Ethereal underworld: exploring Helsinki's colossal new art bunker
In a vast expanse beneath the Finnish capital lies a soaring circus-top culture hub. Will the €50m Amos Rex art museum put the city at the forefront of Europe’s art scene?(本文抜粋)
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In a vast expanse beneath the Finnish capital lies a soaring circus-top culture hub. Will the €50m Amos Rex art museum put the city at the forefront of Europe’s art scene?(本文抜粋)
I ragazzi visitano la mostra ‘Enjoy – l’arte incontra il divertimento’
Una nuova uscita didattica all’insegna dell’arte, della conoscenza e del divertimento per gli studenti dell’Alberghiero di Ladispoli: lunedì 5 febbraio gli allievi dell’Istituto Professionale di via Federici, accompagnati dalle docenti Giovanna Albanese e Valeria Mollo hanno visitato il Chiostro del Bramante e la mostra aperta fino al 25 febbraio: ‘Enjoy. L’arte incontra il divertimento’, curata da Danilo Eccher.(本文抜粋)
Tra stand, esposizioni e panel di esperti, la principale fiera dell’arredamento e della decorazione francese, Maison&Objet, riapre i battenti per affermare con sempre maggiore vigore la via francese al progetto. Con un appeal, però, decisamente in crescita tra tutti gli operatori internazionali: sono in molti a guardare a Parigi come al secondo appuntamento del calendario del design da presenziare dopo il Salone di Milano, sia per business che per esposizione mediatica. E tanti anche gli italiani, da Seletti a Internoitaliano, che non mancano all’appello.
Invariati i pilastri che hanno ormai affermato Maison&Objet come un vero e proprio format: un Créateur de l’Année – adesso è Dorothée Meilichzon – illustra con una scenografia la sua visione della decorazione di interni; i giovani designer con Les Talents à la Carte espongono le loro creazioni, mentre la mostra Floating Flower Garden (a cura del collettivo teamLab) apre le porte ad un giardino sospeso, poetico e multisensoriale. Intorno, moltissimi marchi di arredo non esitano a presentare prodotti in anteprima: qui l’occhio di riguardo va al padiglione Now! Design à Vivre, quello epurato dalle storture del gusto del mobile classico.
Non solo fiera, però: la sinergia tra gli operatori del design continua anche in città con la Paris Design Week. Fino al 12 settembre, infatti, il Fuori Salone alla parigina anima il tessuto urbano mettendo in rete la creatività di 300 tra showroom, gallerie e marchi di arredamento. Organizzata per distretti – Saint Germain, Opéra, Marais, Le Docks (alias la Cité de la Mode et du Design), Barbés-Stalingrad – non esclude i fuori programma (come le incursioni tra le dolcezze di pasticcerie e food designer) e viaggia a metà strada tra l’agenda dei migliori indirizzi della capitale e la vetrina delle novità del momento.
– Giulia Zappa
Maison&Objet
Fino all’8 settembre 20154
Paris Nord Villepinte
http://www.maison-objet.com/
–
Paris Design Week
Fino al 12 settembre 2015
http://www.maison-objet.com/en/paris-design-week
seven digital experiences by teamlab surround viewers at pace galleryseven digital experiences by teamlab surround viewers at pace gallery image courtesy of pace gallery
teamlab: ultra subjective space
pace gallery, new york
now through august 15, 2014
for their first-ever exhibition in the united states, tokyo-based teamlab presents ‘ultra subjective space‘, a display of 7 immersive digital works at page gallery, new york. as a fusion of technology and art, the experiential atmosphere surrounds visitors on large-scale screens, projecting looped videos which investigate perspective, time and the distortion of space.
for ‘cold life’, a calligraphic series of brushstrokes are modeled in a virtual 3D space, metamorphosing the japanese character ‘生’ (meaning ‘life’) into a tree. as time passes, various forms begin to grow from within the organic typologies. in computer graphics, similarly in this digital work, wireframe models with high levels of data are rendered into 3D objects. when the facades of these computer-generated images are peeled away, their mesh-like structures are revealed underneath. teamlab exemplifies rendering in its ‘stripped-down’ state while maintaining a complex and elaborate construction. projected in four times the resolution of full high definition, the technology allows for the communication of extremely intricate detail inherent in the work.
