Eyemyth 2016

Curated by

EyeMyth is a festival of new media art and expressions. It is

The Japan Media Arts Festival (JMAF) is a comprehensive

the only festival of its kind in India looking at the past,

festival of Media Arts (=*Media Geijyutsu*) that honours

present and future of experimental, audio-visual media,

outstanding works from a diverse range of media- animation

curated from the works of both home-grown and

and comics to media art and games. It also holds a showcase

international filmmakers, musicians and multi-media artists.

the award winning other notable works as a much acclaimed

After 2013’s hugely successful festival featuring multi-media

annual exhibition as also through symposiums and screenings.

performers, The Light Surgeons (UK), Eyemyth returned to

For the first time since its inception in 1997, the JMAF

Mumbai in 2016, showcasing a special presentation of the

collaborated with EyeMyth to bring award winning performances,

Japan Media Arts Festival.

screenings and installations to India in 2017.

CURATORIAL NOTE

Naohiro Ukawa, Planning Director and Curator, JMAF at EyeMyth 2017 As Chris Anderson observed, the focus on "creators" is today being surpassed by the “Maker Movement” whose necessary elements are the web and social media and the use of “desktop manufacturing”. The 21st century Industrial Revolution has already begun.

Simultaneously, the 2010s have been marked by the abstract painting trend of introducing chance into artworks - that transcend the maker’s own creative conceptions and even laws of causality. But is it possible for such opposing creative elements to resonate well!?

I confronted artworks with trying to explore these two overarching

concepts of our times. The world that emerges is not media or technology but human flesh and blood! Listen carefully and you can hear the artist breathing...his finger prints and blood stains float up transparently. Yes, the artist’s gaze and concepts become a creative light ascending and surpassing the technology. This was how I tackled the theme of the Medium as Somatic Impulse. New catalysts and unprecedented technological inventions are only tools of the creator. Rock art, cave paintings, the desert line drawings of Nazca and the pyramids can all be regarded as ancient media arts. Ever since extremely distant times, media and technology have only been mere vessels of the imagination. In short, isn’t the power of representing somatic impulse in media the most important capability of art?

A CYMATIC INSTALLATION Spryk

DRAWING ANIMATIONS 2014 Japan Media Arts Festival

The Cymatic Tonescope is a tool for musicians to visualize the sounds they create with their instruments. Inspired by the craftsmanship required to build acoustic guitars, the project’s goal is to create beautiful and hand made instruments that will easily fit into a musician’s private rehearsals or public performances. Its design references the historical romanticism of the guitar, a classic instrument that has roots in every corner of music and culture. The Tonescope is a valuable tool for musicians and listeners alike who want to deepen their understanding of the sounds they create.

These short screenings featured drawing animation as the first impulse of expression, examining its avant-garde forms across the Entertainment and Animation Divisions of the Japan Media Arts Festival.

A showcase at Sitara Studios that ran all the days of the festival, the exhibition had a series of installations that walked the line between and across analogue and digital exploring the blurring of the two. Although very avant garde and contemporary, the exhibition offered an exciting experience to all kinds of audiences - and saw a footfall of nearly 5000 people.

ARE VIDEOGAMES ART? Quicksand GamesLab + BLOT! Videogames are arguably the emerging frontier of art today, and to probe deeper into this provocation, this showcase looked at the indie development of Antariksha Sanchar – a speculative science fiction adventure inspired by the vibrant cultures of South India set in the 1920s.

Exhibitions + Installations • 19 - 21 Feb 2016 • Sitara Studio, Mumbai

A CORNER TO BEYOND Spryk & thebigfatminimalist Using everyday objects as a medium to explore spatial perception and depth, the installation highlighted the difference between seeing with your eyes and seeing with your brain.

FOREST OF DAXOPHONE Kazuhisa Uchihashi The highlight of the exhibition, the forest was a sound installation involving only the performance of a Daxophone – a wooden musical instrument – and a multi-track composition replayed through 17-channel multi-speakers. Coupled with the music, video and light pulsate. Assorted tones made using various wooden fragments reverberate, and through their accumulation there emerges a forest like space in which the presence of nature and living creatures hangs in the air.

The installations offered the audience a range of experiences: from a surreal forests of sounds to an invitation to play some emerging Indian games or simply watching short animations.

Exhibitions + Installations • 19 - 21 Feb 2016 • Sitara Studio, Mumbai

INDIE GAME SHINDIG Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology The Indie Game Shindig is an exhibition of games from around the world, hosted by the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. At EyeMyth 2016, a curated set of indie games were on exhibit inviting the audiences to try their hand at this new wave of Indian games.

HANDIII Genta Kondo + Tetsuya Konishi + Hiroshi Yamaura

GLIMPSES OF INDIAN ANIMATION Lightcube A short documentary by Films Division that traces the origins of Indian Animation, from the pioneering work of Dada Saheb Phalke to the late nineties.

