Working towards the worldwide expansion of media culture
Five years have passed since the IAMAS was established in Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture. In spring this year we opened the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences, a graduate school with the same acronym as the Academy. The World Forum for Media and Culture was first held in July 1995 to herald the opening of IAMAS in the following year. Two years later the forum was held again, this time as a biennale. In October 2001 IAMAS will stage this Forum for the fourth time. The Forum comprises "Interaction '01", an exhibition of the latest in media art from around the world, talks by invited artists and an international symposium where specially invited panelists will discuss the future of media culture. This is a 'hand-made' event with IAMAS instructors, administrators and students involved in all aspects of exhibition management and production from planning through to the creation of the catalogue. In our ever-changing information oriented society, this event is an attempt to both introduce the latest movements in media art around the world today and at the same time make known our aspirations and propositions regarding the future of media culture. We sincerely hope that all visitors to the exhibition actively interact with the media art on display and don't hesitate to give us their frank opinion of the exhibition. Why hold an interactive art exhibition? Among the new type of art works which were produced by the influence from digital technology today, the interactive art has been under the spotlight since the 1980's with countless works exhibited all over the world. It is mainly the installation type of works with which viewers can participate in creating the final image of the works through his/her bodily movements and gestures without the use of a keyboard or mouse, and even the computers are carefully hidden in the background. It is different from the traditional art works which can be evaluated by the viewers just standing quietly in front of the works. At the past three biennales IAMAS has exhibited various interactive installation style artworks from around the world. This time we especially focused on selecting works whose images drastically transform in response to the viewer's interaction. We have also tried to make the exhibition site more attractive for every viewer. Please try to establish a dialogue with the exhibits and then reflect on the future potential of interactive media art. We have added a new corner in the foyer of the exhibition site for selected CD-ROMs and DVDs which have particular future significance, and also a special area for works by IAMAS artist-in-residence not yet shown locally in Gifu prefecture. In order to show the fruitful outcomes of our efforts at IAMAS over the past 5 years we also added a corner for selected IAMAS graduate works and projects by IAMAS faculty members. We would like to sincerely thank all the artists from around the world who have participated in this exhibition and all the individuals and organizations who helped to make this event possible. |