in ‘crows are chased and the chasing crows are destined to be chased as well, division in perspective – light in dark’, the japanese mythical bird yatagarasu is rendered in light, flying around the space and leaving trails of color in its wake. the digital artwork uses the ‘itano circus’ technique pioneered by japanese animation, created by ichiro itano. the screen is packed with swarms of missiles that are drawn in a completely incorrect perspective, distorted so that the audience will feel a stronger sense of dynamic movement and impact. through ultra-high-speed camerawork, this approach creates an overwhelmingly beautiful image around the viewer.
‘flower and corpse glitch set of 12′ consists of 12 film stories based on the themes of: civilization and nature, collision, circulation, symbiosis. the surface of flower and corpse glitch falls away to reveal the hidden underside of the animation.
the image of ‘ever blossoming life – dark’ and ‘ever blossoming life – gold’ and created and drawn in real time by a computer program. the images are not pre-recorded nor are played back. flowers grow and blossom within the space, before withering away and disappearing. the cycle of birth and death repeats itself, continuing for eternity and never duplicating the previous states they were in. the artwork is created in two versions: one with gold background and another with dark background. each version is issued in an edition of 10 plus 2 a.p.s.
‘universe of water particles’ is set within a computer-simulated environment: a virtual rock is sculpted and hundreds of thousands of digital water particles are poured onto it. the screen calculates the movement of these particles to produce an accurate waterfall simulation that flows in accordance to physical laws. next, 0.1 percent of the particles are selected and lines are drawn in relation to them. the sinuousness of the lines depends on the overall interaction among the water particles, forming a cascade on screen.
NEW YORK, NY.- Pace Gallery presents Ultra Subjective Space, the first U.S. exhibition of Japanese collaborative digital artists, teamLab, at 508 and 510 West 25th Street from July 17 through August 15, 2014. The two-venue exhibition will include five large-scale digital monitor pieces and the immersive, digital installation, Crows are chased and the chasing crows are destined to be chased as well, Division in Perspective – Light in Dark, 2014. An e-catalogue will accompany the exhibition with an introduction by art historian Charles Merewether and an interview between teamLab founder, Toshiyuki Inoko, and esteemed art historian and professor at Meiji Gakuin University, Yuji Yamashita.
Rooted in the tradition of seventeenth-century Japanese Art and contemporary forms of anime, teamLab navigates the confluence of art, technology, and design. Founded in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko and a group of his university friends, teamLab has exhibited extensively in Asia and is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. This fall, the Japan Society in New York will mount Garden of Unearthly Delights: Works by Ikeda, Tenmyouya & teamLab, marking teamLab’s first inclusion in a stateside museum exhibition. Working as a collective creative force, their work celebrates the vitality of nature and simultaneously strives to expand our understanding of human perception.
The exhibition’s title, Ultra Subjective Space, refers to the distinctly Japanese sense of spatial recognition. The exhibition draws a comparison between representation of space in western Renaissance “perspective," which depicts a linear system with objects receding in space, and that of traditional Japanese compositions. In traditional Japanese composition, from Ukiyo-e prints from the Edo period to current Manga illustrations, figures and objects exist on a single plane of depth focusing on vertical and horizontal relationships to portray dimensionality. The viewer does not hold a dominant perspective over the subject matter and, instead, is merged into a comprehensive experience. The implication of this alternative vantage point, neither subordinate nor superior to western perspective, raises questions regarding how different cultures perceive the construction of space today. Charles Merewether writes in his introduction to the exhibition’s catalogue: “Digital media art, in the hands of such artists as teamLab, succeed as an art of participatory installation and part of our everyday contemporary lives."
