I could see interesting demonstrations by Japanese creators as well as overseas creators .

I introduced many overseas creators first in this article but Gil Hisano from Wiggle was the first demonstrator in this festival. He is a leader of Wiggle, a band which makes digital films to interactive web art works. They are now making a TV ad song for Toyota’s car Bb. Their songs make a playful image for the car. Surprisingly, members got together through the Internet. Their nationalities ranges from Japan, Australia to USA. Moreover, they did not see each other before they started to make sounds and promotion videos. Since they thought they would seldom have meetings, they decided to make the first promotion video in full 3DCG animation. Finally, they received the grand prize from the second Media Arts Festival Agency For Cultural Affairs to this work.

Some members left since the band was formed but their style, which they are separately located all over the world, has not changed. When they do something, they go somewhere in the world. Mr Hisano is a third-generation American of Japanese descent and he was born in Los Angels. He used to be a staff at a big advertising agent, Dentsu. However, one day, he decided to be an artist because he could not ignore his techno musician enthusiasm that he had have since he was a student of Hitotsubashi University. He said that he could think about an artist as a job because he has an office worker background. He encouraged office workers in the audience to keep on having your own vision and strategy and you can be independent as a professional artist.

The last demonstrators are the artists, who are studying at a three-dimensional music maestro, Tsutomu Tomita’s place.The 70-year-old Mr Tomita stands foremost among today’s three-dimensional musicians and his great achievement as a composer is widely known in Hollywood as well. In Hollywood, young composers are making great efforts to make nice three-dimensional music everyday because people think that this music is an indispensable part of the film music. Composing this music as the music for 2 Channel is a kind of a standard in Japan and there are no composers who have a deep knowledge of this genre. Mr Tomita keeps himself above all the vulgarity around him. The time of three-dimensional music definitely will come but we cannot see any changes yet. This irritation moved Mr Tomita to the platform and now he is teaching 8 composers-to-be. At this festival, four of his students, who he evaluated to have reached a certain level: Hirofumi Yamaguchi; Shuhei Nojiri; Kensuke Inage and Daisuke Oshima composed a track for people who are outside of this music world. People tend to pay attention to motions or interactions to content in Japan now. However, they showed to the public that music is not always subordinate to contents and the status of the music is quite high like in Hollywood. This demonstration will be a starting point of a collaboration of the three-dimensional music.

I think this festival was an experimentation in making a new international communication method. I saw many interesting demonstrations but no audience members asked anything after each demonstrator finished. This was a great shame because people seemed to be really excited to talk to the demonstrators at an exchange party held after the festival. At the last artdemo with Japanese young creators, staff stopped audiences to ask questions because they did not have enough time. The same thing did not happen this time. I think this circumstance quietly implies that there is still distance between each other and people could not trust their enthusiasm of making an art from media and technology. From this point of view, it can be said that the host and overseas artists might have felt that something was missing. The thing we need now is strong communication. There is some truth in what Mr Watari said that a workshop is the best opportunity to make the distance shorter.

How will artdemo upgrade itself in Tokyo and how will artdemo create the city of Tokyo…? People think that they heard and saw something precious, but also this festival should be a melting pot that brings creativity and solutions from a useful art for artists and audiences. Hopefully, you will find the answer next summer.

artdemo 03
Date: February 28th, 2003
Open: 17:00 – 20:00
Place: 1F Hall at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Admission Free
Organised by Artdemo03 Executive Committee
Supported by Media Arts Festival Agency For Cultural Affairs
https://coolstates.com/artdemo/

The 6th Media Arts Festival Agency For Cultural Affairs Exhibition
Date: February 28th – March 9th, 2003
Time: 10:00 – 18:00 (Thursdays and Fridays until 20:00)
Place: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Admission Free
Organised by Media Arts Festival Agency For Cultural Affairs Executive Committee
contest@cgarts.or.jp
https://www.cgarts.or.jp/festival/