14th Art Division Critiques

Transition in the meaning of the robot symbol

The concept of media as contained in media art continually changes in meaning as a symbol with time. The meaning of media acquired from robots, for example, emphasizes the phenomenon of media as a pre-contemporary term by drawing on the analogy of cutting-edge, new technology and future outlook seen from the viewpoint of the past and the approaching appearance of robots by humans. Meanwhile, robotics, which was created by the sacred environment that we live in, will continue to spread in use via revolutionary technologies created by man as environmental robots and as social agents that mold our society. Even if have applied the evaluation of robotics to the evaluations of social function derived from functional and structural beauty in the past, I sense that this will be connected to art in the future. While the former kinetic art works are expanded on as information technologies, I personally learned through this screening that works that leave one feeling the sense of art in a completed exterior or a unexpected mixture do indeed deserve such recognition.

Profile
SEKIGUCHI Atsuhito
President, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS)
Born in Tokyo, 1958. SEKIGUCHI Atsuhito graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts and finished the Graduate School of Tokyo University of the Arts. Since 1980, he has been presenting his works as an artist, which mainly consist of paintings and media installations. He has been a professor at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences since 1996, and at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) since 2001. Currently, he serves as the President of IAMAS. His activities encompass not only Media Arts and information design, but also the study of the archive display in the areas of art information science, history of art, traditional art and archeology. His works include Chikyu no Tsukurikata (How to Create the Earth) and Keikan Series (Landscape Series). His books include Digital Rakuchu Rakugai Zu Byobu [Shimane-ken Bihon] (A Folding Screen Painting of Scenes of in and around Kyoto) (joint authorship, Tankosha Publishing).