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| © Keiko Kimoto |
KIMOTO Keiko
Born in Hiroshima, in 1958. Graduated from the Faculty of Textile Design at Tama Art University. She specializes in creating images using original computer programs that are based on a nonlinear structure. Her book, Imaginary・Numbers, was published by Kousakusha in 2003. She is currently a member of the Aihara Complexity Modeling Project at JST ERATO.
I am both pleased and honored to receive this prize. That I could win it with an image of such limited expression as a monochrome screen and groups of dots, suggests to me that there is a general appreciation for the possibilities that original programming and an expressive thinking process can create. Also, this award has confirmed for me the validity of my research into the dynamics of the coexistence of logic and emotion, as an artistic expression. I intend to use this opportunity to step towards a new horizon.
This is the latest work in a series that explores organic and biological dynamics using a nonlinear mathematical model, a subject that the artist has been researching for many years. As the particles dance dynamically in the visual space created by the mathematical model, we are reminded of the things we see in social and natural phenomena, such as “the individual and the group” or “the part and the whole”. The excellence of this work is facilitated by the latest computer technology, but above all is the result of a keen artistic sensibility. It is very interesting work.
How old were you when you "created" something first time in your life? At that time, what did you create, and what kind of medium did you use?
I was about 10 years old when I first realized I was not just drawing, I was creating. I was painting watercolors of plants and landscapes when I became conscious of the feeling that I was using my own brain to produce something.
What kind of tools or medium do you use now? Please tell us the reason why you choose them.
Currently, as my work is based on mathematical models, I use a PC as a tool to run simulations. My basic tools are C++ and Mathematica.
If you could get "dream tools/medium" for your creation, what do you wish to get?
Nothing especially. If anything, perhaps something to help maintain a healthy body and mind.
Do you have any consistent subject matter or theme through your works? If so, please explain us.
I use mathematical language to create my work in order to avoid including material factors. I want to be able to pursue the reality created from a motion system. I believe that this will be a new reality created within people’s mind.
Please tell us the most difficult or considerable part when you create your work.
The process I use is to first create a system using a numerical formula as a universal language, and then develop it into various media (such as books, still images, moving images, object, and so on). As a result, I spend a great deal of time constituting the system. However, at this stage, there is hardly anything visual apart from small graphs. I can only imagine the visual result and I have to depend on my own sense of the fluctuating structure when I constitute the system. Once I get to the stage of making a collection of graphs into an art work, I try to take such factors as human physicality and memory into the work, which makes it more than just a visual image. I believe that art is not intended to be a gateway to understanding the artist’s system, but a method of activating the viewers’ psychological motion system, such as memory and physical sensation; these should be triggered by looking at the art work. When the viewer can realize his own feelings and memories, the art work is truly completed. The systems activated in the mind of the viewer can be different, depending on the medium of the work; even if there is only one system that the artist has constructed in the computer, the image generated has to be properly selected.
Have you ever felt that your work is a "media art"? Also, what is the difference between "media arts" and "traditional fine arts"?
Over the course of human history, art has been created in conjunction with new media, so I do not consider media art to be especially new. However, if media art works as a system to realize new ideas and senses, besides dealing with intrinsic entities, it can be seen as a modern art form.
As an artist/creator, please tell us your approach, stance or point of view when you create your work.
I make much of commonality and universality, rather than peculiarity, with regards to my work. I am aiming to express vividly the substance that I found within.
What is your motto?
I find beautiful the formula of Euler: “eiπ = -1” , a superb outcome.
What kind of situation in every day life do you get inspired most?
When I am in the middle of researching or creating something.
What kind of vision do you have in your future development as the creator?
As I have just completed the first trial work, I need to proceed with the pursuit of my theme.
Although my work primarily takes the form of a moving image, I intend to relate it to other media gradually, and make it into a synthetic installation in the end.
Please name of the people, things, or phenomena that you have got most influenced by as the creator.
· When I was a student, it was Marcel DUCHAMPs The Large Glass.
It is full of ambiguity, yet retains the perfection of its form.
· KAWABATA Yasunari’s novel, House of the Sleeping Beauties
It is full of ambiguity, yet retains the perfection of its form.
· “The continuity of real numbers”
I was able to recognize the difference between the numbers that the human mind can deal with and those that a computer deals with, which was a great help to me with my work. It also motivated me to consider how “to express” even more.
· Complex compound number
I was amazed by the process by which it moves from the world of imaginary (numbers) to the world of real (numbers). I have come to realize that (mathematical) language acquires substance in relation to others.
It is full of ambiguity, yet retains the perfection of its form.
· KAWABATA Yasunari’s novel, House of the Sleeping Beauties
It is full of ambiguity, yet retains the perfection of its form.
· “The continuity of real numbers”
I was able to recognize the difference between the numbers that the human mind can deal with and those that a computer deals with, which was a great help to me with my work. It also motivated me to consider how “to express” even more.
· Complex compound number
I was amazed by the process by which it moves from the world of imaginary (numbers) to the world of real (numbers). I have come to realize that (mathematical) language acquires substance in relation to others.