Handiii a prosthetic hand designed to offer flexibility and choice. Myoelectric bionic arms are prosthetics that people who have lost limbs can control intuitively through faint electrical signals (myoelectric) in the muscles, which are measured on the skin remaining on the arm. Handiii uses a 3D printer and smartphone in order to keep the cost of the materials down.

Exhibitions + Installations • 19 - 21 Feb 2016 • Sitara Studio, Mumbai

NEURAL PORTRAITS Daito Manabe MEDIUM AS SOMATIC IMPULSE : SHORT FILMS Japan Media Arts Festival

Award winning short films from all over the world

This portrait study used a deep running algorithm for artificial intelligence (AI). The image recognition algorithm is used to produce new, AI portraits from an original portrait photo of Daito Manabe through the selection of particular stylistic features.

TRICK OR TREAT BHAI-OSCOPE BLOT! + Unbox + Quicksand THE BANDRA DOLL HOUSE PROJECT The Busride The Bandra Dollhouse Project aims to create Architectural record of the exquisite beauty of the homes of Bandra, and through the sale of these tiny models, allow money to be channelled back towards these beautiful structures to aid in ongoing Heritage conservation and upkeep.

The ‘Bhai-O-Scope’ is a re- engineered ‘bioscope’ – a nostalgic relic of street media – that tells two different stories of informal and street medicine practitioners from various parts of India.

Supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Exhibitions + Installations • 19 - 21 Feb 2016 • Sitara Studio, Mumbai

Workshop • 19 Feb 2016 • Dolby Laboratories, Mumbai

Workshop

EyeMyth and UnBox are always characterised by hands on and immersive experiences - the audience is always encountering, learning and discovering.

MODULAR SYNTHESIZER galcid + Hisashi Saito Hisashi Saito, the president of the Japan Sythessizer Programmer Association and galcid, the group which he produces conducted a workshop - featuring latest modular synthesizers from Japan. They explained the structure, the history and invited the audience to try their hand to get a sense of tangible technology.

MCLAREN AWARD NOMINEES : PROGRAMME TWO British Council The package highlights the best British animation that has been nominated for the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s prestigious McLaren Award, that provides a focus for new British short animation and recognises the spirit of creativity.

ENTERTAINMENT & ANIMATION SELECTION Japan Media Arts Festival

RETROSPECTIVE ON INDIAN ANIMATION Lightcube

This program comprised 14 works from award-winning works and jury selections of the Entertainment and Animation Division from the Japan Media Arts Festival.

Animation from Around the World • 20 Feb 2016 • Edward Cinema, Mumbai

BEYOND THE TECHNOLOGY Japan Media Arts Festival

Set in the iconic Edward Theatre the night showcase at EyeMyth featured eclectic performances : the fantastic 'daxophone', modular synthesizers and a live set featuring the evolution of video games.

These ten works showcased the response of the artists and their imagination to the continuing evolution of digital technology.

An improvisational performance by Kazuhisa Uchihashi, the only daxophonist in Japan. The daxophone is a wooden instrument invented by the prodigious German designer and musician, the late Hans Reichel. With a percussion-like rhythm and sound like that of a stringed instrument or even the cry of a wild animal, it produces a rich variety of music.

Performances & JMAF Showcase • 20 Feb 2016 • Edward Cinema, Mumbai

A PSYCHEDELIC HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES Thiruda (BLOT!) Vs Spryk VJ Thiruda from the popular audiovisual act BLOT! took on Spryk – a Mumbai based music producer and DJ – as they created a fast paced electronic dance music journey through the history of videogames. The first dance party in the 150 year old Edward Talkies!

MODULAR SYNTHESIZER IMPROVISATION galcid + Hisashi Saito galcid, a group of female analogue synthesizer unit galcid and solitary “synthesist” Hisashi Saito performance is pure improvisation using analog and modular synthesizers. The No Preset No PC theme ensures that only the live audience will have a unique experience impossible to replicate.

Performances • 20 Feb 2016 • Edward Cinema, Mumbai

Talk • 21 Feb 2016 • Piramal Museum Of Art, Mumbai

With the backdrop of an exhibition of Raja Ravi Verma's artworks, the discussion explored the gender nuances in the new media and gaming industry through different cultural contexts and viewpoints.

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN VIDEO GAMES AND NEW MEDIA Naohiro Ukawa, Dr. Padmini Ray Murray, Avinash Kumar. Moderated by Afrah Shafiq The discussion featured Japanese designer, visual artist and music video director Naohiro Ukawa, digital artist and academic specializing in digital humanities, games studies and design Dr. Padmini Ray Murray, and design strategist, researcher and artist, Avinash Kumar, who presented their experiences and examples on the female form in new media and videogames.

HISTORIC VENUES

SITARA STUDIO Originally a film studio, Sitara is now an independentlyrun arts and cultural venue in the heart of Mumbai.

EDWARD CINEMA Built in the mid-1800s, Edward theatre was one of the last single screen theatres in Mumbai. With EyeMyth in 2012, the venue experienced its first makeover into an alternate arts venue.

eyemyth.unboxfestival.com

unboxfestival.com avinash@quicksand.co.in