Try out nineteenth-century animation devices. Rediscover famous media art works. Make your own animations. A playground for exploring the rich world of moving images!
Civic Creative Base Tokyo transforms into a playground for experiencing, discovering, and creating the principles and mechanics of moving images with a series of events overseen by the media artist and children’s book author Iwai Toshio.
The advances in telecommunications and digital devices have meant that we are now surrounded by more images in our everyday lives than at any time in human history, putting vast amounts of information at our fingertips. But in this playground, images that are usually static comes to life and move, offering you the opportunity to rediscover the playful visual trickery and wonder and awe intrinsic to moving image and animation. Learn how early animation devices from the nineteenth century worked, “replay” Iwai’s Time Stratum series, a major work in the history of media art, and experience the creativity of art and technology!
Direction: Iwai Toshio
Program direction: Hashimoto Norihisa, Myokam Hiroko
■Outline
Iwai Toshio: A Retrospective—A House of 100 Stories and Media Art”(2022 / The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki)
Try!
Animation Devices and Special Exhibits
Before the arrival of celluloid film, many optical and animation devices were invented, especially in the nineteenth century, including the phenakistiscope (phenakistoscope), camera obscura, and stereoscope. Try using these early devices for yourself and experience the sheer, unadulterated wonder of seeing pictures come to life and move. Around twenty pre-film devices are available to try in the venue. Other exhibits include works by the likes of Iwai Toshio, Furukawa Taku, and Hashimoto Norihisa who uniquely developed the principles of moving image.
Discover!
Replaying the Time Stratum series
The Time Stratum series (1985–90) is an early, major work by Iwai Toshio that uses TV monitors as a strobe light source to animate pictures and objects. Though Iwai later developed the series into the well-known Bouncing Totoro exhibit at Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, it has not been shown publicly for over twenty-five years. CCBT has worked with the artist to restore and recreate three of the works from this “lost” series (Time Stratum I, Time Stratum III, Time Stratum IV), which made a pioneering impact on new media art in Japan.
Make!
DIY Corner and Workshops
Experience firsthand the principles and mechanics behind animation and moving images, and make your own device. You can draw your own pictures and try creating your own animations using a phenakistiscope, zoetrope, or computer. During the summer holidays, instructors will also lead workshops.
■Special Exhibit
The House with 100 Stories (Mirror Version) (2022)
The House with 100 Stories is an immensely popular series of children’s books about houses that get taller and taller as you turn the pages. The exhibition includes a three-dimensional version of the titular house created with mirrors. Don’t miss this chance to experience firsthand the latest work by an artist whose exciting practice straddles both media art and children’s books. See how much of the mystery you can solve with your own eyes!
