14th Art Division Critiques
The role of art in creatively building a new relationship between society and people
The Art Division usually receives many entries from overseas, and this year it reached an unprecedented level, making up for 43 percent of the total. On the whole, we encountered many works in the movie, digital photograph, graphics still image, and website genres that bring the sense of déjà vu.. On the other hand, in the interactive art and installation genres, a new trend was seen in the works that reflect the technologies becoming an everyday affair and the resulting changes in society. I believe this is because in the two genres (interactive art and installation), the media and methods of expression are not limited but rather the linkage of multiple media and domains are acceptable. In other words, I was able to confirm anew that the way of expression of art is not limited to existing technologies, aesthetics or methods of expression but becoming more diverse, and that in itself is an essential characteristic of Media Arts.
The jury largely agreed on Award Winners, which means that there was a clear difference between Award-Winning level and other works. The jury's opinions were split over the Grand Prize, with some voting for The EyeWriter. There were largely two tendencies of Award-Winning Works. One is work with high-quality finish and a strong spatial and perceptual impact, which is not a mere spectacle but has somewhat detached perspectives. The other is work that draws away from the identity of the artist and expands from an everyday project into a public one, incorporating concepts such as information sharing and DIY. Both of these types of works have a commonality in that they both encourage the participation of the audience.
Finally, my overall impression was that the trend of art is shifting to a more mature direction in which an emphasis is placed on how to rediscover and put together new and old technologies rather than the advanced development of technologies, and that art is beginning to play a role in defamiliarizing the relationship between society and people to build a new relationship with more creativity.
DIY: An abbreviation for "Do It Yourself," a concept of making one's living environment more comfortable by oneself.