![2008 [12th] Japan Media Arts Festival Symposia Reports](/english/festival/2008/images/h1_repo_symposium.gif "2008 [12th] Japan Media Arts Festival Symposia Reports")
Besides the Award Winners Symposium attended by award winners and members of the Jury this year, Theme Symposia entitled “Connected with the Future” were held. Under the main theme of “Connected with the Future,” artists, technologists, and curators discussed changing media arts from various perspectives. This section reports fascinating symposia with professionals who are active in the front line.
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| This symposium invited Marcio AMBROSIO, whose Grand Prize winning Work Oups! attracted great attention in the exhibition hall and Excellence Prize Winners TAGUCHI Yukihiro and Alexander MENDELEVICH as guests. Head of the Art Division Jury, HARADA Daizaburo, helped bring out the inside story of the creation of the works and the thoughts that lay behind them. |
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| Taking part in the symposium were IWAI Toshio and NISHIBORI Yu, two of the artists who created the Grand Prize Winner, TENORI-ON, and NAKAMURA Yugo, an Excellence Prize Winner for FONTPARK 2.0. Along with Head of the Entertainment Division Jury TANAKA Hideyuki and with Jury member MASUYAMA Hiroshi as chair, presentations of Award-winning Works were given and the relationship between media arts and entertainment was discussed. |
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| Taking part in the Symposium were KATO Kunio, creator of the Grand Prize Winner, The House of Small Cubes, YUASA Masaaki, creator of Excellence Prize Winner, KAIBA, and KIMURA Taku, creator of another Excellence Prize Winner, KUDAN. Along with Head of the Animation Division Jury SUZUKI Shinichi, they discussed the background of their works and what they are aiming for the future as creators. |
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| The guest was SASOU Akira, who won his second Excellence Prize this year with MAESTRO. Head of the Manga Division Jury CHIBA Tetsuya and Jury member FUJIMOTO Yukari heard about the background to the creation of the Award-winning Work and the presentation of “sound” in music manga. |
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| This year’s Special Achievement Prize winner NAKAYA Fujiko, curator of Kawasaki City museum HAMAZAKI Koji, and Head of the Art Division Jury HARADA Daizaburo engaged in an enthusiastic exchange of opinions about the relation between video art and media arts, which are changing as a result of digital technologies, and possibilities for the future. |
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| Taking part were animation director and member of the Animation Division Jury IKUHARA Kunio and manga researcher HOSOGAYA Atsushi. With Professor HAMANO Yasuki of University of Tokyo Graduate School, who is also a member of Japan Media Arts Festival Operating Committee, as chair, and they discussed the power and the future of Japanese manga and animation, which have now spread worldwide. |
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| Present at the Symposium were Professor IWATA Hiroo of the University of Tsukuba Graduate School, HASHIMOTO Norihisa, a PRESTO researcher at the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and MORIYAMA Tomoe, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Along with Professor HARASHIMA Hiroshi of University of Tokyo Graduate School, who served as an Art Division Juror, they talked about the relationship between art and technology in Japan and the environment that surrounds media arts. |
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