Theme Exhibition

Transformation of Scenery

Yoichi Ochiai (JP)

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Linz, In Kepler's Gardens
Website

In order to mediate between the massive landscapes composed by original nature and the massless landscapes described by digital nature, Yoichi Ochiai continues to create artwork for transforming scenery. Between mass and masslessness, he is searching for a longing for mass and a sentiment for pixels. This work was originally created with the aim of transforming the horizons seen from the city. Light and images are added to the line that forms the boundary between sky and earth. Using a computational machine and a display device, the work depicts the “transformation of materialized nature” on the borderline of ideas visible from the observatory location. Carrying the concept further, a digital installation is created in various spaces by deploying mass-less images at the scale of the body as interactions with a large-scale transparent display to mediate various landscapes.

Transformation of Scenery / Yoichi Ochiai (JP) Credit: tom mesic

Transformation of Scenery, Yoichi Ochiai (JP), Credit: Mika Ninagawa

This installation employs the context of space as a borrowed landscape, and by displaying digital images without mass, it highlights the materializing potential of space and continues to mediate between the image and the material world. With this installation, the artist explores the possibilities of images floating in space, expressing our innate craving for physicality and the division between the physical and the digital.

Yoichi Ochiai (JP): Media Artist. Born in 1987. Received his Ph.D. in Applied Computer Science from the University of Tokyo, the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information (Studies in 2 years the fastest record). Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba, Director of Research and Development Center for Digital Nature. Principal Investigator of JST CREST xDiversity Project. Got Super Creator / Genius Programmer titles from Information Promotion Agency Japan and METI Japan. From 2017 to 2019, he was advisor to President of University of Tsukuba, From 2018, he was committee member of IP Strategy andVisionary committee member of Moonshot Program at CAO Japan, member of Digital Transformation Committee, Japan Cultural Envoy, Theme Producer of EXPO2025. Yoichi has received numerous awards, including a World Technology Award in 2015, the Prix Ars Electronica 2016, an Honorary Mention, 2019 SXSW Creative Experience ARROW Awards, MIT Innovators Under 35 Japan, PMI Future 50 and more. He explores the boundaries between images and materials, nature and computers, and freely crossing the boundaries of computer science, applied physics, and media arts.
www.yoichiochiai.com

Credits

Mayuna Omurai (visual / technical assistant), Kazu Zamasu (Engineering), Natsuki Matsunaga (Engineer), Kotaro Tanaka (Visual Design), Life is Style Inc (System / Sponsorship)

The project is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan

This project is presented in the framework of the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.