TOPICS

2021/09/8

Japan Media Arts Festival Overseas Promotion to participate Ars Electronica 2021, the world’s largest media art festival

Exhibitions and live events will be held hybrid,
at on-site venues in Linz, Austria and at Garden TOKYO online site.

Period: September 8, 2021 (Wed) – September 12, 2021 (Sun)
Venue: Linz, Austria / Special site “Garden TOKYO”

VIPO, Visual Industry Promotion Organization, will launch a special site “Ars Electronica Garden TOKYO” in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Festival 2021 as part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ 2021 Media Arts Overseas Promotion Project. Special site will open at noon (Japan time) on Wednesday, September 8, and will feature exhibitions of award-winning works from the Japan Media Arts Festival, as well as live performances and a talk session by an artist who has won the Honorary Mention in the Prix Ars Electronica 2021. Live performances and talk sessions will be streamed live online, and selected works and projects will be exhibited at the Ars Electronica venue.

The Ars Electronica Festival is known as the largest media art event which celebrates art, advanced technology and culture. Under the theme “A New Digital Deal,” the festival will be held at on-site venues in Linz, Austria and more than 80 virtual venues, called Gardens from all over the world. Garden TOKYO, a Tokyo satellite, will launch a special website (https://jmaf-promote.jp/art2021) to showcase various exhibitions and programs curated by the director TOMURA Asako.

Contents

1.Online Live Performance

Photo: MIYAWAKI Shintaro

A live performance by sound artist evala, winner of the Honorary Mention in the Digital Musics and Sound Art category at the Prix Ars Electronica 2021 and the Excellence Award in the Art division at the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival, will be held online.

■Artist: evala (See by Your Ears)

Title: Chosho Hakkei in Rittor Base – Live Performance ver
Introduction of the work: https://seebyyourears.jp/projects/chosho-hakkei-rittor/

Date & Time:
1. Saturday Sept. 11, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (CEST), 8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (JST)
2. Sunday Sept. 12, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. (CEST), Sept. 13, 0:00a.m. – 1:00a.m. (JST)

Recording location: RITTOR BASE (Ochanomizu, Tokyo)

How to watch:
Vimeo Live streaming (no archive)
*Ars Electronica Festival online ticket purchasers only
How to purchase tickets: https://ars.electronica.art/newdigitaldeal/en/tickets/#online
Remarks: Please use headphones or earbuds to listen to the binaural performance.

2.Exhibition

■Artist: KOIZUMI Meiro

©️KOIZUMI Meiro

1) Video documentation: VR Theatre Prometheus Bound [Online exhibition]

Prometheus Bound is a full-scale VR theater piece that won the Grand Prize in the Art Division at the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival. This video is a record of the performance held at the Theatre Commons ’20 in 2020.
https://j-mediaarts.jp/en/award/single/prometheus-bound/

2) VR Theater: Prometheus Unbound Ars Electronica 2021 Garden TOKYO ver. [Online exhibition]

KOIZUMI’s latests VR work, Prometheus Unbound, which is a sequel to his award-winning piece, Prometheus Bound, will be revised and exhibited as Ars Electronica 2021 Garden TOKYO ver.

■Artist: SAKUMA Kaito

Online exhibition features Ether – liquid mirror which won the New Face Award in the Art Division at the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival. SAKUMA’s new work in the series, KEHAI: Liquid Mirror Series – Square –, will be exhibited at an on-site venue in Linz.

1) KEHAI: Liquid Mirror Series – Square – (Ars Electronica official exhibition) [Real exhibition at Johannes Kepler University].

2) Introduction of Ether – liquid mirror which won the New Face Award in the Art Division. [Online exhibition] https://j-mediaarts.jp/en/award/single/ether-liquid-mirror/

■Artist：xlab Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory, Graduate School of Information Science, The University of Tokyo

Photo: Franziska Mack

An online participatory hybrid installation work created as an Ars Electronica invitational work, in which visitors “interact” with algae in the water.

1) Algaphon (Ars Electronica 2021 invited exhibition) [Hybrid Exhibition]

Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory, The University of Tokyo
Harpreet SAREEN, Franziska MACK, KAKEHI Yasuaki

3.Online Talk

■Online Talk featuring evala

Theme: Memories of journey, the future of spatial acoustics – See by Your Ears

Speakers: evala (Musician/Sound artist), KUBO Jiro (Stereophonic engineer)
Moderator: TOMURA Asako (Director, Garden TOKYO)

Date & Time: Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (CEST),
10:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. (JST)
How to watch: YouTube live streaming (archived after streaming) *Free of charge
https://youtu.be/8-J5pj_NKZU (Japanese)
https://youtu.be/MvKdwOkhxgE (English)

Language: Japanese (English translation also available)
Recording location: RITTOR BASE (Ochanomizu, Tokyo)
Submit your questions for the Q&A:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxQ5uOTMrYNaAnOLMeycleptwOxNL0upUdvz7K4LH0k2l2pg/viewform

■Online Talk featuring YOSHIFUJI Ory

Theme: Solitude and bonding. We can change the world by making the impossible possible.

