THE JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL SPECIAL EXHIBITION

26(Saturday)—29(Tuesday) November, 2016
Venue:The Annex

Satellite Venue: Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, City University of Hong Kong | 27(Sunday)— 29(Tuesday) November, 2016
Organizer: Japan Media Arts Festival / Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Cooperation: MILL6 Foundation / School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
Planning Director: TAKAHASHI Mizuki (Senior Curator, MILL6 Foundation)

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1. Asemic Languages, KANNO So + yang02
2. Movement in Time Part 2, CHUNG Waiching Bryan
3. Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1, Sougwen CHUNG
4. ZOMBIE MUSIC, YASUNO Taro
5. Fantasy Captured in Plastic Models: A Desk Diorama, IKEUCHI Hiroto
6. Sign, LEUNG Chi Wo
7. APHASIA, HUANG Yintzu
8. Pendulum Choir, Cod. Act (Michael DÉCOSTERD / André DÉCOSTERD)
9. Prospectus for a Future Body, Ka Fai CHOY
10. Travis “Moving”, Tom WRIGGLESWORTH / Matt ROBINSON
11. Japanese School Girl Chase, Japanese School Girl Chase project teamTheme:Ubiquitous Humanity

If media arts are always discussed in relation with advanced
technology, it may be concluded that the art works by AI (artificial intelligence) can be the most critical entities since they willquestion the humanity including sensibility and ethics that are
the foundation in inventing technologies and tools.
Looking at the award-winning works and jury selections of past
Japan Media Arts Festivals, despite being created by utilization ofadvanced technologies, they address with peculiar characteristics to human beings. They expand human physical capabilities,
evoke complex and subtle emotions such as pathos and melancholy, and question the boundaries of the human and machines.

This implies two things; media arts amplify human sensibility;
human beings are growing operating systems, and gadgets anddevices are basically invented to have a highly affinity with thesystems and realize their potentials. Thus, in the production ofmedia arts and exploitation of gadgets, we require both the ethics, which are acquired through various experiences by the individual as well as the collective, and the critiques and discussion
for checking the ethics.
In this special exhibition, the works exploring these issues are
selected. In addition to the exhibition, there will be demonstrations, performances, and artists’ talks.
Planning director: TAKAHASHI Mizuki
Senior curator, MILL6 Foundation in Hong Kong

IKEUCHI Hiroto [Japan]

yang02 [Japan]

Ka Fai CHOY [Singapore]

LAU Hochi [Hong Kong]

Born in 1990 and graduated from the
Department of Interactive Design, TamaArt University. He built a hybrid diorama
with plastic models for his graduation
project, inspired by the idea that theinside of a computer resembles a secretbase.
http://ikeuchi-products.tumblr.com/

Born in 1984. Completed the Graduate
Program in Design at Tama Art University,
specializing in Information Design. He carries out research and creation activities
focused on character-based expressions
with a corporeal nature and “public nature”
as major keywords.
http://yang02.com/

Artist and performance maker. He is
inspired by the histories and theorizations
that together contain the uncertainties
of the future. His research springs from adesire to understand the conditioning of
the human body, its intangible memories
and the forces shaping its expressions.
http://www.ka5.info/

Hochi Born in Hong Kong in 1990, is currently working as a research assistant at
the School of Creative Media in Hong Kong,
where he received a B.A. in Creative Media
in mid-2013. He is interested in humanperceptions and machinery.
http://lauhogi.com/

KANNO So [Japan]

YASUNO Taro [Japan]

HUANG Yintzu [Taiwan]

Born in 1984. Completed the Media Creation Course at the Institute of Advanced
Media Arts and Science(IAMAS). He uses
electronic circuits and programming tocreate works that have a tool-like nature.
http://kanno.so/

Born in 1976 in Tokyo. A composer, he has
been creating ZOMBIE MUSIC performances at various locations since 2012.
http://taro.poino.net/

Born in 1985. A video artist based in New
York.
http://www.huangyintzu.com

TAGUCHI Yukihiro [Japan]
Born in 1980, Osaka. Graduated fromthe Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo Universityof the Arts. Currently, he presents performative installations and film works
using stop-motion to highlight bodily
movements at many exhibitions, mainlyin Germany.
https://yukihirotaguchi.wordpress.com/

