Japan Media Art Festival 2013
October 14, 2013 6:04 pm
The Japan Media Arts Festival is a comprehensive festival of Media Arts (=Media Geijutsu) that honors outstanding works from a diverse range of media- from animation and comics to media art and games. The festival gives awards in each of its four divisions: Art, Entertainment, Animation, and Manga. It also provides a platform for appreciation of the award-winning and other notable works. Since its inception in 1997, the festival has recognized significant works of high artistry and creativity, and in addition to a yearly Exhibition of Award-winning Works has held other events, such as symposiums, screenings, and showcases.
Award-winning works are exhibited both within Japan and abroad through various projects and events organized by The Agency of Cultural Affairs which aims to promote the creation and development of Media Arts.
The Japan Media Art Festival 2013 program:
“HAJIMEYOU” by Arai Fuyu
Made for NAGANO Ryo’s single HAJIMEYOU (Let’s Begin), the DIY spirit of this music video embodies the song’s message. A web-only version which takes us behind the scenes has come to seem inseparable from the finished work.
“Imitation of Life” by Takcom
A music video that imitates life, made for an album produced by Jim O’ROURKE. The tension-filled music and pointillist animated landscape unfold dynamically in complete harmony.
“Hanashitaianatato” by Tsujikawa Koichiro
This one is a music video for a song from the salyu × salyu project by salyu and Cornelius. The objective was to take a structure consisting of cuts of countless performance shots and music edited from multilayered vocals, and convert it directly into video imagery.
“Dynamics of the Subway” by Onishi Keita
Made for the song Dynamics of the Subway in Hasuinonasa’s first album, Body of the Animal (Zankyo Records), the animated geometrical forms correspond to the movement and texture of each musical sound.
“Kuratas” by Kurata Kogoro and Yoshizaki Wataru
The Kuratas project was born in June 2010 from a simple desire on the part of artist Kurata Kogoro: “I want to ride on a giant robot, but it seems no one has made one for that purpose. I may as well build it myself.”
“Bye Buy” by Neil Bryant
Bye Buy mixes archive footage from the post-war age of consumerism with present-day symbols. Familiar but anachronistic, this is a play on outmoded representations of the consumer ethos. We consume and are consumed.
“On Pause” by Mikhail Zheleznikov
The artist was going home unwillingly when he met a man who’d been at Moscow Airport for a week. The man kept on buying plane tickets but couldn’t bring himself to fly. There was something poetic and irrational about him.
“Open play, Forgetting eye” by Alimo
Employing the “exquisite corpse”of surrealism, this work is a playful linking of forgotten images. Drawing day after day, it’s natural sometimes to forget what we drew just a few days before.
“Strata #4” by Quayola
Strata #4 is a multi-channel immersive video-installation commissioned by Palais des
Beaux Arts in Lille, the second largest painting collection in France. The subject of this work is a series of iconic pieces from the Flemish collection.
“Between Yesterday and Tomorrow” by Sol Chord
This web-based movie project was launched two weeks after the Great East Japan Ear thquake, which occurred on March 11, 2011. In the first year (until March 2012), 32 artists participated in the project, producing a total of 60 works.
“I’m also a bear” by Goda Tsuneo
There is a different animal on each page, and then he comes to the bears. “Hey, I’m a bear, too,” he thinks, and is sad. This coming-of-age story features a character who first appeared in UTADA Hikaru’s song, “I’ m a Bear.”
“Futon” by Mizushiri Yoriko
In bed at night, our thoughts turn the past and future and sexual desire, and all merges together as a warm feeling. The body seeks sensation. Futon (Quilt) examines how movement and the senses are linked.
“Recruit Rhapsody” by Yoshida Maho
A short animation about job hunting. A very ordinary college student finds that her friends have recently begun to behave strangely. It turns out they are in the throes of job-hunting fever.
“The Great Rabbit” by Wada Atsushi
This animation features a gang of children, humanoid rabbit, bespectacled child, marten, bird and hungry rabbit god – and a ball. Using thin lines and subdued colors, it’s all about disobedience really.
“Oh Willy…” by Emma de Swaef andMarc James Roels
This work is a stop-motion film where, forced to return to his naturist roots, Willy bungles his way into noble savagery. The filmmakers were inspired by Diane ARBUS’s photos of people living in nudist colonies.
“Sunset Flower Blooming” by Hu Yuanyuan
An old woman rests in her garden in sixties China. It’s sunset and the evening primroses have started to come out. The flowers remind her of her own youthful dreams and beauty.
“Combustible” by Otomo Katsuhiro
Owaka loves Matsukichi. The boy is disowned, though, by his family because he wants be a fireman, and Owaka’s family is looking for a suitable boy. Distraught, Owaka reacts by burning down the town. The two lovers meet in the middle of the blaze.