Outline
Entry Period
2015.7.7(Tue) - 9.9(Wed)
Organizer
Japan Media Arts Festival Executive Committee
Chair
AOYAGI Masanori（Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan）
Operating Committee
AOKI Tamotsu（Director General, The National Art Center, Tokyo）
FURUKAWA Taku（Animation Artist）
TATEHATA Akira（President, Tama Art University）
Exhibition
Dates
2016.2.3(Wed) - 14(Sun)
Awards Ceremony
2016.2.2(Tue)
Venue
The National Art Center, Tokyo
TOHO CINEMAS Roppongi Hills
SuperDeluxe
Instituto Cervantes Tokyo
Admission
free
Cooperation
TOHO CINEMAS Roppongi Hills
SuperDeluxe
J-WAVE
Institut français du Japon
Peatix
FileMaker
Cooperative Programs
The Railway Series THOMAS & FRIENDS（Tokyo Metoropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / yomiuri Shimbun Holdings / Japan Association of Art Museums）
Tohoku IT Concept Fukushima Gme Jam 2015（Japan chapter of the international Game Developers Association）
KOBE Biennale 2015: Encounters with Art in the Port（the Organizing Committee for KOBE Biennale / the City of Kobe）
Zombie Opera "Danse Macabre" Taro Yasuno (concept,music) + Miho Watanabe (dramaturgy) + noriyuki Kiguchi (stage design)（Festival / Tokyo Executive Committee / Toshima City / Toshima Future Culture Foundation / NPOO Arts Network Japan (NPO-ANJ) / Arts Council Tokyo & tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (tokyo Metoropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)）
Japan Media Arts Festival ――Screening of Selected Works（Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum）
Digital Media and Japanese Graphic Design ――Its Past and Future（Tokyo Midtown Design Hub）
TAKAMASU MEDIA RTA FESTIVAL "The Medium of the Spirit"（Takamatsu City / TAKAMATSU MEDIA ART）
Digital Choc 2016 - Futurama（Institut francas du Japon）
GAME ON:Why are videogames so interesting?（Miraikan / Fji Television Network, Inc.,/ KADOKAWA ASCII / Research LAboratories, Inc.）
Jury / Major
Jury
UEMATSU Yuka（Curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka）
FUJIMOTO Yukio（Artist）
ISHIDA Takashi（Painter, Film Artist and Associate Professor, Tama Art University）
NAKAZAWA Hideki（Artist）
SATOW Morihiro（Historian of Visual Culture and Professor, Kyoto Seika University）
IIDA Kazutoshi（Game Creator and Professor, College of Image Arts and Sciences, Ritsumeikan University）
HIGASHIIZUMI Ichiro（Designer and Creative Director）
KUDO Takeshi（Curator, Aomori Museum of Art）
UKAWA Naohiro（Genzai (Contemporary) Artist and Professor, Kyoto University of Art and Design and Representative, DOMMUNE）
YONEMITSU Kazunari（Game Designer）
KOIDE Masashi（Animation Researcher and Professor, Tokyo Zokei University）
MORIMOTO Koji（Animation Director）
OHI Fumio（Animation Artist）
TAKAHASHI Ryosuke（Animation Director）
YAMAMURA Koji（Animation Artist and Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts）
SUGAYA Mitsuru（Manga Artist and Professor, Kyoto Seika University）
FURUNAGA Shinichi（Man of Letters and Associate Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University）
INUKI Kanako（Manga Artist and Visiting Professor, Osaka University of Arts）
KADOKURA Shima（Manga Journalist）
MATSUDA Hiroko（Manga Artist）
TATEHATA Akira
President, Tama Art University
As long as it is one of this festival’s consistent goals to introduce explorations of various possibilities by the works of state-of-the-arttechnology, it might come across as a semantic contradiction to note on the maturity of expressions. However, in reality, it can be said that many works recently can be observed to have a kind of self-critical aspect towards the role of media rather than in pursuit of the technical novelty. This is predicated on almost a quarter century worth of an accumulation of time.Even the Grand Prize winner of the Art Division manifests this fact vividly. In the work of CHUNG Waiching Bryan, it is not only about the resultant visual image. Rather, what is presented is a “conceptual autobiography” described as if by “poetic texts” through a number of programming languages and softwares to produce the piece, reflecting the ones that the author once learned but became obsolete. It is an attention grabbing attempt that successfully linked the critical awareness of media directly to the expression.The remark by the Grand Prize winner of the Entertainment Division, KISHINO Yuichi, who presented a parody version of Oppekepebushi, holds a certain truism; “People have the most possiblity as a media”. However, I was fascinated by the vitality provocating the audiences who have grown indifferent to this fact. I would like to praise that such work emerged having greatly deviated from the stereotype of Media Arts.
FURUKAWA Taku
Animation Artist
As the first 15 years have passed in the 21st Century, we have entered a world where serious debates are taking place about the differences between humanity and machine, the very topic HOSHI Shinichi and TEZUKA Osamu frequently dealt in their works. The topic of artificial intelligence is booming and the speculations on what machines can and cannot do has become more intensified. This is the Japan Media Arts Festival of such era. According to the Grand Prize winner in the Art Division, the resultant piece deployed a number of old computer languages as if reconnecting with old friends or a pilgrimage through ancient, lost sites. The Grand Prize in the Entertainment Division explored possible futures of entertainment through the analog and digital musical rendition of an epic, in which the KAWAKAMI Otojiro Troupe goes on a journey to undo the magic Electricity God placed on the audience at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. In the Animation Division, the universe evolves and transforms by animation created by immense quantity of hand-drawing and digital work, all in an effort to literally capture the concept of Rhizome. The Manga Division winner brilliantly expresses a story of the microcosm innately inside each manga artist consumed with the sole will “to draw”. The common trait of all four Special Achievement Award-winners are that they continue to be active in their respective categories and play important key roles. Having known them all coincidentally in personal capacities, I send my heartfelt congratulations and appreciation for their contributions, and hope they will continue to lead their disciplines.