The digital monitor and projection installations presented in this exhibition, reflect the construction of Japanese spatial awareness by creating a flattened three-dimensional world. The exhibition’s centerpiece, Crows are chased and the chasing crows are destined to be chased as well, Division in Perspective – Light in Dark, 2014, will play vivid animation across seven staggered screens, setting the viewer in an all-encompassing experience of spatial perception. Using the Japanese animation technique of “Itano Circus," created by renowned animator Ichiro Itano who coined the term for his distinct style of animated flight choreography, a mythological three-legged crow, Yatagarasu, shoots into space to envelope the viewer’s field of vision. Following in the tradition of Japanese spatial rendering, swarms of crows are drawn in a distorted perspective, conveying a strong sense of dynamism and vibrancy. Fully immersed in the installation, the viewer and subject are integrated in a participatory environment characteristic of teamLab’s groundbreaking initiatives on digital platforms.
Ultra Subjective Space will also include three single-channel monitor works and two multi-channel monitor works. Flower and Corpse Glitch Set of 12, 2012, utilizes high definition monitors to tell a mythological tale about Japanese civilization, natural disaster, war, and eventual rebirth. Universe of Water Particles, 2013, creates a dynamic sense of a waterfall cascading down five vertically stacked monitors. Two versions of Ever Blossoming Life – Gold and Dark, 2014 present images of flowers blooming, withering, and dispersing their petals in accordance to a computer program written by teamLab. The animation never repeats itself and the work effectively creates itself in any given moment. In Cold Life, 2014, a series of brushstrokes – created by calligrapher, Sisyu, and modeled in 3D space – form the Chinese character meaning “life." The brushstrokes then transform and grow into a tree that, as time passes, gives rise to other life forms. Presented alongside the large scale digital installation, this exhibition at Pace provides unique insight into teamLab’s creative mission and innovative imagination.
teamLab (f. 2001, Tokyo, Japan) is an interdisciplinary creative group that brings together professionals from various fields in the information age: artists, editors, programmers, engineers, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphic designers, and CG animators, who attempt to achieve a balance between technology, art, commerce, and creativity. Their creative range encompasses animation, sound, performance, Internet, fashion, design, and even medical science.
teamLab’s work explores new values that govern individual behaviors in the information era, while also revealing possible futures for societal development. The audience is led to explore extremes of creativity and diversity when technology and art are combined and brought into play. In an era of blurring boundaries between technology and art, interdisciplinary collaboration has become a sign of the times. teamLab fosters collective ingenuity and reveals diverse possibilities for a new era of artistic development.
teamLab has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Asia and abroad. In 2011, teamLab presented LIVE! at the Takashi Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Taipei. Other recent solo exhibitions include teamLab: We are the Future, 2012, at the Digital Arts Creativity and Resource Center at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; and teamLab and Saga Merry-go-round Exhibition, 2014, at the Saga Prefectural Art Museum, The Saga Prefectural Space & Science Museum, Kyushu Ceramic Museum, and Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum, Saga, Japan.
Over the past two years, teamLab has mounted five public installations in Japan including digital works at KITTE, Tokyo, Kunisaki Art Project, Oita and Canal City Hakara, Fukuoka, as well as Vortex of Water Particles, 2014, and What a Loving and Beautiful World, 2011, an interactive animation installation, at Narita International Airport, Chiba.
Big In Japan: TeamLab’s Digital Installation Takes FlightChelsea’s Pace Gallery, host to Tara Donovan: Untitled, will debut another large-scale installation this evening: Ultra Subjective Space. A direct import from Japan design group teamLab, five high-definition monitors flirt with one another to comprise a video loop titled—are you ready for it?—Crows are chased and the chasing crows are destined to be chased as well, Division in Perspective — Light in Dark, 2014. Phew. Dissimilar to its name, artgoers will actually remember the show. Press notes call the collective’s US debut “an all-encompassing experience of spatial perception," which loosely translates to a futuristic ride at Tokyo Disneyland (but in this go-around, psychedelic brushstrokes meet Space Mountain).
