Festival Report

From February 24 to March 4, 2007, “Japan Media Arts Festival” was held to recognize distinguished media art works and introduce them widely to the world. For this 10th festival, 1,808 works from 36 countries and regions applied for inclusion, which was the largest number so far. Approximately 165 excellent works were exhibited at the festival. Along with the exhibitions, various events, such as showing films, conducting symposiums and designed exhibitions were held with the maximum number of visitors per day during the festival, totaling 66,765. The festival received great attention from Japanese Media Art, where technique and expression merge while art and entertainment crisscross.

Exhibition Exhidition

There were 5 exhibitions; “Exhibition of Japan Media Arts Festival Prize-Winning Works,” “Exhibition of the 12th Students’ CG Competition Prize-Winning Works,” “Comic Book Library” to show past prize-winning works in the comic division as a part of the commemorative exhibition for the 10th anniversary of the festival, “Advanced Technology Showcase ‘07” to introduce technology for expression and “Media Art in the World” to introduce overseas media art festivals.

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Screening Screening

Various screen works, including art, entertainment and animation were screened on the first floor theater. They were screen works selected in each division at this year’s “Japan Media Arts Festival” as well as superior works in the animated film division of the “Students’ CG Competition,” works from media art festivals held in overseas countries and the work of Mr. Daikuhara, who received the performance awards.

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symposia

A total of eight symposiums were held, including the “Award Winners’ Symposium” with this year’s award winners and judges, along with “Theme Symposium” to think about media art from various viewpoints, such as considering the current condition of media art in the world and the relationship of art and technology.

symposia
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event

"Asian Students' Animation Collaboration" was the workshop held by foreign students from other Asian countries and from Japan. Also, a round table discussion, "Creating Environment for Generating and Learning Digital Intellectual Assets" was held with a demonstration in cafe style.

Event
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Awards Ceremony and Celebrarion Banquet

Prior to the festival, the presentation ceremony for the Japan Media Arts Festival was held at Westin Hotel Tokyo on February 23. Vice Minister Ikenobo of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology presented certificates of merit and the project general manager of each division presented trophies to the prize winners. The Performance Award for the recognition of a person who has made a great contribution to the field of Japanese media art, went to Mr. Daikuhara, who is the drawing director supporting Japanese animation in early days. After the presentation ceremony, a celebration banquet was held and the banquet really picked up when Prime Minister Abe attended, exceeding the closing time.

Design of the Japan Media Atrs Festival 2006
Concept of Space (mind-flow)
It has been 10 years since Japan Media Arts Festival started.
I send a message into space about the turning point of media arts that evolve every year.

There are the same number of thoughts spilling out as the number of people.
Future called “originality” is here.

Motif is “ORIGAMI”. Shapes created from the simple act of folding papers. Visualized thoughts make us the feel eternal extent of our intellects.

I composed the space to highlight the many artists who created their works that gently proclaim their existence in the exhibit space with suppressed lighting.

A square panel floating in space is a life-size ORIGAMI. Rhythmically stretching ORIGAMI is a metaphor of floating thoughts and possibilities spilling out. There is no suggested route in the space where numerously expanding artworks and ORIGAMI overlap. We lay out the objects in the way that observers can devote themselves to their interest, quest and detonated circuit of thoughts while freely walking around.
These early movements of sensible media arts give an indication of limitless human originality.

TANIGAWA Junji, JTQ Inc.
Visual Concept
"The Body Acts as Art"
In the film “Les Uns et Les Autres (‘Bolero’ in USA)”, the director Claude Lelouch self-mockingly said, “Each person thinks his life is his own specific one, but there are not so many kinds of lives. If there are, there are three, maybe five or six at the very most.”

I can understand that, but it changes in the world of art.

Suddenly, the lid of the person’s self-expression opens. It goes out to the field, painting with a stick, coloring, inputting data, turning noise to music. Various outrageous differences of sensibility and attraction are stretching out.
Everybody once looked the same, but human beings are now spreading out their image like after floodgate is opened. There is no limit to the expression of each in his own way. Like origami made of a sheet of paper, an unexpected form of expression, Media Art, may catch the future of science going through the 3rd to the 4th dimension, and on to the 5th dimension.

Kazunari Okamoto
Concept of Image
As I do every year, basically, I produced it with the concept of developing the graphics of the collection of works and posters into animation.

This time, the key visual item is origami, so I thought about expressing the work in some big interpretation of the world rather than fitting it in a small world, partly because it symbolized the 10th anniversary. I came up with the visual image in which the folded side of the border of the crease comes to have individual 3-dimensional coordinates at the moment it is folded and the space gradually changes its shape…

Daisaburo Harada
Japan Media Arts Festival Executive Committee (Agency for Cultural Affairs, CG-ARTS Society)
Organizer : Japan Media Arts Festival Executive Committee (Agency for Cultural Affairs, CG-ARTS Society)
Date : Everyday from Saturday, February 24 to Sunday, March 4, 2007
Place : Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Yebisu Garden Place 1-13-3, Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
Admission fee : Free
Number of visitors : 66,765
Summary of the Festival