[Critique by work category] Visual Image

It has been a few years since I last served on a jury for the Japan Media Arts Festival , so it was very interesting for me to come back and judge this year's entries. First of all, I noticed that the artists who have been winning prizes at the Computer Graphics Contest for Students, a gateway for young media artists, a real so presenting highly accomplished art work. There must be pros and cons with regard to this phenomenon, but I personally take it positively. Secondly, it was apparent to me that many entries are taking advantage of digital composite techniques. Although these techniques are themselves not very different from the VFX used for commercial films, the works are inspired by personal matters, which give them unique points of view. However , I have doubts as to whether they are successfully conveying their messages to the viewers clearly. My impression, in general, is that there were few outstanding moving image pieces in the category of the Art Division. This is a problem for this style of media arts expression at the moment.