Cod.Act (Michel DÉCOSTERD /André DÉCOSTERD) [Switzerland]
Combining their know-how, André andMichel have together developed performances and interactive installations. At
the root of their approach is a reflection on
sound and movement and the possibilityof their mutual interaction.
http://www.codact.ch/

CHUNG Waiching Bryan [UK]
Born in 1964 in Hong Kong. He is a media
artist and currently teaching in the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist
University, with subjects on interactive art
and multimedia.
http://www.magicandlove.com/

LEUNG Chi Wo [Hong Kong]
Born in 1968 in Hong Kong. He is a visual
artist based in Hong Kong.
http://leungchiwo.com

Sougwen CHUNG [Canada]
Canadian-born, Chinese-raised, New York
based. She is an artist and research affiliate at MIT Media Lab, in Cambridge.
http://sougwen.com

Tom WRIGGLESWORTH /Matt ROBINSON [UK]Wriggles & Robins are the London-based
directors and creatives Tom Wrigglesworthand Matt Robinson.
http://www.wrigglesandrobins.com/

The Japan Media Arts Festival is a comprehensive festival of Media Arts (Japanese: Media Geijutsu) that honors outstanding works froma diverse range of media - from animation and comics to media art and games. The festival gives awards in each of its four divisions: Art,Entertainment, Animation, and Manga. It also provides a platform for appreciation of the Award-winning and other notable works. Since
its inception in 1997, the festival has recognized significant works of high artistry and creativity and in addition to a yearly Exhibition ofAward-winning Works has held other events, such as symposiums, screenings, and showcases. Last year, the 19th Festival received 4,417
entries from 87 countries and regions around the world, demonstrating is continuing evolution as an established annual international
festival. Award-winning Works are exhibited both within Japan and abroad through various projects and events organized by The Agencyof Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan which aims to develop and promote the creation of Media Arts by focusing primarily on the newgeneration of artists.
Twitter: @JMediaArtsFes_e

http://festival.j-mediaarts.jp/en/

Inquiries:
Office of Project for Participation in Overseas Media Arts Festivals (c/o NHK international, Inc.) | jmaf-info@nhkint.or.jp

http://jmaf-promote.jp/global/en/Asemic Languages [2016 / Interactive Installation] |KANNO So + yang02 [New Face Award winner at 15th Art Division]
Characters are a means of visual communication and recording a language.
Civilizations throughout the world have created various characters, whichconvey their culture and history. This project focuses purely on the form of
the characters rather than their meaning. The characters have been learned
by artificial intelligence (AI) not for their meaning but for their shape andpatterns. AI has created and drawn lines that look like characters but do nothave any meaning. By learning handwriting with one writer in each language,
artificial intelligence collected information on the shapes of each charactersystem, as well the idiosyncrasies of each writer, of a AI, to possess a plotter.
The generated lines are written as if they meant something important, also
look like trying to deceive.
©So KANNO / Takahiro YAMAGUCHI Photo: Kikuyama

Movement in Time Part 2 [2016 / Live computational video] |CHUNG Waiching Bryan [Grand Prize winner at 19th Art Division]
The project analyzed the fighting sequences in traditional Chinese martial art films. The results will match against thebrush stroke data from the famous Cursive style Chinese calligraphy text – the One Thousand Characters Classics ( 千字文 ). In the end, the fight sequences will automatically generate a piece of unique text from the character database.
They can be considered as unique signatures of the film clips they represent. Note that the relation between theoriginal film clips and these simulated gestural paintings. The actions are actually representations of the charactermovements, cinematography, and editing works.
©2016 Bryan Wai-ching CHUNG

Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 [2015 / Interactive Installation / Excellence Award at 19thEntertainment Division] | Sougwen CHUNG©Created on the occasion of the exhibition: Japan Media Arts Showcase at Tokyo Art Center,
Tokyo February 2016. Photo: courtesy of the artist

This work is an ongoing collaboration between the artist and a robotic arm. The behavior of the roboticarm was designed to mimic the drawn gesture in real time through the use of a ceiling-mounted camera
and computer vision, resulting in a synchronous, interpretive performance. This work is an ongoingcollaboration between the artist and a robotic arm. The behavior of the robotic arm was designed to mimic
the drawn gesture in real time through the use of a ceiling-mounted camera and computer vision, resulting
in a synchronous, interpretive performance. Through this project, the artist investigates the ideas ofautomation, autonomy, and collaboration as an exercise in behavioral empathy. Sougwen CHUNG and her
Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 explores mimicry and procedural mark-making as a simple drawing
performance between a human and mechanical agent.

