaim as an internationally awarded choreographer and creator of pieces commissioned by leading theatres around the world. Also outside the realm of dance, Shechter has been attracting attention for his choreographies for popular TV plays among other things. On his visit to Japan, Shechter will unveil his latest production that is set to define a new set of values in contemporary dance through a compelling mixture of amazing high-tension dance and groovy live percussion.
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* The performance will be followed by workshop and talk session, in which the artist will reveal more details about the piece, and answer questions from the public.

2010 Theatre & Dance Family Program "Naso Rosso"

2010-04-14T12:59:35Z
An opportunity to encounter performing arts for children aged 2 and up

This dance/theatre program is designed for children at pre-school age and their parents. Instead of difficult lines telling a complex story, the piece created in Italy immediately communicates the fun of performing arts through music, dance, and various gimmicks that appear as the story unfolds. Built with elements of contemporary dance and theatre, and a little box that keeps spitting out all kinds of colorful gadgets, this performance is sure to fascinate young and old alike.

2010 Theatre & Dance Family Program "Dallae's Story"

2010-04-14T12:58:57Z
Precious moments to focus on family ties and human love

Based on the story of the Korean War in the 1950s, this piece is not directly about the war itself, but illustrates the earnest attempts of a family to overcome all kinds of hardships. Korean traditional music, glamorous sets, and a uniquely vivid combination of human performers and puppets make for an exciting performance that appeals to both children and their parents. Look forward to a topical piece that graphically conveys the magnificence and importance of love between human individuals and family members.

Megumi Nakamura & Yasuyuki Shuto dance performance

2010-04-14T12:57:36Z
Artistically and technically distinguished dancers from Japan and abroad provide hints for defining contemporary dance and its fascination

This performance focuses on the technically advanced and artistically diverse skills of physical expression of dancer/choreographer Megumi Nakamura and dancer Yasuyuki Shuto. Building their careers on a solid foundation of Classical ballet under such internationally renowned masters of choreographers as Jirí Kylián and Maurice Béjart respectively, both Nakamura and Shuto have vaulted their acquired techniques into spheres of truly unique art. Their works highlight the beauty of dance itself while hinting at the diversity and potential of artistic expression, inviting the viewer to explore the creative nature of studying and experiencing dance and other forms of body expression, and ponder the meaning of originality, stringency and reality in the realm of dance. Here are two artists who have come to make something as seemingly unintelligible as contemporary dance accessible to a broad audience.
* A talk session with the performers is planned as related event.

Hiroaki Umeda performance (new piece)

2010-04-13T12:47:02Z
Production and presentation of a new dance piece at YCAM
Designing a stage by means of dance and technology

Featured this time in our performing arts program is Hiroaki Umeda, a choreographer/artist who takes charge of everything from sound to lighting and imagery used in the pieces he performs. Together with YCAM's technical staff, he takes an experimental approach to the process of choreography encompassing the development of ideas and direction, to ultimately complete and unveil a brand new work. Modeled around the style of Europe-based Umeda's worldwide activities, the piece is going to test the mobility of a stage production, and explore the creative potential and portability through media of performances that change with the environment. While basically belonging to the category of performing arts, it will be a comprehensive work that integrates elements of installation and video, and focuses at once on spatial construction and the human body. The result is expected to offer a variety of innovative possibilities for the positions of choreographers, dancers and engineers alike.
(In-residence production period: starting in September 2010)

* In a post-performance talk session on 9/19 (Sat), the artists will talk about the new piece's main points of appeal. On 9/20 (Sun), the "After Hour Cafe" will provide a casual setting for a drink, exchange of opinions, and meeting with the artist after the performance.

New video dance by Tsuyoshi Shirai

2010-04-12T13:06:27Z
Focusing on dance and other forms of body expression by way of video Volume two in YCAM's original video dance production & screening series

In this second installment, choreographer/dancer Tsuyoshi Shirai will make use of YCAM's technology and creative environment to realize a new video dance piece. Through a filmed version of one of his most well-known works, "mass, slide, &." (2004), Shirai redefines dance from a viewpoint that differs from a conventional stage production, while exploring the refined and dynamic movements of the human body.
In addition to this new work, the program of this screening event will also include a video dance piece by Hiroaki Umeda, whose performance is scheduled for February, as well as Saburo Teshigawara's video dance piece Friction of Time - Perspective Study vol.2, which was produced at YCAM back in 2008.

