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Opportunities: Call for Entries for the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival

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Hedwig HEINSMAN / Niki SMIT / Simon van der LINDEN, 3RD, 2014. Interactive Installation. Image from the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival (Entertainment Division, Excellence Award) Courtesy the artists and Japan Media Arts Festival

CALL FOR ENTRIES:
19TH JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

Deadline: 9 September 2015 (18:00 Japan Standard Time)

The Japan Media Arts Festival is a comprehensive festival of Media Arts (Media Geijutsu) that honors outstanding works from a 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. Since its inception in 1997, the festival has recognized significant works of high artistry and creativity, and in addition to a yearly Exhibition of Award-winning Works has held other events, such as symposiums, screenings, and showcases.

Entries are sought from professional, amateur, independent and commercial creators across the globe. Works completed or released between September 3, 2014 and September 9, 2015 are eligible for entry in the four divisions – Art, Entertainment, Animation and Manga.
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Opportunities: Diagonale + BIAN 2016 – Call for Submissions / Appel à  projets | digital art / art numérique

DIAGONAL_BIAN2016

[français]

DIAGONALE + BIAN 2016
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | DIGITAL ART

Deadline: 2 June 2015

Diagonale joins the 3rd International Digital Arts Biennial – BIAN (May–June 2016). In this context, the center is launching a call for projects which relate to Diagonale’s mandate and the theme of the Biennale 2016: AUTOMATA. Curators and artists are invited to submit a proposal until June 2, 2015. The project chosen will be part of the official program of Diagonale and BIAN. It will be presented at the gallery Diagonal May–June 2016 (dates to be confirmed). Continue reading “Opportunities: Diagonale + BIAN 2016 – Call for Submissions / Appel à  projets | digital art / art numérique”

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Opportunities: Call for Entries for the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival

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The 17th Japan Media Arts Festival Art Division Grand Prize: Carsten Nicolai, crt mgn, 2013. ©2013 Carsten Nicolai. All Rights reserved Photo: Uwe Walter Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig / Berlin and The Pace Gallery

Call for Entries:
18th Japan Media Arts Festival

Deadline: 2 September 2014 (18:00 Japan Standard Time)

The Japan Media Arts Festival is a comprehensive festival of Media Arts (Media Geijutsu) that honors outstanding works from a 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 of Award-winning Works has held other events, such as symposiums, screenings, and showcases. Last year, the 17th Festival received a record 4,347 entries from 84 countries and regions around the world, demonstrating its 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 Agency of Cultural Affairs which aims to promote the creation, development and understanding/awareness/appreciation of Media Arts. Continue reading “Opportunities: Call for Entries for the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival”

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Opportunities: Call for Entries for the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival

16jmaf_art_Pendulum-Choir_l_webLast year’s [16th] Japan Media Arts Festival Art Division Grand Prize: Cod.Act (Michel Décosterd / André Décosterd) Pendulum Choir, 2012. Music Performance. ©Cod.Act. Photo: Xavier Voirol.

Call for Entries for the
17th Japan Media Arts Festival

Application period:
Thursday 11 July – Thursday 12 September 2013
(Late entries will not be accepted)

j-mediaarts.jp
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Art & Music – Search for New Synesthesia at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo


Otomo Yoshihide Limited Ensembles, With “Without Records”, 2012. Installation view from Art & Music – Search for New Synesthesia, MOT, Japan. Courtey the artist and MOT. Photo by Norihiro Ueno

Art + Music – Search for New Synesthesia
Tokyo Art Meeting III
27 October 2012 – 3 February 2013
at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Artists: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, John Cage, Manon de Boer, Florian Hecker, Ryoji Ikeda, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Udomsak Krisanamis, Carsten Nicolai, Keita Onishi, Seigen Ono + Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani, Otomo Yoshihide limited ensembles（Otomo Yoshihide, Yasutomo Aoyama, Sachiko M, Kanta Horio, Yuko Mohri), Christine Ödlund, Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani, The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA, Toru Takemitsu, Michi Tanaka / Jiro Takamatsu, Bartholomäus Traubeck, Stephen Vitiello, Lyota Yagi. Curated by Yuko Hasegawa. General Adviser: Ryuichi Sakamoto

Music and the visual arts have shared a close relationship with each other over the course of their evolution. At the beginning of the twentieth century Wassily Kandinsky strove to create a form of comprehensive art that would arouse a variety of sensations, while Paul Klee attempted to create images through the accurate depiction of musical notation. Later, during the 1960s, John Cage and others produced experimental works that explored the rich sensual domain and widened the range of expression made possible through the crossover of the audio and the visual. [read the full article here]
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Conversation: Digital Archiving and Other Contemporary Myths


Jeffery Shaw, The Legible City, 1989. Computergraphic Installation. Collection of ZKM-Medienmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Digital archiving has lately become a much-discussed topic. The illusion of “everlasting” files, advocated at the beginning of the digital revolution started crumbling away, giving way to a perception of digital formats as one of the most ephemeral documents. “We ought to have a very good strategy for digital archiving” says Hiroko Myokan, former curator at Inter Communication Center (ICC), Tokyo and currently working on archiving the very first media art festival in Japan between 1986–1999, for the Agency for Culture in Japan. On a recent visit to Montreal for BIAN 2012, Mutek and Elektra festivals, Myokan and M-KOS resident editor and digital artist Oli Sorenson freely discuss digital archiving as a key phenomenon to our contemporary condition.