Riffing off the whiz-bang choreography of the popular anime, “ITANO CIRCUS," in teamLab’s take, missiles and lasers are eschewed for multiplying crows, the avian pest equivalent to American pigeons. We watch as the birds’ flight paths splice together to eventually crash and splatter into kiku (the chrysanthemum widely used at funerals in Japan). If it weren’t for the soaring music, this could be somber, but at the gallery preview last night, 37-year-old teamLab founder Toshiyki Inoki explained to Opening Ceremony that it’s not meant to be sad; the symbolism of fight-or-flight should stoke romance in a “what has been will be again" type way. Maybe we’re a bunch of anonymous birds; maybe we’re a bunch of flowers. Whatever we are, these staggered visuals come in the spirit of wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in the imperfect—or even (gulp) the morbid.
Ultra Subjective Space runs through August 15
Pace Gallery New York
508 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
A conversation with Toshiyuki InokoAt the Singapore Biennale in 2013, the standout artwork was by the digital artist collaborative, teamLab. The work was situated within the Singapore Art Museum behind a closed door that was subject to restricted entry. Once you had obtained admission beyond the door, you entered a blackened room lit only by the work itself. The work, entitled Peace can be Realised Even Without Order, was an interactive and animated diorama of a seemingly endless army of dancers dressed in traditional Japanese costume. The dancers were created by holograms, and as viewers navigated, either horizontally or vertically, through their ranks, motion sensors orchestrated a reaction of movement and sound so that ultimately a viewer could imagine they were part of the dancing troupe – a witness, participant and possibly even the subject of some ancient passage of rite. Peace can be Realised Even Without Order represented an entwining of tradition and sophisticated technology that is typical of the work created by teamLab. Often referred to as “ultra technologists", the collaborative comprise a group of Japanese artists, programmers, architects, mathematicians, web and print graphic designers, programmers, editors, and engineers who have worked together over the past several years to create a substantial body of artistic work. As their first solo exhibition in New York, which opened at Pace Gallery last month, closes and they prepare for their inclusion in the Japan Society’s exhibition, Garden of Unearthly Delights, which also takes place in New York, teamLab’s founder, Toshiyuki Inoko shared with Ocula some of the ideas that underpin the collaborative’s work.
In 2001 and while you were at university, you set up teamLab Inc. How did you arrive at this idea?
I became very interested in the internet before (or perhaps it was just after), I entered university. I found it very exciting. Before the internet came along information was controlled. People weren’t free to access information so easily. And I believed the internet would create a whole new society.
I loved the idea of technology changing the world and art changing peoples’ minds. So I committed myself to digital technology, which was a new field and decided to create art based on digital ideas.
I also knew that I wouldn’t be accepted by conventional society. I don’t wake up early in the morning, reply to emails promptly, or answer phones, nor remember what I am told to do or generally otherwise conform to a social norm. Without my team complementing each person’s weakness and strength, I guess I couldn’t achieve what I wanted or participate in society as I wish. Moreover, I wanted to be with my friends. I wanted to create new values with them. That is also why I started teamLab.
What were the aspirations for teamLab when it began?
We wanted to create digital artworks that were innovative, and changed people’s minds and values.
I believe that, because they didn’t conform to society, there are intellectual or cultural ideas and knowledge that have been abandoned over time. Using them through our work, we want to provide an insight into these ideas and knowledge and suggest an alternative way to live in contemporary society.
In your recent exhibition at Pace, in New York, you raise a theory you have termed ‘Ultra Subjective Space’. Perhaps you can discuss this theory and how it relates to a work, such as Crows are chased and the chasing crows are destined to be chased as well – Division in Perspective, Light in Dark, which appears in the Pace exhibition?
In this work, we visualized three-dimensional space using a traditional Japanese way of spatial recognition – what we call “Ultra Subjective Space". Japanese traditional painting is often described as flat because it lacks western perspective. However, we propose that people in Japan at that time may have actually seen the world as they chose to depict it in Japanese painting. People of today have a perception of space that is based on the perspective they see in photos and paintings, but is it not possible that people of old saw and were able to feel space in the artwork they looked at? Is it not possible that the “flatness" of Japanese art was based on a different logic and understanding of space than that of perspective? At teamLab, we have decided to call that logical construction of space “Ultra Subjective space".
