11th
Award-winning WorksArt Division

In these modern times when it is difficult to imagine being without the Internet in everyday life, I would say that there is already no one who has a doubt of the importance of the Internet in various social activities. It is certain that the Internet is a vital infrastructure especially in commercial activities although it includes many problems. In such social circumstances, what is the shape of the Internet in the world of art? This question has been posed in the Web Work section in the Art Division of the Festival during the past several years. There is a monolog-like website presented on the Internet which has an open window to the world from the beginning; or a work which deploys a matter that can be substituted by other media on the Internet. It is not possible to deny all such works, but, perhaps we have reached the time when we have to reconsider the effectiveness and attributes which the Internet has all over again.

We could not find a suitable candidate for awards amongst still image works. This describes the entire level of the Still Image Division of this year. Among those, Observation of Space by NISHIMURA Yoshiki, Visual Genealogy by SEO June Seok and PARK Jin Wan, lait, une couleur by Frode & Marcus, and Ordinary View in the City of Angeles by KAWASHIMA Takashi received recognition as the works gave us a sense of their possibilities. What I feel about the Still Image Division is that it would be difficult to practice a new presentation which no one has tried since techniques of all sorts have already existed in the world. So I suppose that the approach to discover an ever new context would be the way to follow in the future rather than taking a 20th century-like approach to seeking a new presentation. In a time when everything is possible with animation, composition, and computer graphics, perhaps we have come to a good time when an author can display the strength of a motionless piece of a still image. I would like to be able to place high expectations for the Still Image Division in the future.

As the number of entries which was over 250 shows, the visual image section attracts a variety of works in the Art Division. It was the same this year and we received many works from a wide variety including professionals and amateurs, with huge or small production costs, and utilizing a variety of methods. The Entertainment Division and the Animation Division also include the group of visual image works, so the Jury has to consider the intention of artists with which they ventured to make an entry to the Art Division. Such considerations as how clearly the intention of the artist was conveyed to the audiences in the time flow, and to what extent the unique viewpoint of the intention can have in the artistic field, were the points of screening.

We had many video installation works which were made to be projected on a single screen. This concept competes with the visual image section, but I suppose that artists courageously make the exhibition on a large screen as an aspect of their works. Variations were seen in the relationship with space such as the site specific work Hallway sculpture which uses a staircase and Arctic Sanctuary which tries to render amusement park-like enjoyment within a certain limitation of space. Also as an example of a fine work with social features, we had seeker, which tries to visualize the track of immigrants and their identities, and sight seeing spot, which filmed participants' video portraits in the setting of a print club picture machine in a tourist place. A work like Camera Lucida, which shows illusion using an experimental method which had not been available before, is still alive, but in the future, I would like to hope for an emergence of works more centered on society and history.

Interaction is one of the essential qualities of media arts, but a work cannot be completed if you just exchange information interactively with a machine controlled by a computer. What is freshly generated by "touching" or "participating" is important. For example, in experiences a compound eye, a new unnatural experience is produced only by wearing a spherical object with many small holes. Se Mi Sei Vicino does an excellent job of visualizing the reaction which happens when people approach each other. tameiki-majiri where a sigh is released while turning a faucet on is a simple interaction but causes laughter to escape from the viewers' mouth. Adding expressive power to technical capabilities, these aspects will be increasingly required for interactive art in the future.

Having passed the milestone of the 10th anniversary, this year, when the Japan Media Arts Festival is about to begin a new journey, there is no doubt that the role which the Art Division has to play is significant even just taking into account the number of entries to this division. Also the current situation where the entries from abroad account for nearly half of all the applications is one of the proofs that this division has come to rank with other international media arts festivals. The point of discussion in this year's screening session was whether we agree the message a piece of work delivers can carry a clear and strong social context. It may be difficult to produce a definite answer, since the point of dispute changes depending on the individual piece of work. However, this is a necessary argument for the festival in order to step out of being a mere exposition of leading-edge technologies. Also what is vital more than anything else is whether the message manages to carry a viewpoint as a piece of art.