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Civic Creative Base Tokyo × Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024 Collaboration Program

“Poems in Code: Generative Art Today and Programming-Generated Moving Image”

2024.02.02(Fri)–18(Sun)
Center Square of Ebisu Garden Place
Date & Time
Date & Time: Friday, February 2 – Sunday, February 18, 2024 10:00-20:00 (Until 18:00 on the final day)
Closed
* Closed on Mondays [Please note the exhibition is open on Monday, February 12 but closed on Tuesday, February 13]
Hours
10:00-20:00
Venue
Center Square of Ebisu Garden Place
Admission
Free

<Civic Creative Base Tokyo × Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024 Collaboration Program>
CCBT’s Future Ideation Camp evolves into screenings of generative art on a large public screen at Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024
*Screening schedule will be announced at the end of January.

Lineup of works by twelve international artists and camp participants
Showcasing diverse forms of expression made possible by programming and algorithms as a language for moving image creativity

■Outline
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024Off-site Project
Poems in Code: Generative Art Today and Programming-Generated Moving Image

Civic Creative Base Tokyo × Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024 Collaboration Program
Date & Time: Friday, February 2 – Sunday, February 18, 2024 10:00-20:00 (Until 18:00 on the final day)
* Closed on Mondays [Please note the exhibition is open on Monday, February 12 but closed on Tuesday, February 13]
Venue: Center Square of Ebisu Garden Place  Admission: Free

Planning: Civic Creative Base Tokyo
Program Directors: Seo Hyo-jung (Artist / Lecturer of “CCBT “Future Ideations Camp vol.1: Import*”), Takawo Shunsuke (Artist / Chairman of the Japan Generative Art Foundation / Program director of “Future Ideations Camp Vol.2 | setup(): Making New Rules with Blockchains”)

Screening Schedule

As a further development of one of its core programs, Future Ideations Camp, Civic Creative Base Tokyo (CCBT) is partnering with Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024 to organize a special lineup of screenings of generative art as an off-site exhibition at the festival.
Future Ideation Camp is a series of intensive workshops hosted by CCBT, bringing together various creatives and specialists to come up with new expressive approaches through art and digital technology. The first camp in February 2023 explored the theme of computational design, followed by a second camp in September that examined blockchain technology. The two events featured some eighty guest instructors and participants from Japan and around the world.
CCBT is partnering with Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024 to present an off-site exhibition that will further develop the issues raised in these camps, and showcase programming as a language for moving image expression through examples of generative art. This umbrella term refers to forms of art created in whole or part by algorithms and autonomous systems. Such works have gained attention recently as NFT art.
The central plaza at Yebisu Garden Place will host an approximately four-meter screen, attempting to transform digital signage in the city into a public forum for video media as forms of individual and community expression. The lineup of screenings at the plaza will feature vividly created videos generated by programming, directly connecting personal online art trends with urban space to present the rich potential for video media in society and the city.
In addition to twelve invited artists from Japan and overseas, the program will also include works that resulted from the camps, giving viewers the opportunity to explore the new possibilities that programming offers as a language for video expression, and the remarkable creativity that algorithms enable.

■Artists

[invited artists]
– Alexis André
– Joshua Davis
– Saeko Ehara
– eziraros
– Fingacode
– Seo Hyo-jung
– Zach Lieberman
– mole cubed
– Casey Reas
– Alida Sun
– Takawo Shunsuke
– Yazid

[CCBT Future Ideation Camp participants]
– Abe Kazuki
– 0xhaiku
– Oyama Takafumi
– k-ogi
– Kobayashi Masayuki
– SuzukiYushin
– Senbaku
– Tajima Takumi
– teshnakamura
– Joyce den Hertog
– Namikawa Kosaku

– _hyp
– Misa Haneda

– mossan99
– Samuel YAN

Seo Hyo-jung, Redraw with Code, 2021, “Port to the New Era,” Incheon Int’l Airport (ICN), Seol
Takawo Shunsuke, JaggedMemories, 2023


▶︎ invited artists

Alexis André
14 (2024)

Messengers #16, 2021

Joshua Davis
After you Florals (2023)

Reference Image: Joshua Davis floral

Saeko Ehara
Flowers In Season (2024)

eziraros
Walk in Progress: behind the scenes (2024)

Fingacode
Living In The Most Uncertain Situation (2023)

Zach Lieberman
Daily Sketches
(2016-2023)

Seo Hyo-jung
Borrowed Landscapes
(2020-2024)

mole cubed
life-forms of colors
(2024)

Casey Reas
There’s No Distance
(2023)

Courtesy bitforms gallery, New York

Alida Sun
O Sea Sunbirds (2024)

Takawo Shunsuke
Geometric Rhapsody (2023)

Yazid
Homage to Broodthaers (2024)


