The fields that are covered in media expression studies are diverse ranging from art, design, philosophy, science and engineering, and sociology. Upon advancing one’s cross-disciplinary research in various fields whilst utilizing their individual knowledge in their specialty fields, students have a variety of methods to make a choice. Beginning from the activities done before entering IAMAS, and the motives that lead to the decision to pursue further studies in IAMAS, once entering IAMAS what is the relation of these activities and how do the students cooperatively devote themselves to their projects? How are the activities within and external to IAMAS developed and how research is furthered are all questions that students at IAMAS discuss with each other.

Asuka MORITA

From Japanese lacquer art to video expressions, a future guided by fine differences

Please tell me about your activities prior to entering IAMAS and your motive for pursuing further education here.

When I reflect on myself, you could say that my starting point was going to an arts highschool where I learned Japanese lacquering. In the lacquer expressions I captured fine, uneven textures, and the foundation for my viewpoint in my current work’s theme “capturing fine differences” comes from my technical experience in making that uneven texture flat and smooth. Afterwards, at the Akita University of Art I continued my studies in a Multidisciplinary Arts major where I devoted myself to video expressions to visualize the process of creating lacquerware art and fusing the differences. For the graduate research of my department I created an audiovisual installation artwork “Lag” which visualized the fine differences that lay dormant in the shape of hundreds of sausages through characters. Through this artwork, apart from the creation process that I got from lacquer art, I used the techniques of multiple fields such as AI programming, and the heating sounds as acoustics. The creation of the work in this way makes it so that it cannot be defined in just one word as a “video expression,” and I began to understand less to which field this artwork truly belongs in. I embraced those ambiguous works, and I truly believe IAMAS gave me the opportunity to develop them. Amidst my research being looked at from various perspectives by professors of differing disciplines such as video, acoustics, engineering, etc., I thought it was great that I could sharpen my unique expression so I pursued my studies here at IAMAS.

During your time at IAMAS, please introduce the activities you undertook, including attendance at academic conferences. You also actively submitted to competitions, right?

I proactively participated in any opportunities that would allow me to present my artworks. I had a complex relating to structuring in space so by getting various experiences in exhibiting my works I wanted to be able to grasp how to convey my message. Since there were not many art competitions targeting digital contents, I gathered information with my classmates and applied to participate. Thanks to those efforts I entered several competitions and got the opportunity to exhibit my artworks in a variety of locations such as Tokyo, Osaka, Akita, Yamanashi, and Fukuoka. By presenting my artworks external to IAMAS I explored expressions that would communicate to a wider range of fields and differing generations. Additionally, after entering IAMAS I was also able to experience presenting my artworks at academic conferences, and I felt a different atmosphere compared to the atmosphere of competitions. It is hard to verbalize the difference but the exhibition at the gallery, the screening board of the competition, and the difference in the attitude of myself and the viewers when exhibiting my art at academic conferences was exciting. In my case, I had the opportunity to present at academic conferences in the two fields of cutting-edge music and video. I feel that one of the advantages of cross-disciplinary nature is that there is no limitation of one place to present.

Masters work: “Observing Variation in Sliced Loin Hams”

When you entered IAMAS, were you influenced at all by your classmates, the environment, etc.? Please tell me if there were any points that changed your perception if you can recall them.

I had many proactive classmates who were always working on multiple projects and artworks. That influence lit a flame inside of me too to endeavor in my activities. However, since my health exam also reflected my efforts (overwork), I wanted to try my best to respect my body’s limits. I think the experience of writing my thesis is the largest element that changed my perception. By writing my thesis, I feel that I put cracks into the barrier of “describing” that I could not overcome within myself. I believe that describing something is the act of taking multiple possibilities and limiting them to just one. That judgment needs to be executed strictly and cautiously, and it was a process that made me requestion my own thinking itself. In the competitions I mentioned earlier, there were times where I would adjust my explanation to suit the audience and this led to the core element of my creation becoming invisible. However, through writing my thesis I think I was able to conquer this issue. I had the feeling that I could see in the thesis paper which way I should progress.

Please tell me about your proposed path, and activities as an artist after graduation, alongside your future plans.

Having had the opportunity to write a thesis, I’ve come to think that I want to continue progressing as a researcher. Through a “realizing differences through video expressions” approach I plan to continue my works whilst changing the motif. However, I would like to continue to present my work as “research” in academic conferences, and other venues, and not be limited to just galleries and art museums for my exhibitions. When I thought about “what is the difference between art and research?” I suppose that one aspect is “the message.” Through artworks rather than wanting to convey some sort of message, I want to capture reality in that piece by looking at what sort of measurable differences there are, what sort of characteristics are present, and what they are derived from. Due to this, I am thinking of creating a few more works as research. After graduation, I will be teaching video expressions at Aichi Shukutoku University. It is not just about creating artworks, but IAMAS also demands precision in the exhibitions which is knowledge that I think would be great if I could share. Further, I have also heard that Aichi Shukutoku University has students working with XR and illustrations. In such an environment, there may be something I can tell them from my own experience about the interaction of different fields and how to apply them.

Interview recording: February, 2024
Interviewer: Shinjiro MAEDA
English translation: Eric Lupea

 
※ This is a reproduction of an interview with a student from “IAMAS Interviews 04” published in 2023.