Chelfitsch performance (new piece)

2010-04-11T13:10:22Z

The company presents their newest piece at YCAM
Beyond the "real" connection between language and body

Having received among others the Kishida Kunio Drama Award for "Five Days in March", a theatre piece that was staged at YCAM in 2007, Toshiki Okada keeps exerting an immeasurable influence on the current performing arts scene as a playwright and stage director. His pieces combining dialogues symbolic of today's youth culture with somewhat noisy physical exaggerations of daily routine are highly regarded in theatre circles and various other fields. With the performance of this long-awaited new piece, Okada considers a further development beyond the "real" kind of artistic expression he has established as a means to examine the contemporary relationship between body and language. * After the performance, the artist will appear in a talk session introducing the piece's main points of appeal.
* In conjunction with the performance, a workshop with playwright and director Toshiki Okada is scheduled for 3/6 (Sun).

Marebito-no-Kai "PARK CITY" (new piece)

2009-06-27T09:25:11Z

The first full-fledged theatre production realized at YCAM
A new experience that defies the conventional idea of "theatre"

Masataka Matsuda (playwright/director, Marebito-no-Kai) and photographer Keiko Sasaoka (photographers' gallery) unveil their new theatre piece "PARK CITY" at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media. This YCAM original production is a result of Matsuda's stay in Yamaguchi as part of the "Work-in-residence" program exploring the possibilities of artistic expression together with the Center's expert staff -YCAM InterLab-. "PARK CITY" experiments with temporal, spatial and physical sensation by combining stage art with photography and media technology.

"PARK CITY"website

]]> Left: "Voiceprints City - Letter to FATHER" (FESTIVAL/TOKYO 2009) photo: Tsukasa Aoki
Right: Keiko Sasaoka "PARK CITY" (2007)

"PARK CITY" Hiroshima portrayed in words and photographs remote seats equipped with individual video screens

Masataka Matsuda, a leading Japanese playwright/director since the 1990s, has received numerous awards for his experimental work exploring the possibilities of stage arts with the theatre company Marebito-no-Kai. In his newest creation, he captures scenes of the city with the help of Keiko Sasaoka, a young photographer regarded for her original approach. The two artists illustrate through texts and photographs the latent memories of the city of Hiroshima as it was re-erected around a "monument" in the form of a park after the war.
Seats in the theatre are deliberately placed at a distance from the stage, and equipped with individual video screens. This alternative viewing style enables the audience to enjoy a new form of theatre with text, photography, sound and imagery transcending the boundaries of time and space. Look forward to a radically new type of stage production that incorporates Masataka Matsuda's script and direction, Sasaoka's photographs, and YCAM's own cutting-edge media technology.

Written and directed by: Masataka Matsuda
Photography by: Keiko Sasaoka (photographers' gallery)

Cast: Chise Ushio, F. Japan, Chiaki Kirisawa, Goma-no-hae, Takashi Shima, Aki Takeda, Maki Nishiyama, Yuichiro Masuya, Norifumi Miyamoto, Harumi Yamaguchi
Stage manager: Takuro Iwata (YCAM InterLab)
Stage Technicians: Mitsuo Uno (YCAM InterLab), Takuro Iwata (YCAM InterLab), Clarence Ng (Esplanade)
Sound: Takayuki Ito (YCAM InterLab)
Recording: Masamitsu Araki
Lighting: Fumie Takahara (YCAM InterLab)
Video: Richi Owaki (YCAM InterLab)
Costume Design: Kyoko Domoto
Monitor system: Takayuki Ito (YCAM InterLab)
Programming: Satoshi Hama (YCAM InterLab)
Dramaturg: Tsuyoshi Tanabe
Assistant director: Yuriko Maiya
Technical support: YCAM InterLab
Produced by: Akiko Tkeshita (YCAM), Naoko Shiomi (YCAM), Mariko Mori (Marebito-no-Kai), Mao Nishimura (Marebito-no-Kai)
Advertising design: Isao Tanaka (photographers' gallery)
Cooperated by: Gyoto, Eisei, Knit Cap Theater

Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], Biwako Hall, Marebito-no-Kai, photographers' gallery
Organized by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion, Biwako Hall Foundation, Marebito-no-Kai, photographers' gallery
Supported by Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education, The Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2009, Japan Foundation for Regional Art-Activities (JAFRA), The Asahi Beer Arts Foundation, The SAISON Foundation Sponsored by AVOX
Kyoto Art Center support project

"The Traveling Companion"

2009-06-27T05:39:11Z

A very special, colorfully dream-like story for Japanese children

Italian stage director Teresa Ludovico creates highly ingenious pieces with simple stage sets and rich colors. Her newest production tells the story of a boy who falls in love with a girl that appears in his dreams, and embarks on a journey with the aim to find her. The piece was made in collaboration with a variety of performers, including actors, dancers and musicians. The boy in his fantastic adventure symbolizes human love, and inspires our courage to face life.