▶︎ CCBT Future Ideation Camp participants

Abe Kazuki
Pulse of Sphere
(2024)

0xhaiku view from high-rise, (masterpiece, ultra detailed, best quality) (2024)

Oyama Takafumi
Become a scenery
(2024)


mossan99
Opt-ill-V01
(2024)

k-ogi
Orange and light blue
(2024)

Kobayashi Masayuki
Retracing Azure Memories
(2024)


SuzukiYushin
Vectors of Sentences “Coded Language” Saul Williams (2024)

Senbaku
Daily ladders
(2024)

Tajima Takumi For whom do all the flowers blossom in the spring? (2024)

teshnakamura
Just alive (with no particular aim) (2024)

Joyce den Hertog
Blue to Green
(2024)

_hyp
tear blob tracking v0.0
(2024)

Namikawa Kosaku
codec play
(2024)

Misa Haneda
I can feel you because I am here. (2024)

Samuel YAN
Noise Planet v2024
(2024)


Alexis André

artist, researcher

Alexis André (b. 1982) is a French artist and researcher who has spent more than two decades in Tokyo. His primary focus is on using generative methods to reshape the future of entertainment, with his artistic endeavors being just one facet of his broader work. André’s practice is deeply rooted in generative and interactive art, leading him to explore the intersection of art and technology. His career highlights include collaborations with ISSEY MIYAKE and electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre for the generative music and visual app “EoN.” His work has been showcased in various settings, from interactive installations in Tokyo to art shows all around the world.

https://www.instagram.com/mactuitui/

Joshua Davis

designer, technologist, author, artist

Joshua Davis (b. 1971), since 1995, is a designer, technologist, author, and artist in algorithmic image-making & animation and is acclaimed for his role in designing the visualization of IBM’s Watson. Davis was the winner of the 2001 Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica. His work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, the Design Museum London, le Centre Pompidou, the ICA London, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, MoMA PS1 New York, the Whitney, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and more.

https://joshuadavis.com/

Ehara Saeko

artist, VJ

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Art, the Netherlands, in 2010, Ehara Saeko launched a wide-ranging career as a VJ. Her recent practice has focused on work that combines AI and generative art. Not limited to a single software or medium, she researches various technologies in her pursuit of “sparkling” (kirakira) forms of expression. Through her unique art rooted in childhood memories and joy, and featuring flowers and figures from anime and Western painting, Ehara aspires to flood the world with sparkling things. Her past exhibitions in Japan and internationally include Theatre of Digital Art and 3IXAM’s Open Call for Digital Creators (Dubai, 2023), Ambient Kyoto (Kyoto, 2023), Immersive Museum (Tokyo, 2023), and Bright Moments Tokyo (Tokyo, 2023).

https://skohr.works/

eziraros

artist

Eziraros is a Taiwanese generative artist who previously worked for over a decade as a web designer and front-end developer. He has worked in various fields, including the pet supplies industry with AI applications, the music software industry, and online bookstores. During his career, he also participated in the development of President Tsai Ing-wen’s campaign website. Since 2022, he has immersed himself in the world of generative art, predominantly unveiling his creations on the web3 platform fxhash. A master of his craft, he skillfully employs p5.js to meticulously craft generative drawings, building them up frame by frame. With a penchant for representational subjects, his body of work shines brightest through his remarkable piece, “the generative octopuses”, which has garnered recognition in the esteemed TENDER ICONS collection. After the release of “the generative octopuses,” he was invited to join Volume DAO and co-curated Taiwan’s first generative art exhibition to enter a museum, called “Generative Taipei On-Site” in 2023.

https://twitter.com/s_r_r_z_?s=20

Fingacode

software engineer, artist

Fingacode is a multidisciplinary creative with an interest in audio visual and interactive technologies. Originally born in Cameroon and now living in the United Kingdom, fingacode is a software engineer who has been experimenting with creative technologies for the past ten years, with works exhibited and sold by notable galleries including Christie’s, Unit London, Bright Moments, PROOF.xyz, and Vertical Crypto Art. Selected projects include cherry blu (2021), translucent panes (2022), aaa (2023), and [classifieds] (2023).

https://www.instagram.com/fingacode/?hl=en

Seo Hyo-jung

Artist , Professor, Samsung Art & Design Institute

Seo Hyo-jung creates installation and performance pieces that aim to provide new perspectives on daily life by blending media technology with common objects that we encounter in our surroundings. Her interest in media literacy education drives her to explore the various possibilities of coding through Creative Computation classes and continues to work on various projects in this field. Recently, she has been dedicating her main focus on generative art, an art form that uses coded algorithms to generate images. This approach allows her to develop unique and dynamic visual forms that can evoke different emotions and reactions from the audience.