ZOMBIE MUSIC [2013 / Media Performance / Jury Selections at 17th Art Division] | YASUNO Taro
The music in this work is the automated, self-created sound made by a robot blowing air into a recorderwith an air compressor. There are propositions that question how close machines can get to being human.
But the machine in this work does not perform like a person and for this reason, we cannot properly callit a robot. Yasuno calls this still less than human robot the Zombie and uses it for his performances. The
machine (zombie) points to the antithesis of living humanity (i.e., death), performing this ZOMBIE MUSIC.

©Taro YASUNO Photo: Rody Shimazaki

patch pass [Work-in-progress / Interactive Performative Installation] |TAGUCHI Yukihiro [Excellence Award winner at 12th Art Division] Collaboration with HUNG Ming kin (fashion design)
Performances on the motif of a broken umbrella on the streets of Hong Kong will be held about town and a photographic record made for the production of a stopmotion animation. In addition to the images of urban spaces, there will be artistic collaborations during the term at the exhibition venues as well and the record ofthese will be added as an extra work. Aside from the video images, an installation will also feature the umbrella and umbrella materials.

wasd human [2016 / Interactive Art] | LAU Hochi [New Face Award winner at 17th Art Division]
wasd human is a wearable interface for instructing humanbeings how to move. It enables the user to interpret each instruction intuitively through vibrations
around waist. An instruction may come from a computer or another human being (when paired with the suitable input interface). With multiple users, this system
can synchronise or choreograph sequences of multipul user movements.

Fantasy Captured in Plastic Models: A Desk Diorama[2013 / Diorama, Gadget / Excellence Award at 17th Entertainment Division] |IKEUCHI Hiroto
This work takes the theme of a “fantasy captured in plastic models”, utilizing
and rebuilding computers and their peripheral devices with plastic models
to make a diorama, creating a world about which all of us have surely once
daydreamed. With a personal computer – a “building” for preserving an
individual’s memory – here becoming a fortified base for protecting thosememories, and a mouse that can move around freely as a defensive “tank”,
IKEUCHI’s work embodies ideas acquired from intrinsic forms and how things
are used, bringing their special qualities and possibilities into sharp relief.
©Hiroto ikeuchi

Sign [2008 / Video Installation] | LEUNG Chi Wo [Artist selected by Jury in 19th Art Division]
Sign is a 2-part video work by Leung Chi Wo exploring the idea of non-mainstream communication and themeaning of human reality overloaded by mass media. Part I is an educational video featuring deaf teacher
and her shadow about the idea of baby signs in Auslan(Australian Sign Language) and the demonstrationof basic signs with which parents can actually learn to communicate with their children whoever deaf
or hearing. Part II is a fictional video showing a young mother in communication with her baby in Auslan.
Though taking place in a peaceful and pleasant atmosphere, the mother tries to convey the words that she
comes across every day, which can be harsh or discomforting. The juxtaposition of loving expression andhostile meaning depicts a surrealistic scene of our schizophrenic world. (13 min.)©Leung Chi Wo

APHASIA [2014 / Video Installation / Jury Selections at 18th Art Division] | HUANG Yintzu
APHASIA is a video installation consisting of four separate vertical screens side by side that display
performances by four characters. These videos portray Taiwanese women from different historic periods.
Playing all the roles herself, Yintzu made this project in order to bring attention to a cultural identity crisisand perpetuating “aphasia” afflicting Taiwan. (11 min. 34 sec.)
All Right Reserved ©Yintzu Huang

Pendulum Choir [2012 / Music performance / Grand Prize at 16th Art Division] |Cod. Act (Michael DÉCOSTERD / André DÉCOSTERD)
Pendulum Choir is an original choral piece for 9 a cappella voices and 18
hydraulic jacks. The choir stands on tilting platforms, constituting a living,sonorous body. That body expresses itself through various physical states.
Its plasticity varies at the mercy of its sonority. It varies between abstract
sounds, repetitive sounds, and lyrical or narrative sounds. The bodies of thesingers and their voices play with and against gravity. The technologicalcomplexity and the lyricism of the moving bodies combine into a work with
Promethean accents. (12 min. 31 sec.)©Cod.Act