Flat 2D screen images based on Ultra Subjective Space have different features compared with images created using Western perspective – especially when you physically separate the screen. For example, if you use Ultra Subjective Space and then separate or bend the 2D screen, it won’t make the view uncomfortable since there is no one specific viewpoint. Ultra Subjective – 2D is easy to reconstruct in a physical sense. Using this feature, we set up seven screens in the exhibition space for the Crow work, separating the movie (as such). The viewer can still enjoy the work from any point of view.
The work Yatagarasu also uses Ultra Subjective Space in a similar way?
In the work, Yatagarasu (a mythic crow with 3 legs that leads spirits) flies around the space, leaving bright lines of movement behind it.
To create this work, we referred to the work of Ichiro Itano, an anime artist. Itano is renowned for the so-called “Itano Circus" – a style of action scene – which he established and used in the anime television series, Space Runway Ideon (1980-1982) and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (2009). His work depicted missiles flying around, but rather than presenting them from one specific point of view, he exaggerated the movements such that it appears as if a high-speed camera is moving around the space with the missiles. This expression successfully allowed people to feel the dynamic energy emanating from the screen.
So we tried to realize this expression in a three-dimensional space. I wanted to experience how it would be to stand in that space. We reconstructed a real space liberated from any specific perspectives.
You discuss teamLab’s concept of ‘Ultra Subjective Space’ being related to Japanese animation and manga games. Perhaps you could describe the connection in more detail?
I think Japan and also other East Asian countries (since Japan has been influenced by East Asia) always retained some inherent knowledge of “Ultra Subjective Space" enough that it has influenced our contemporary culture. Although it seems that we lost it on the surface level of our modernization, I believe that it was still sub-consciously in our culture psyche and this has been reflected in new forms of expression, such as that found in animation, manga and computer games.
The big hit game “Super Mario Brothers" was born in Kyoto. It successfully depicted a landscape in flat expression (very differently from a landscape represented using western perspective). You need to scroll horizontally to move to the next stage. This flat 2D Super Mario game is perfectly designed with layers to express spatial background – it reflects the Japanese approach to physical space because in Japan our domestic spaces have been, and still are designed with layers, and we also need to move left or right to move to another room.
For example, in reality bridges exist horizontally against the ground and ladders exist vertically. But imagine when you walk across a bridge and when you climb up a ladder – in both situations, the bridge and the ladder subjectively look similar (in rectangle shape). So, for example, if you look at the video game “Dragon Quest", both objects (ladders and bridges) are subjectively depicted in a flat position. Now compare that to how a ladder and a bridge would be presented in a single scene using traditional Western perspective – the scene would be depicted objectively from one point of view, therefore bridge and the ladder cannot be expressed the same way. What I mean by “Japanese spatial recognition" (or Ultra Subjective Space) is that you can set yourself in one character, and you can observe the entire scene at the same time. You are not limited by one perspective.
Through creating the Crow work, we wanted to explore and express how anime artists have recognized the concept of Ultra Subjective Space, and how this is something inherited from their ancestors. The anime artist’s approach to space and perspective is similar to traditional Japanese spatial recognition. Culture is reborn in the trajectory of a long history – non-verbally and unconsciously.
The Pace exhibition includes a work entitled, Flower and Corpse Glitch, set of 12 –Can you please explain why you included the word ‘glitch’ in the title?
At a first glance, Flower and Corpse Glitch, set of 12 appears to be an artwork referring to a traditional Japanese painting. But it is actually created by depicting a 3D space in a computer using the motifs you see in the work, which are then transformed into a flat expression by applying our Japanese spatial theory. The reference to glitch is to draw attention to that process and how the flatness is created by peeling off the surface. We used the same ‘glitch’ affect in another work in the exhibition called Cold Life. It is a way of showing the digital technology behind the analog surface.
What do you want viewers to experience from these works?
We want to show that digital technology can provide a new possibility for art. Videotape appears to be finite but we can transform video work into an endless form using technology. In terms of the works’ relationship with the viewer – viewers can influence the work and vice versa, and this can continue forever. We want people to experience the “futuristic something" which already e