Grupo de Rua "H3"

2009-06-27T04:36:25Z

Next-generation Hip Hop Dance from Brazil
Highlighting the overwhelming energy and tension of the human body

Taking hip hop, a movement that keeps affecting dance, music, art, fashion and other aspects of cultural and social life, and catapulting it to the level of performing arts, "H3" is an ambitious piece that introduces a fresh current to the realm of dance.
Witness nine trained street dancers as they knock down stylistic stereotypes with breathtaking speed and energy, to make way for novel forms of expression that unfold in an impressive demonstration of flexibility and potential.

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"H3"
Hip hop's high-flying crusade from the street into the theatre

© Grupo de Rua

Since emerging in New York in the early 1970s, hip hop culture has been exerting a strong influence on dance, music, art, fashion, and other cultural and social aspects. Dance as one facet of the hip hop phenomenon has been conquering the world while leaving its marks on several other dance styles, and has evolved into an art form in its own right that enjoys popularity on various levels today, with professional dancers participating in contests, and countless young people practicing and performing on the street also here in Japan.
"H3", an attempt to bring innovation to hip hop as a contemporary performing art, has been presented to great acclaim at festivals and theatres. The ambitious idea to elevate hip hop to the level of performing arts resulted in a display of overwhelmingly energetic physical power.

© Bruno Beltrão

Highlights
Trained bodies in simple settings
The simple stage set includes not much more than lighting to add subtle nuances to the dancers' movements against the acoustic backdrop of environmental noises and silence replacing the original hip hop and R&B music. The additional sounds of the nine street-trained dancers' steps add to an atmosphere that is pregnant with a sense of tension that both street and theatre settings share. A delicately sophisticated choreography, made possible thanks to the performers' physical abilities and characteristic features, is one of the attractions of this spectacle highlighting the explosive energy set free in the generation of truly innovative physical expression.

Thought-out overall composition over individual skills
The rules of hip hop, originally a competitive "dance battle" format, include a display of personal skills while avoiding body contact with the opponents as a stylistic element. Rather than focusing on individual performing skills, this piece follows a general concept and composition that demands from the dancers to move constantly on the brink of collision in a rather aggressive approach to contact that ultimately never happens. Speed, dynamism and speculation are the pillars of a construction that aims to explore the uncharted territory between the street and the theatre.

A new art form born on suburban streets
Hip hop has grown into a global cultural movement. The style that once was a communication tool - not excluding elements of protest - for young people living in the downtown areas of big cities has matured into a means of self-expression for suburban youths. The Grupo de Rua, a company based in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, seek to demolish stereotypes in artistic expression in order to establish their own original methods, suggesting an analytical approach to the obliterating flow of mainstream trends.

© Bruno Beltrão

Bruno Beltrão (Choreographer, dancer)
A choreographer and his revolution of hip hop 30 years after zero hour
Born and raised in the outskirts of a Brazilian town, Bruno Beltrão first encountered street dance as a teenager. After enrolling at the university of Rio de Janeiro to study dance and philosophy, he began to produce works that gradually liberated him from the rules and conventions of hip hop, and eventually unveiled the piece "H3" at the Kunsten Festival des Arts in Belgium in 2008. Following its predecessor, "H2", it is on a continuously successful tour around major festivals around the world. 30 years young, Beltrão is definitely one choreographer to watch when it comes to breathing new life into the current hip hop and performing arts scenes.

Direction, Choreography: Bruno Beltrão
With: Grupo de Rua
Co-production: Grupo de Rua, Festival d'automne à Paris, La Ferme du Buisson - Scène nationale de Marne-la-Vallée, Le Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, International Arts Festival/Salamanca 2008 - Junta de Castilla y León, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Hebbel am Ufer

Art Direction & Design: Ryo Sugi (scenery of design)

Produced by: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Organized by: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion, Agency for Cultural Affairs
Supported by: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education, Embassy of Brazil

"On the Planet" Pre-event

2009-06-27T04:22:21Z

Prior to the performance, stage director Hatsumi Abe and other guests will reveal some details about the piece in a talk event.

Support: the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2009

"On the Planet" (working title)

2009-06-27T02:23:17Z

Observing mankind in the present age from a hypothetical future world

Inspired by completely artificial confined spaces that exist in reality, this piece dealing with such actual environmental issues as global warming, atmospheric and radioactive pollution depicts a future scenario of the world based on a "global environment, man, nature and civilization" theme. Different from the usual method, where a director would adapt a finished script written by a playwright for the stage, this piece is the result of a new type of collaboration, created by the director together with his staff and cast from the playwright's incomplete, fragmentary texts.

Support: the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2009

Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani new installation "CLOUD FOREST" (2010.7.01)

2010-07-21T14:58:49Z

OPENING EVENTS - Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani new installation "CLOUD FOREST"

2010-07-21T14:42:55Z

It is our great pleasure to announce "CLOUD FOREST" an exhibition proposing new forms of environmental creation through a fusion of artistic expression and technology, at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM].

