Possibilities for culture opened up by intersections of art and technology

The Japan Foundation Asia Center and NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] will organize the 4th International Symposium for Media Art in conjunction with the exhibition “Open Possibilities: There is not only one neat way to imagine our futures,” which is running at ICC from January 2020.

Since 2016, the Asia Center has organized a series of international symposia with the aim of providing a forum for creating, disseminating, and networking art and culture in such fields as new media art and digital creativity.

Among art and technology trends in Asia, two tendencies have emerged: one that responds to technological and artistic demands globally through forms of expression that integrate the latest technologies; another that incorporates technology into historical and cultural contexts in each country to usher in new creative practices. While a prevalence exists across the region for “spectacle” that meets the desire for commercial or festive content, alternative scenes and new platforms that do not depend on existing art systems are also emerging.

Through the latest examples of artistic practices utilizing technology as well as transnational collaborative and collective projects, this symposium will reconsider the nature of art and culture in our globalized and networked society, the challenges faced today, and the possibilities for the future.

[Session 1] Environments and Expression Made Possible by Media/Art

  • The Rise and Fall of the Media Art Festival in Indonesia
    Bob Edrian
  • Rethinking Technology: Arts as Critical Intervention
    Kim Seong-hee
  • Dance Performances as Forms of Visual Art
    UMEDA Hiroaki

[Session 2] The Future of Collaboration and Networks

  • Opening Media Art in Asia
    HIROTA Fumi
  • Performing Arts That Emerge from Asian Partnerships
    FUJIWARA Chikara

[Session 3] Trans-Asian Approaches and Practices

  • Experimental Curatorial Practices Through Small-Scale Collaboration and Networks
    May Adadol Ingawanij
  • Trans-Asia and Media Arts: Collaboration as Method
    IWABUCHI Koichi

[Final Session]

Rethinking the Relationship Between Technology and Culture
Discussion by the Moderator and Presenters

(The 4th International Symposium for Media Art “Open Media Culture: Collaborations, Networks, Exchange”,  22 Februari 2020, NTT/Intercommunication Center, Tokyo, Jepang)