Round table

27/10/2009

19—22 h

Pogon Mislavova (Zagreb)

Device Art is a concept that was invented almost at the same time in 2004 in Japan and here. Those who follow the scene related to arts and the new technologies cannot believe that it is not a matter of a kind of copying, and wonder who took the title from whom. But we claim that Device Art is just one more piece of evidence showing that ideas are universal.

This topic, as well as similarities and differences will be debated during the round table with founders of Japanese Device Art Machiko Kusahara and Hiroo Iwata, professors at Japanese and American univeristies, and curators from Kontejner.

Tuesday 27.10.2009.

  • 19:00-21:00 presentation, discussion about Japanese Device Art - Conference hall, Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth, Mislavova 11
  • 19:00 introduction - Olga Majcen Linn i Sunčica Ostoić
  • 19:20 Machiko Kusahara (JP), Decoding Device Art from Cultural Aspects: Playfulness, Love for Technology and Mitate
  • 19:40 Hiroo Iwata (JP), Device Art: Why a Doctor of Engineering Launched Movement in Art?
  • 20:00 Marcell Mars (HR), Unwrapping
  • 20:30 round table about Device Art: Hiroo Iwata, Machiko Kusahara, William Linn, Marcell Mars, Ivan Marušić Klif, Tomislav Medak, Tomislav Pokrajčić, Klaudio Štefančić, Novmichi Tosa
  • Language: english
  • Moderated by: Olga Majcen Linn and Sunčica Ostoić

Hiroo Iwata (JP)

Hiroo Iwata is a professor of the University of Tsukuba, where he is leading research projects on virtual reality and Device Art. His research interests include haptic interfaces, locomotion interfaces and spatially immersive display. He received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1981, 1983 and 1986, respectively. He exhibited his works at the Emerging Technologies competition of the SIGGRAPH and has achieved an unbeatable record of showing a new work every year from 1994 until 2007. He also exhibited his works at the Ars Electronica Festival 96, 97, 99, and 2001. He won Honorable Mentions in Prix Ars Electronica 96 and 2001. He launched the Device Art Project in 2004, which was supported by Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency from 2005 to 2009. The project is still continuing.

http://intron.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp
iwata@kz.tsukuba.ac.jp

Erkki Huhtamo (JP)

Erkki Huhtamo is a media archaeologist, writer and exhibition curator. He works as professor of media history and theory at the University of California, Department of Design | Media Arts. Professor Huhtamo holds a Ph. D. in Cultural History, and has published extensively on media archaeology and the media arts. His most recent books are a monograph titled Illusions in Motion (a history of the moving panorama), and a collection of writings on media archaeology, edited with Dr. Jussi Parikka (both forthcoming from the University California Press, 2010).

Itsuo Sakane (JP)

Itsuo Sakane was born in 1930, Tsingtao, China. Studied Architecture at Tokyo University, BA, and M.A. A journalist for the Asahi Shimbun,1956-1990. Professor at Keio University, 1990-1996. President of IAMAS 1996-2003. Emeritus President of IAMAS 2003.4. Visiting Professor at Tokyo Tama Art University, 2004,. An honorary editor for the Leonardo, published by MIT Press.Major publications include The Coordinate of Beauty, Beyond the Conflict between Art and Science. Exhibitions that he organized include Cybernetics Art, Art in Light and Illusion, Phenomenart for the Saibu Gas Pavilion at Asia Pacific Expo 89, Science-Art for the Japan Pavilion at Expo 92, Interactive art at KSP in 1989, the Interaction Biennale, 1996-2003, IAMAS.Awards: the Japan Culture and Design Award in 1982. The Golden Nica for Life Achievement at Ars Electronica2003. An Honorary Doctor from University of Art and Design Helsinki 2007.

Machiko Kusahara (JP)

Machiko Kusahara is Professor at the School of Culture, Media and Society, Waseda University, Tokyo, and Visiting Scholar at the Art | Sci Center, UCLA, Los Ageles. Her research focuses on interplay between media culture, technology and society both in Japanese early visual media and contemporary media art. Publications include Telerobotics and Art -Presence, Absence, and Knowledge in Telerobotics Art (2000), From Ukiyo-e to Mobile Phone Screens - A Japanese
Perspective (2004), They Are Born to Play: Japanese Visual Entertainment from Nintento to Mobile Phones (2004), Panorama Craze in Meiji Japan (2006), Device Art: A New Approach in Understanding Japanese. Contemporary Media Art (2007).