Located at three main venues in and around the YCAM building, the exhibition features the "fog sculptures" of Fujiko Nakaya, who has frequently exhibited her works to great international acclaim, coupled with Shiro Takatani' s creations using light and sound. The resulting large-scale installation project unfolded in a novel form of collaboration combining the elements each artist specializes in. e interaction with information technology, along with various sensuous and spatial transformations, will suggest new forms of environmental creation to those who witness the various appearances of these installations mixing arti cial fog, sunlight and sound. e exhibition is at once an occasion to introduce and reevaluate E.A.T's foresighted art and science projects originally presented at the EXPO '70 Osaka, which eventually inspired this new project, while exploring the possibility of creative quests through art.
Look forward to a prospect of future "artistic environmental spheres" emerging from contemporary informational environments, illustrated by means of commissioned original works created in-residency at YCAM.

■OPENING EVENTS
Demonstrative Performance
August 7 (sat) 19:00-20:00
Venue: Foyer, Patios　Admission free
Performance: 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 (sun) 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.

■Exhibition outline
Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani 　"CLOUD FOREST"
new installation, commissioned by YCAM
August 7 (sat) - October 17 (sun), 2010
10:00-19:00（in August -20:00）
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] Patio, Foyer, Central Park
Admission free
Closed Tuesday * Cancelled in case of rain at the Central Park

* There will be guided gallery tours offered during the period of the exhibition. Please check the website for more information on additional event.
* Please notice that the artworks cannot be viewed as part of the regular exhibition between 17:00 and 20:00 on August 7th, as the performance on this day takes place in the patios and foyer.

Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takataninew installation "CLOUD FOREST"

2010-07-01T14:41:12Z

http://www.ycam.jp/en/art/2010/04/fujiko-nakaya-shiro-takatani-n.html

Seiko Mikami new installation "Desire of Codes"

2010-03-20T04:17:44Z

http://www.ycam.jp/en/art/2010/04/seiko-mikami-desire-of-codes.html

The exhibition period for Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala "for maria installation version" has been extended.

2010-01-28T00:00:00Z

The exhibition period for Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version" has been extended.

The new exhibition period for Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version" is; October 1(Thu.), 2009 - June 6 (Sun), 2010
(The last day has been extended from January 31 to June 6)

During the term, you can appreciate forthcoming exhibition, Seiko Mikami "Desire of Codes" starting on March 20, so please come to YCAM and enjoy the works.

Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version"
October 1 (Thu.), 2009 - June 6 (Sun), 2010
10:00-20:00
Closed: Tuesday (the next days if it falls on a holiday)
Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version"

Seiko Mikami + Sota Ichikawa "gravicells - gravity and resistance" [revised version](2010.1.23)

2010-01-23T05:25:37Z

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

2010-01-23T05:17:21Z

http://www.ycam.jp/en/art/2009/04/seiko-mikami-new-installation.html

YCAM exhibition to be temporarily closed (2009.10.26-11.6)

2009-10-25T22:01:23Z

These exhibitions will be temporarily closed between October 26 (Mon) and November 6 (Fri).

- Semitra Exhibition "tFont/fTime"
- Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version"

The exhibit will re-open from November 7 (Sat).

Grupo de Rua "H3" (2009.10.2)

2009-10-25T06:33:36Z

Semitra Exhibition "tFont/fTime" vol.2 (2009.9.19)

2009-10-22T05:13:00Z

Keiichiro Shibuya＋evala new sound installation "for maria installation version" (2009.10.05)

2009-10-05T06:56:26Z

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

2009-10-05T06:09:03Z

http://www.ycam.jp/en/art/2009/04/keiichiro-shibuyaevalanew-soun.html

Semitra Exhibition "tFont/fTime" vol.1 (2009.8.3)

2009-08-03T09:48:23Z

The exhibition period for "Body as Interimage" has been extended.

2009-07-17T04:31:31Z

The exhibition period for "Body as Interimage" has been extended.

The new exhibition period for "Body as Interimage" is; 4.25 Sat. - 8.31 Mon.
(The last day has been extended from 8.10 to 8.31.)

During the term, you can appreciate two exhibitions Steve Paxton "Phantom Exhibition" & "Body as InterImage" ,so please come to YCAM and enjoy the works.

"Body as Interimage"
April 25 (sat) - August 31 (mon), 10:00-20:00
□ Works in the exhibition
newClear + Alessio Silvestrin "skinslides" New installation work
Shinichi Takashima "Pascal pass scale" New installation work
□Screening
Saburo Teshigawara "Friction of Time - perspective Study vol.2"（video dance）
"Body as InterImage" website

Marebito-no-Kai "PARK CITY" (new piece)

2009-07-09T03:18:00Z

http://www.ycam.jp/en/theater/2009/06/marebito-no-kai-park-city-new-1.html