TOKYO GARDEN

9. -13. September 2020

ABOUT
TOKYO GARDEN

What is the benefit of an online festival?
How we can utilize this unfortunate but unique opportunity?
TOKYO GARDEN will be a place where we exhibit current Japanese artists’ works, but, will also be a chance to trace the origin of Japanese Media Art through talks, interviews and a sharing archive.
KEY: Online, 2020, TOKYO, CONTEXT, ARCHIVE, LIVE, Map the new world.

Seiichi Saito (JP)
Creative Director, Rhizomatiks
Director of TOKYO GARDEN, Japan Media Arts Festival Overseas Promotion

TOKYO GARDEN / Exhibition

  • Pre-recoded video

Behind the scene of “Terminal Slam”

Daito Manabe (JP), Kenichiro Shimizu (JP)

Description
Daito Manabe, the only Japanese artist to win a prize at PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2020, will talk about his award-winning work "Terminal Slam" and about PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA, which he has won the prize many times since 2011, reflecting the relationship between people and media today.
Director’s message
As a visual expression that further enhances the splendor of music, this work shows an urban landscape of the city using a unique media Diminished Reality; making what is there invisible. Today, we are all controlled by information, playing with it, finding value in it, and acting on it. The artist has beautifully presented such a normalized everyday landscape as an artistic and problematic expression. We would look into the concepts, techniques, and interactions behind this work, along with an interview with Daito Manabe, who directed the work to find out more.
Inspired by the original work of:

Squarepusher / Terminal Slam

Daito Manabe (JP), Kenichiro Shimizu (JP)

« Terminal Slam » Prix Ars Electronica / Computer Animation 2020, Honorary Mentions
Music video

Music video for artist Squarepusher (UK)’s track “Terminal Slam” created by world-renowned visual artist Daito Manabe and video director Kenichiro Shimizu (PELE) both based in Tokyo. The video uses Diminished Reality and Mixed Reality to create a dystopian world where people become visual feedback loops and on-screen advertising intrudes into the real world. The use of this unique technology depicts AI can visually disrupt the advertisements and people as one walk around the city wearing MR glasses, and the landscape changes in time with the sound.

Profile
  • Daito Manabe (JP)

    Artist/Interaction Designer/Programmer/DJ
    Tokyo-based artist, interaction designer, programmer, and DJ. Launched Rhizomatiks in 2006. Since 2015, has served alongside Motoi Ishibashi as co-director of Rhizomatiks Research, the firm’s division dedicated to exploring new possibilities in the realms of technical and artistic expression with a focus on R&D-intensive projects. Specially-Appointed Professor at Keio University SFC. Manabe’s work in art, design, and entertainment takes a new approach to everyday materials and phenomenon. However, his end goal is not simply rich, high-definition realism by recognizing and recombining these familiar elemental building blocks. Rather, his practice is informed by careful observation to discover and elucidate the essential potentialities inherent to the human body, data, programming, computers, and other phenomena, thus probing the interrelationships and boundaries delineating the analog and digital, real and virtual.

  • Kenichiro Shimizu (JP)

    Video Director/VFX Artist
    Video director and a VFX artist who uses CG, VFX, AR, and VR effectively for high-quality visual effects, e.g. in adverts and films. Awards include the ACC Grand Prix / Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award and the Journalist Award. In 2018, he launched his own company Pele Co., Ltd., working with video installation for events or live shows and vision production.

Credit
Squarepusher / Terminal Slam
Director, Glitch Effects and Interaction Designer: Daito Manabe (Rhizomatiks)
Film and Editing director: Kenichiro Shimizu (PELE)
Machine Learning Engineer: Yuta Asai (Rhizomatiks) / Video Export Tool Developer: 2bit / Effects Artist: Aya Takamatsu (Rhizomatiks) / Ad Graphic Designer: Kaori Fujii (Rhizomatiks) / CG Director: Junichi Ebe (Freelance) / Effects Supervisors: Kenta Katsuno (+Ring), Takeshi Ozaki (+Ring) / Effects Artists: Mikita Arai (Freelance), Masaki Takahashi (Freelance)
Digital Artists: Yuki Hirakawa (+Ring), Yu Onishi (+Ring), Kenta Hasegawa (+Ring), Ayaka Yamaguchi (+Ring), Takeya Kamimura (+Ring), Ryuichi Ono (Freelance) / CG Producer: Toshihiko Sakata (+Ring) / VFX Airtist: Yoshinobu Okino (Nomad) / Colorlist: Felipe Szulc (Nomad) / Cinematographer: Kazuki Takano (TRIVAL) / Cinematographer, Operator: Takuya Higa (Cyanworksandfilms) MIDI Data designer: Kyoko Koyama / Cast: SARA (ELEVENPLAY) / Film Producer: Chikako Nagai (PELE) / Producer: Takao Inoue (Rhizomatiks)