Ei Wada and Usaginingen win World of OMOSIROI Award
We are delighted to hear that two of NEoN 2015’s artists, Ei Wada and Usaginingen, have scooped up the third World OMOSIROI Award. Bestowed to artists each year, the international award spreads the concept of ‘OMOSIROI’, a core value of Japan’s Knowledge Capital. The accolade showcases people from around the world whose pioneering activities epitomise ‘OMOSIROI’ (Japanese word for fun/interesting), and is Knowledge Capital’s way of sharing these values with the world.
The third volume of the World OMOSIROI saw Usaginingen and Ei Wada recommended by one of the 100 Knowledge Persons working in various fields and associated with Knowledge Capital.
Ei Wada
Ei Wada creates installations, musical compositions and performances by combining computer-controlled analogue appliances such as reel-to-reel tape recorders or cathode ray tube TV sets with live instruments and helium balloons.
For the NEoN 2015, Ei Wada created new work which tied in with the festival theme, ‘North East of North Asia’. The UK premiere saw old electric instruments and computers create multiple instrument performance arrangements and installations. The installation featured authentic home-made systems – wires, old TVs, hacked videocassettes – and a strong DIY aesthetic to produce an interactive piece which saw attendees hear sounds from stripes.
Find out more via eiwada.com and @crab_feet
Usaginingen
Photo thanks to Kathryn Rattray
Usaginingen were part of NEoN 2015’s finale event and saw the Japanese audio-visual duo share a night of live electronic music, audio visuals and kinetics. Attendees were blown away by the intricate detail of their performance.
They played a self-made analogue visual machine called TA-CO and a music instrument called Shibaki to create an elaborate treat for both eyes and ears. The TA-CO has a camera, a layered animation table, rotating drum, water-basins, coloured ink, beads, mirrors, prisms and hand crafts. The Shibaki is a kind of percussion kit, connected to a MIDI controller and to a string instrument. These were played together to produce surprising real-time visuals sound tracked by a live percussion score.
Find out more via usaginingen.com and @usaginingen
Each year we work with artists from across the globe to exhibit a unique calibre of digital art in the city of Dundee. Our 2015 theme ‘North East of North Asia’ saw artists from across North East Asia travel to Dundee to share their work during the course of one week in November. We’re thrilled to see two of our 2015 festival artists being rewarded for their truly unique and inspiring work. We enjoy hearing from previous exhibitors to discover what they’ve been working on since NEoN and sharing this news with our audience.
World OMOSIROI Award is presented by KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL ASSOCIATION in Osaka, Japan. The selection committee included Hideo Miyahara, Chairperson of the Selection Committee / Representative Director of Knowledge Capital Association / Former President of Osaka University / Director of Asia Pacific Institute of Research / President of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology of Japan (2007-2013) / Representative Director of Knowledge Capital Association; Naohiro Ukawa, Contemporary artist / Founder of DOMMUNE / Professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design; Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director of Ars Electronica; Zenbo Hidaka, Koyasan Sanbo-in Deputy Chief Priest / Koyasan Koso-in Chief Priest; Patrick Newell, Vision Navigator at 21 Foundation / Launched TEDxTokyo in 2008; and Haruka Christine, high demand TV character who is active on TV programs in wide range in Japan.