Prospectus for a Future Body [2011 / Media Performance / Jury Selections at 15th Art Division] |Ka Fai CHOYThis is a research project focusing on the relationship between body movement in dance and digitaltechnologies. The project is made up of four parts exploring the theme of digital muscle memory. In thefirst part, based on the movements of dancers in Summer Storm (1973) by Japanese Butoh artist Tatsumi
Hijikita, the contractions of dancers’ muscles as they move are converted into electrical signals anddigitally stored, then reproduced in the bodies of experimental subjects. Through the use of cutting-edge
digital technologies, the project speculates on the possibilities of motor areas that can become part ofbody memory. (4 min.)©Ka Fai Choy

Travis “Moving” [2013 / Music video / Excellence Award at 17th Entertainment Division] |Tom WRIGGLESWORTH / Matt ROBINSON
Wriggles & Robins directed the music video for the single Moving by UK band. Filming in temperatures coldenough that you could “see your breath”, Wriggles & Robins projected animations into the mist from thewarm breaths of the band members using a projector. This technique enabled them to animate a story
without the need for any CGI or special effects whatsoever, as the visual effect was created “in camera”.
(4 min. 28 sec.)©2013 Red Telephone Box

Japanese School Girl Chase [2014 / Video work / Jury Selections at 18th Entertainment Division] |Japanese School Girl Chase project teamIn this video work two perfectly ordinary female high school students race around all the corners of their
town like ninja. These girls have breathtaking physical abilities and while chasing each other they perform
lots of impressive action stunts. Produced as a Web commercial, the footage is made to look like it wasshot by the girls with a phone camera. It created a lot of buzz, achieving 6 million views in one month after
it was published online. (3 min. 26 sec.)©2014 Suntory Beverage and Food Limited All Rights Reserved.

Related Event

Venue:The Annex

Opening Performance

Performers: YASUNO Taro, TAGUCHI Yukihiro,

26 November (Saturday) 16:00—

LAU Hochi, Sougwen CHUNG

Curator Talk

“Language, Gesture and Emotion: Ubiquitous Humanity in Media Art” 27 November (Sunday) 14:00—
Speakers: CHUNG Waiching Bryan (Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University) × TAKAHASHI Mizuki (Planning Director)
Artists’ Talk

“Failed Works”
Speakers: YASUNO Taro × LAU Hochi × IKEUCHI Hiroto 15:30—17:00
17:30—18:30
KANNO So × Sougwen CHUNG
19:00—20:00
LEUNG Chi Wo × TAGUCHI Yukihiro
Moderator: TAKAHASHI Mizuki

27 November (Sunday)

We live in an era of the mass production of many different things by machine. As human beings, we expect perfection in machines. Artists, on the other
hand, produce and perfect their works through a series of failures. For the human being, failure is a prerequisite for perfection, and the works that we see inexhibitions are only the finished work. In this session, the artists recall their own diverse experiences of failure prior to exhibitions.

Demonstration

Artist: Sougwen CHUNG, Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1
27 November (Sunday) 12:30— | 28 November (Monday) 14:00—, 15:00— | 29 November (Tuesday) 16:00—
Artist: LAU Hochi, wasd human

27 November (Sunday) 13:30— | 28 November (Monday) 14:30—, 15:30— | 29 November (Tuesday) 17:00—
Closing Performance

Performers: YASUNO Taro, TAGUCHI Yukihiro

Map

The Annex

Nan Fung Place 2/F-6, 173 Des Voeux Road Central, Cental

29 November (Tuesday) 18:00—

Run Run Shaw Creative Media Center, City University of Hong Kong
18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Screening

Venue:Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre (City University of Hong Kong)
Venue: Future Cinema Studio 6F (M6094)