Speakers: YOSHIFUJI Ory (Inventor/Robot Communicator), NAGAHIRO Masato (OriHime Pilot)
Moderator: UCHIDA Mahoro (Curator/Exhibition Producer)

Date & Time: Wednesday,　Sept. 8, 2021, 13:30 – 14:30 (CEST),
20:30 – 21:30 (JST)
How to watch: YouTube live streaming (archived after streaming) *Free of charge
https://youtu.be/cNsdBq2LDS0 (Japanese)
https://youtu.be/CkBM75GTUJk (English)

Language: Japanese (English is also available)
Location: AVATAR ROBOT CAFE DAWN ver.β (https://dawn2021.orylab.com/en/)
Submit your questions for the Q&A:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUW96KttM_bXATF0rTU2gniNHEEScOYYb7husrxmaSJ7Bnag/viewform

4.On‐site Demonstration

■Organizer: Avatar Robot Café DAWN ver.β Production Team (YOSHIFUJI Ory, Co-founder and CEO of Ory Laboratories Inc.)

©️Ory Laboratory Inc.

The experimental café, where people with disabilities who are unable to move but are willing to work, work as service staff using the remote-controlled avatar robot “OriHime,” raised questions about Japanese society’s insufficient employment of people with disabilities and presented a solution. It won the Social Impact Award in the Entertainment Division of the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival. We will introduce the café (https://dawn2021.orylab.com/en/) which opened in June by holding an on-site demonstration at Ars.

1) Introduction of Avatar Robot Café DAWN ver.β [Online exhibition]
https://j-mediaarts.jp/en/award/single/avatar-robot-cafe/

2) On-site demonstration of Avatar Robot Café DAWN ver.β [Ars Electronica official exhibition]

Date and time: September 9-12,
11:00-11:15 / 11:15-11:30 / 11:30-11:45 / 11:45-12:00 (CEST)
Location: Johannes Kepler University (Ars Electronica Festival site)

5.Highlighting Collective Movements [Online exhibition]

Guided by the theme of Ars Electronica 2021, A Digital New Deal and Garden TOKYO’s theme The Power of the Unseen, we will also highlight various collective movements in the industrial world that go beyond the boundaries of art.

1. Architectural Informatics Society https://ais-j.org/
2. Audio Game Center/DDD (Disability Driven Design) Project https://audiogame.center/
3. Fermentation Department/OGURA Hiraku, Fermentation designer https://hakko-department.com/
4. METACITY / AOKI Ryuta, Concept designer https://metacity.jp
5. QUASICRYSTAL / FURUDATE Ken, Hosoo Inc. https://www.hosoogallery.jp/en/exhibitions/quasicrystal/
6. Synecoculture™ and Augmented Ecosystems / FUNABASHI Masatoshi, Researcher https://www.sonycsl.co.jp/tokyo/407/

Organized by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Operation by Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO)

About Ars Electronica https://ars.electronica.art/news/en/ Founded in 1979. Based in Linz, Austria, it is a global creative institution that has been proposing “a new vision of creativity and the future of society brought about by advanced technology” for 40 years. It creates meeting places that connect art, technology and society, and proposes a transversal future. Ars Electronica Festival, an annual international event on media art, is known as one of the world’s largest festivals of art, advanced technology, and culture. Ars Electronica Center, which functions as an art museum, has been in operation since 1996 and includes a studio for production and the Futurelab for research into the future of art and technology. The Prix Ars Electronica (https://ars.electronica.art/prix/en/) has been held since 1987 to honor those who have brought innovation to media art. 3,158 applications from 86 countries were received for the Prix Ars Electronica 2021. This year, two additional categories were added: the Isao Tomita Special Award and the Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity, which is given jointly with the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

About Japan Media Arts Festival Overseas Promotion https://jmaf-promote.jp/en/
With the aim of showing Japan’s high level of contemporary art and entertainments, award-winning works of Media Art, Animation, Games and Manga from the Japan Media Arts Festival are showcased at international festivals.