12th Art Division Critiques

[Critique by work category] Web

We could find hardly any impressive works among this year's entries to the Web Genre, and consequently, no web work received an Excellence Prize. One obvious constraint of this genre is that viewers have to see works in an Internet environment, plus the nature of this medium requires them to be viewed on a display. In comparison with other genres, it is therefore difficult to fully stimulate the five senses. Furthermore, since web works consist of programs and Computer Graphics, they have a tendency to be small-scale. In my opinion, this is the main reason why web works lack dynamism. Among the nominated Web works in this Festival, BODY IN BITS AND PIECES by Carolien HERMANS made me feel like flesh and blood, but it would be improved if it had moving images and an interactive approach. (the tender indifference) by Jorn EBNER makes full use of pop-up technology, which is fun, but the timing and sound of the pop-ups that appear should have a sense of speed, and regrettably, the critique expressed by the photographic content is weak. In any case, I feel we have reached a point where we should consider the nature of the Web Genre in the Art Division.

Profile
MIYAJIMA Tatsuo
Vice President, Tohoku University of Art & Design
Born in Tokyo, 1957. Completed postgraduate studies at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (M.A.) in 1986. In 1988, he was invited to the Aperto Division of La Biennale di Venezia and gained international attention with a work using digital numbers. He has held numerous exhibitions both in Japan and other countries since then. In 1993, he won the grand prize in a competition held by the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He won the Japan Arts Foundation Award, and gained a London Institute Honorary Doctorate in 1998.