next to me, next to you

To introduce Japan’s outstanding works of art to the world, the Agency for Cultural Affairs does presentations, screenings and exhibitions at overseas festivals, focusing on award-winning works including media art, online art, videos, games, animations and manga.
At Ars Electronica 2022, the winners of the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival, Shota Yamauchi and Miki Hirase, will exhibit their works with the theme “next to me, next to you,” with curator and art manager Mayumi Yamamoto as the art director.

Projection for the next three thousand years

Miki Hirase (JP)

In this work, iconography is laser-engraved on a mirror-polished stone. Using light and reflection, the engravings are projected onto a wall. The work addresses the normalization of viewing iconography on electronic devices, and the energy crisis, by devising a way to reproduce today’s iconography and viewing methods in a hypothetical future without electricity.

Maihime

Shota Yamauchi (JP)

By personifying technology as a gorilla wearing a human’s skin, and by synchronizing it with the movements of the performer who faces it, this work aims to open up a new perspective on the relationship between people and technology. It asks just what it is that exists before our eyes or beside us, in an age where technology is a medium for many forms of communication.

Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan

Japan Media Arts Festival

ARS ELECTRONICA GARDEN TOKYO

next to me, next to you

Japan Media Arts Festival (JP)

Miki Hirase (JP)

Shota Yamauchi (JP)

WELCOME TO PLANET B

#arselectronica