https://www.instagram.com/seohyo/

Zach Lieberman

artist, researcher, educator

Zach Lieberman (b. 1977) is an artist, researcher, and educator with a simple goal: he wants you surprised. In his work, he creates performances and installations that take human gesture as input and amplifies them in different ways: making drawings come to life, imagining what the voice might look like if we could see it, and transforming people’s silhouettes into music. He’s been listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People and his projects have won the Golden Nica from Ars Electronica, Interactive Design of the Year from Design Museum London as well as being listed in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of the Year. He creates artworks through writing software and is a co-creator of openFrameworks, an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding and helped co-found the School for Poetic Computation, a school examining the lyrical possibilities of code. He’s a professor at MIT’s Media Lab, where he runs the Future Sketches group.

http://zach.li/

mole cubed

woodcut artist, visual artist

A graduate of the University of Tsukuba School of Art and Design, mole cubed was originally a woodblock print artist, but has recently expanded his practice to include generative art and works that incorporate open data, images, and sound. Since a print can be made with coding, mole cubed interprets outputting on a screen as synonymous with printing on a surface, and projects the structure of a woodcut, creation process, and layering of ideas into animation. He is currently also an adjunct instructor in the Musashino Art University Department of Creative Innovation.

https://printwithcode.org/
photo by ben spilling

Casey Reas

artist, educater

Casey Reas (b.1972, Troy, OH) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Casey Reas is an artist and educator who lives in Los Angeles. His software, prints, and installations have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries. His work ranges from works on paper to urban-scale installations, and he balances solo work in the studio with collaborations. Reas’ work is in a range of private and public collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Reas is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Media Arts and Sciences and a bachelor’s degree from the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. With Ben Fry, Reas initiated Processing in 2001; Processing is an open-source programming language and environment for the visual arts.

https://reas.com/

Alida Sun

multidisciplinary artist

Alida Sun is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice integrates presence, resistance, and the nature of adaptation in the age of algorithms. Every day for over 1,700 days and counting she has coded and built new generative artwork encompassing installation, sound, architecture, choreography, drawing and light. Her work has been exhibited at bitforms gallery (New York), Kraftwerk Berlin, Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), Unit London, and audiovisual festivals around the world.

https://www.instagram.com/alidasun/

Takawo Shunsuke

Artist, Chairman of the Japan Generative Art Foundation

Shunsuke Takawo was born in Kumamoto in 1981. He has advocated Daily Coding as a daily habit of writing programs like a diary since 2019. In 2021, he will present his NFT art project, “Generativemasks”. He established the Japan Genertative Art Foundation from his artist’s earnings. In parallel with presenting his works, he is currently engaged in activities to promote and educate the public about generative art, which is the art of algorithms and computation. He is an associate professor at Konan Women’s University, Creative Media Studies.

https://cenkhor.org

Yazid

software developer, artist

Yazid (b. 1987) is an artist from Brunei who built his early career as a software developer building functional, utilitarian applications. He eventually became fascinated with using code, algorithms, systems, and automation in the process of creating experimental works of artistic expression. Yazid takes delight in exploring the ways computation in art can surprise himself and others. His work comprises abstract expressions and conceptual explorations that challenge the status quo, hard edge minimalism that displays precision and simplicity, as well as digitally textured creations that create a tangible connection with the viewer. Yazid’s work has been collected by more than 3,000 individuals and has been exhibited in numerous spaces around the world including Singapore, Frankfurt (Museum Angewandte Kunst), Lugano, Hong Kong (Art Basel 2022), Valencia, London, Marfa, Miami Beach (Art Basel 2022), Taipei (Hong-Gah Museum) and New York (Christie’s).

https://www.instagram.com/mintedbyyazid/

Abe Kazuki

artist, programmer

Abe Kazuki recognize the computer as a tool to extend human creativity and bring creative possibilities to work. He translates parts of the creative process into algorithms to explore the possibilities of what artistic expression can be. His works are shaped by the collaboration of human ingenuity and computer intelligence.

https://sites.google.com/view/kazukiabe/home

0xhaiku

artist

After working as a software developer, he began working to test the possibilities of art on the Web3. His research themes are “art system in which anyone can participate” and “relational art in Web3”, and he also explores conceptual yet poetic expression. In 2023, he received the The Lumen Prize Crypto Award Longlist. Several works were nominated by collectors’ votes in the “Conceptual NFT” category at jpg.space (2023). Selected for the Bright Moments residency (May 2023). In 2024, the work “Receipt” is in the collection of Fingerprints DAO. Recent exhibitions include “Made in Contract” (Neort++, 2023).