Oli Sorenson [OS]: When we first met in Japan two years ago, we had an interesting talked about digital archiving. You were also in a transition period from working as a curator for ICC to going back to studying. Are you still studying now?

Hiroko Myokan [HM]: Yes, I’m still studying archiving and preservation of media art in Linz Krems, Austria but I’m also doing research for the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Tokyo about the first video and media art festival that happened in Japan between 1985 and 1999, in the Fukui prefecture.

OS: Were these well archived?

HM: Actually, yes. It’s a very rare case. They don’t have any video documentation but only printed materials as well as some broadcasting archives from the local TV broadcast company.
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Interview: Alain Thibault, artistic director of the International Digital Arts Biennale


Alain Thibault (Right) with artist Robert Lepage at the opening of BIAN. Courtesy of BIAN 2012. Photo: Conception

Alain Thibault is the founder and artistic director of the International Digital Arts Biennale (BIAN), inaugurating its first edition in April 2012. Unlike his sister electronic music event Elektra, BIAN focuses on digital forms of contemporary art, hosted in numerous museums, art galleries, artist-run centres and other venues throughout the city of Montreal. BIAN invited artists from Germany, Japan, France, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Turkey, USA as well as Quebec and Canada, including renowned names such as Carsten Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda. Thibault talked to M-KOS about his motivation to take digital arts to the next level, while he enjoys the taste of success of the first edition of his biennale.

M-KOS [MKOS]: As founder for the International Digital Arts Biennale (BIAN), how would you describe your motivation to do such a festival?

Alain Thibault [AT]: In fact I started out with Elektra in 1999, which is also an international festival of digital arts. The focus with Elektra was mainly about concerts and performances, but still with a mandate of blending experimental electronic music with visuals. This could be audiovisual performance, robotic performance, but there was always a central axis on experimental electronic music combined with a visual element. So that began in ’99, and gradually we evolved out of Usine C which is our main headquarters and quite an extraordinary venue for presenting this type of show. By 2005 we started adding more and more installations to the usual performance program, and these slowly spread to other venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal and the Cinémathèque. In 2009 the installation program exceeded the allocated duration of the whole [Elektra] festival and that was when I said to myself I should make another event out of this, entirely devoted to the installation component. This is more or less how BIAN was born. And also this was about highlighting the idea that we arrived at a point in time where major artists were doing major works [in a digital format] and for me it was important to mark that moment.
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Frieze New York, here it comes!

Frieze enterprise co-founder Amanda Sharp was enquired a few of years ago by the press, with: “What distinguishes the Frieze from any other art fair?” her straight and simple answer said it all: “It’s Cutting-Edge, [stupid]”. The British born and bred art fair is this year already celebrating its 10th anniversary edition, starting in 2003 as an offspring of Frieze magazine, also published by Sharp and co-founder Matthew Slotover. The fair’s accelerated success briskly grew into one of the most important art events on the global calendar, contending with Art Basel and Armory. In less than a week’s time, the very first edition of Frieze New York (FNY) will cut its inaugural ribbon on Randall’s Island to roll in the four-day art extravaganza. Some news sources have so far depicted Frieze New York as another ‘British invasion’, a tale supported by Sharp and Slotover’s recent OBE (Officers of the Order of British Empire) appointment by the Queen, at the very start of 2012. The real question is: How will Frieze shake up New York’s existing art establishment?
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ELEKTRA 12: International Digital Art Festival 4–8 MAY 2011

ELEKTRA 12 – International Digital Arts Festival
04-08 May 2011
Various venues in Montréal
www.elektramontreal.ca

(Clockwork from top left) Cod.Act “Cycledïd-E” (2009) kinetic installation. courtesy of the artist ©Xavier Voirol; Martin Messier “Sewing Machine Orchestra” (2010) AV performance. courtesy of the artist; 1024 Architecture “Euphorie” (2010) AV performance courtesy of the artist; Mary Ellen Bute (1906–1983) film screening curated by Sandra Naumann, courtesy of S.Naumann and Elektra; Yam Lau “Rehearsal” (2011) installation. courtesy of the artist; Kurt Hentschläger “Feed” (2005–06) AV performance. courtesy of the artist

For its 12th edition, ELEKTRA offers a wide selection of the recent digital creations. Based on this year’s theme “Visualising Sound” the festival showcases diverse programs of audiovisual performances, as well as robotics, interactive art and installations, hosted at several Montréal venues.

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