Screening

WOLF CHILDREN [2012 / Animated feature film / Jury Selections at 16th Animation Division] |HOSODA Mamoru
27 November (Sunday) 15:00—17:00
Hana, a 19-year-old university student, was predestined to fall in love with a wolf boy. In time she gives
birth to two wolf children, Yuki (Snow) and Ame (Rain), but not long afterward their father suddenly
dies. Clutching her still young children to her breast, Hana decides to raise them in a beautiful andremote region, where they can pursue two ways of life — that of a human and that of a wolf. This story,
depicting the love between a mother and her children, follows Hana, Yuki, and Ame over a 13-year period.
(116 min. 54 sec.)©2012 “WOLF CHILDREN”

Ghost in the Shell: Arise - border:1 Ghost Pain
[2013 / Animated feature film / Jury Selections at 17th Animation Division]|

27 November (Sunday) 17:30—18:30

KISE Kazuchika

SHIRO Masamune’s manga has already been adapted into a feature-length animated film and TV series,
and this, the first episode of four, is the latest animated version. Set in a future society where theadvancement of information networks and cyborg technology has made it possible to connect people’s
wills by “cyberbrains”, it tells the story of cyborg heroine Motoko Kusanagi and the foundation of Ghost in
the Shell, which has the objective of preventing heinous crimes. (58 min. 17 sec.)©Shirow Masamune . Production I.G / KODANSHA . GHOST IN THE SHELL ARISE COMMITTEE

Venue: Future Cinema Studio 6F (M6094)

Screening and Talk

28 November (Monday) 16:00—17:15 SCREENIG | 17:30—19:00 TALKApproved For Adoption [2012 / Animated memoir film / Grand Prize at 17th Animation Division] |JUNG / Laurent BOILEAU©Mosaïque Films - Artémis Productions - Panda Média Nadasdy Film - France 3

Speakers:

Screening

Following the Korean War, many Korean children left their homeland as adopted children. As one such individual,
JUNG was welcomed to a family in Belgium as “family”. Living with parents and four siblings with a skin color
different from his own, JUNG learned French, forgot Korean, and was able to forget the life he had led in theorphanage. It was then that a Korean foster girl came to join the “family”. Upon seeing her, JUNG began for the firsttime to become aware of who he was… Using film footage of modern-day Seoul, 8mm film and video recordings
showing JUNG at the time in the 1970s, and diverse techniques such as 3D animation combining hand-drawn
images and CG, it opens up the expressive possibilities of the animated medium. It tells of a “family” filled with love
despite differences in skin color and differing blood ties. (75 min.)JUNG (co-director & drawer)
WALICZKY, Tamas (Professor, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong)
Venue: Future Cinema Studio 6F (M6094)

28 November (Monday) 15:00—15:45
Ubiquitous Humanity —Animated Short films·COMBUSTIBLE, OTOMO Katsuhiro [2012 / 16th Grand Prize]·The Sense of touch, Jean-Charles MBOTTI MALOLO [2014 / 16th Jury Selections]·Here, There and Everywhere, KABUKI Sawako [2013 / 17th Jury Selections]·Rainy Days, Vladimir LESCHIOV [2014 / 18th Jury Selections]·I am alone, walking on the straight road., OKAMOTO Masnori [2012 / 16th Jury Selections]

Screening

Venue: Screening Theater M1052(LG1)29 November (Tuesday)
The Japan Media Arts Festival Screening Program·Focus in Japan Selection 2016 15:00—16:10·Award-Winning Program 2016 16:30—18:10

THE JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL SPECIAL EXHIBITION

27(Sunday)—29(Tuesday) November, 2016

Venue:Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, City University of Hong Kong

Main Venue: The Annex | 26(Saturday)— 29(Tuesday) November, 2016
Organizer: Japan Media Arts Festival / Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Cooperation: MILL6 Foundation / School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
Planning Director: TAKAHASHI Mizuki (Senior Curator, MILL6 Foundation)

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1. WOLF CHILDREN, HOSODA Mamoru
2. Ghost in the Shell: Arise - border:1 Ghost Pain, KISE Kazuchika
3. Approved For Adoption, JUNG / Laurent BOILEAU
4. COMBUSTIBLE, OTOMO Katsuhiro
5. The Sense of touch, Jean-Charles MBOTTI MALOLO
6. Here, There and Everywhere, KABUKI Sawako
7. Rainy Days, Vladimir LESCHIOV
8. I am alone, walking on the straight road., OKAMOTO Masnori

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