https://twitter.com/0xhaiku?s=20

Oyama Takafumi

engineer, artist

Born in Sendai in 1991, Oyama Takafumi studied human-computer interaction at graduate school, after which he became involved in developing apps and installations mainly in advertising. Interested in the new sensations that technology offer, he currently works on extended reality projects for a game developer alongside his own practice as an artist. In 2023, he published Parametric Swimming, a collection of work made using an AI image generator to combine creative coding and print photographs.

https://www.takafm.me/

k-ogi

artist

Born in Aomori City in 1959, Ogi Kumio’s practice focused on physical art forms like painting and sculptural works, before switching to coding-based art from June 2023. In her current practice, Ogi searches for interfaces between coding and contemporary art. She has held numerous solo and group exhibitions.

https://k-ogi1.wixsite.com/website

Kobayashi Masayuki

artist, traveler

Born in Tochigi in 1990, Kobayashi Masayuki moved from Tokyo to Ishikawa in 2021. Sensing the vulnerability of urban functions and the crisis of survival facing regional Japan, his work has focused on connecting cities and regional areas, and disseminating and recording terroir and culture. His practice is based on the records and memories he gains from the trips he takes driving around Japan. Kobayashi’s major work includes Interactive Projection Mapping on Hollow Clay Figure (2014). He is also the head of the monozukuri collective entaq.

Sakamura Kusuke

generative art practitioner, university student

Combining geometric shapes and colors, sakamura’s generative art since 2021 aspires for simple yet profound forms of expression. His practice focuses on art made with web technologies using p5.js, Three.js, and WebGL.

https://www.sakamura.dev/

SuzukiYushin

engineer, researcher / Project Assistant Professor, Digital Hollywood University

Born in 1984, SuzukiYushin graduated from the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences. Seeking the actuality of energy, he observes and analyzes the interaction of survival and technology in contemporary society. After stints at Space Shower TV, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, and National University of Singapore, he is currently in charge of exhibition technology development at the East Japan Railway Foundation for Cultural Innovation. SuzukiYushin’s major engineering credits include dome video programming for Jeff Mills’s Planets.

Senbaku

artist, creative coder

Born in Saitama, Senbaku has a background in folklore studies. Likening the people who come and go in the city to bedsheet ghosts, her work explores the various inner psyches of people whose identity remains unclear. In 2020, Senbaku came into contact with generative art and daily coding, and was inspired to swap her brush for a computer keyboard, and has since developed a coding-based practice.

https://linktr.ee/senbaku
Muramatsu Masahiro

Tajima Takumi

engineer, idea designer

Tajima Takumi explores new values. He is the head of Art Meet, a platform for recording and sharing art experiences, and ZEN NOTE, a project for writing and organizing things.

https://shibuya-qws.com/project/artmeet

teshnakamura

generative artist

Lives and works in Tokyo. Creates works using only programming. Rather than applying technology for the purpose of being useful to humans, just creates works that simply exist, by wasting technology.

https://teshnakamura.com/

Joyce den Hertog

artist, creative technologist

Artist and creative technologist based in Amseterdam, researching the intersection between technology and traditional artforms like dance, poetry, and visual arts.

_hyp

creative developer

Occupying an intermediary position between an engineer and artist, _hyp’s work is idiosyncratic and nonconformist. His work has appeared at SXSW 2019, Japan Media Arts Festival × MUTEK.JP (2019), SIGGRAPH Asia 2021, and more.

https://www.lhypl.art/

Namikawa Kosaku

artist, engineer

Born in 2000, Namikawa Kosaku builds systems and structures, searching for ways to use and combine new and existing technologies with websites, smartphones, and other online platforms. He lives to obtain experiences and knowledge widely, from both high and low layers, and the physical layer underneath. Namikawa aspires to harness the experiences and know-how he acquires for the features of systems and technology. As a technician for artists, he has provided wide-ranging support, including both backend and front end, video production, installation, direction, and management.

https://73ch.work

Misa Haneda

artist

Against a backdrop of our craving for a sense of belonging to a planetary biosystem and a search to examine the finiteness and contingency of life, Tokyo-based Haneda Misa develops a practice using microbial culture and other forms of biology, electronic devices, moving image, and more.

https://www.misahaneda.com/
Muramatsu Masahiro

Samuel YAN

generative artist, creative coder

Samuel YAN was born in Luoyang City, China in 1990. He’s a generative artist and creative coder based in Tokyo with a background in music and painting. In 2019, he moved to Tokyo to explore more possibilities in digital art and began exploring generative art expression. Central to his artistic philosophy is the concept of “”ME,”” which serves as a source for articulating human relationships through his creative endeavors. Inspired by cubism, computation, and the serendipity of randomness, Samuel’s work serves as a poignant reflection on the complexities of contemporary urban life.

https://www.instagram.com/samuel_yan_1990/
Production
Civic Creative Base Tokyo (CCBT)
Organizer
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government / Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Co-organizer
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] (Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)