One day after the opening of "Roppongi Crossing 2007", I walked around in Akihabara. My aim wasn't the AKB48 otaku haven or a "maid cafe", but the "Digital Public Art International Symposium 2007". Following lectures by artists Iwai Toshio, Yuan Goang-ming and Suzuki Yasuhiro, as well as curators Kitagawa Fram and Rhee Wonil, Hirose Michitaka and other professors and lecturers of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, joined these five for a "meeting of art, society and technology" sort of round table talk event. Media artists, curators and engineers — that’s certainly an appropriate combination when it’s about "digital public art".
Internationally renowned media artists Iwai Toshio illustrated brilliantly as always his own career, which began with a kind of flip book, while referring to the developments in media and technology. Rhee, who curated such events as Media_City Seoul 2006, the Shanghai Biennale 2006, "Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves" (through 11/4 at ZKM), and others, delivered a passionate speech about the necessity of art rooted in an Asian identity. Yuan, who does everything from curation to research and actual creation, reported matter-of-factly about the present state and problems of public art in Taiwan.
Kitagawa, general director of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, introduced various examples of public art of all ages and cultures, and positioned his own "Faret Tachikawa Art Project" as a project to "highlight the diversity and multiplicity of te world." Finally, Suzuki explained the "Trees and Digital: Technology together creating 'new nature'" concept of a work created by a team led by Hirose and consisting of such individuals as Iwai and himself, and exhibited at "Asiagraph 2007", which happened to be held in the same building (Akihabara UDX).
Every time I experience media art or think about it, I always become aware of the hopelessly huge distance and discrepancy between media art and so-called fine art. As a matter of course, such movements as Fluxus or EAT have put the west into a slightly different situation. Media art is often included in international exhibitions, and even art fairs have come to reserve space for media art booths. It surely depends on how one defines "media art", but in any case there exist quite a few renowned and respected artists in the field, including such celebrities as Nam June Paik. But still, to me it seems as if especially on the art market media art still keeps its distance (or is being kept at a distance) from the mainstream. As I wrote before somewhere, when volume 6 of "ART iT", an issue fcusing on media art, came out in early 2005, the response from the real of fine art was zero. There was no criticism and no counterargument. It was simply ignored.
Reasons for that are probably, as always, the discipline’s short history, and low degree of artistic perfection. It makes little — if at all — reference to art history, and it consists not of "things" but of "experiences" that can't be packaged and sold. On the other hand, in an interview for the aforementioned issue of ART iT, Fujihata Masaki, a leading authority in the field, stated that "[media art] must be viewed as part of a totally different progression to that of contemporary art," and is, like Duchamp’s "Fountain" for example, "demonstrating that even when dealing with an object, the comments one makes on that object can change its meaning." Different from contemporary art, he claims that media art requires "an extraordinary level of technique" and "a rarefied metier of accumulated skills", just like the handdrawn paintings of costumed races that existed before the invention of photography. Therefore, algorithm is, according to Fujihata, "what makes [media art using a computer] what it is." He further concludes that the nature of media art lies in the point that it is not about "using" new media, but about "making" them.
Recalling such comments while following the discussion, I felt the urge to ask the participants one question: "Did you ever consider the possibility of making media art without electricity?" One thing that I was having in mind was to inquire about ways of using alternative forms of energy for "making" new media, another a sense of doubt concerning the permanence of digital public art. Artworks that can't exist without electricity cease to exist as soon as the power supply is cut. A piece of public art, which is required (or just somehow expected) to permanently be there, should definitely not suggest to its viewers the uncertainly of a vague presence that could easily be extinguished by external factors.
While the three artists replied to my question in a serious manner, Suzuki was the one who delivered the most "puzzling" response: "I used to think of a projector as the sun. Isn't electricity something that originally comes from sunlight?"
I could have countered with various comments on that statement’s negative notion in respect to energy issues, but I felt that it might be reflecting the novel way of looking at the world of someone who was born and raised in an age in which advanced information environments are given thanks to electronics and electric technology. Just before my question, the last problem that was discussed at the round table was the big question, "What is 'Asian' art?". In my opinion, the answer to that has to be that it is "based on a perception of time that is not linear (=western) but circular," and I wonder if such art is going to be created in the future in connection with such views as that of Suzuki Yasuhiro. I wanted to hear also the opinions of Hirose and the other technicians, but unfortunately time was running out.
Anyway, it was a splendid event at a new building just a minute from Akihabara station, with nine panelists from Japan and abroad, and Japanese, English and Chinese simultaneous translation. According to Hirose, most of the less than 50 attendants of this admission-free symposium were students. I really hope that the organizers will make every effort to familiarize many more people with the matter of this event, that is so extensive that it’s impossible to discuss it in depth within the limited space of this page.
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO