Japan: Corporate Restructuring Affects Media Art Institutions

Curators at Canon's ARTLAB throw in the towel; downsizing at NTT[ICC]

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For over a decade "Canon ARTLAB" in Tokyo has commissioned and co-produced outstanding works of media art. The Inter Communications Center of the Japanese Telecom Company NTT , NTTICC, has been the most resourceful media art center and museum in Tokyo and among the best in the world. But ten years of recession in Japan and what is euphemistically called "corporate restructuring" cast a doubt over the future of these world leading institutions.

The news concerning ARTLAB came in a quite inconspicous way. "At the end of July I received a postcard from Canon Inc.'s 'Social & Cultural Program Division,' announcing the office's move to a new location" writes Tetsuya Ozaki in the latest edition of his newsletter REALTOKYO from Friday 10th of August. The card explains that ARTLAB are giving up their centrally located office in the Roppongi area in Tokyo and moves to the company's HQ in Shimo-Maruko, Ota-ku. "The card further carries a typical Japanese phrase, reading 'at this occasion we feel an even bigger motivation to approach our duties with even stronger effort.' But in reality this is not how things work," Tetsuya Ozaki points out. Yukiko Shikata and Kazunao Abe, ARTLAB's two curators who have been with it from the very beginning, have decided that they can no longer work for ARTLAB under these circumstances. This almost certainly means that ARTLAB as we used to know it has ceased to exist.

ARTLAB had an almost unique role in the international media art community. It provided the resources for two commissioned art works each year, whereby it gave the opportunity for curators, artists and engineers to work closely together. Through this interdiciplinary approach and according financial support projects were created which were sophisticated both technologically and artistically. Among the Japanese and international artists who realized projects at ARTLAB were Ulrike Gabriel with "Perceptual Arena", knowbotic research with "IO_dencies", 'SoundCreatures' by Kouichirou Eto and recently "polar" by Carsten Nicolai and Marko Peljhan. After the works were premiered at the beautiful underground exhibition complex in Daikan-yama, a Mies van der Rohe inspired architectural Juwel in central Tokyo, works often toured the world, with festivals eager to be able to present media art of such elaborate quality.

Not any longer, say CANON Inc. Under the current CEO the leadership of ARTLAB was exchanged and the new man on top of ARTLAB's section regards it as a mere sales promotion activity, failing to understand its non-profit cultural and experimental approach. The company now "only seeks profit in a short term, narrow perspective" complains Yukiko Shikata, "which means Canon did not understand media art' at all, pitifully." She goes on to explain that ARTLAB was "nothing" for Canon, that with a very small budget, it produced global networks and contributed to a positive and innovative image of the company.

Under these circumstances Yukiko and Kazunao thought that it is time to move on and start totally free activities as curators and critics. "We just hope Canon will take responsibility to keep open the archive of ARTLAB to the public at the CAST site, as it covers now historical developments and aspects of 90's media art expression", says Yukiko.

She indicates that the time is running out for the big, centralized media institutions, supported by multinational corporations. Educational institutions such as art universities and colleges have started many new courses for information design, media art, visual cultural studies. Exhibitions spaces for media art are being opened in more places, maybe smaller but smarter. Media and net art are slowly being better understood and adopted by the contemporary art scene, outside the "ghettos" of media art. "So the scene is getting more diffused and diversified, and I hope I would keep on getting involved with the scene," Yukiko concludes. She is already working on several new projects, among them ISEA 2002 in Nagoya and at YARD, the Yamaguchi Art Development and Research center, scheduled to open in autumn 2003.

Downsizing at NTT[ICC]

Meanwhile, the development at the NTT[ICC] has been less decisive. The media art centre and museum, located in the corporate mega-tower of Opera City Center in Tokyo, was re-opened in April after some restructuring. It has given up one floor and the permanent collection on display has shrunk accordingly. After the senior curator has left for a museum job in Hiroshima, a non-hierarchical group of four young curators is running the place under a manager with only administrative functions. This "joint curating" has led to some critizism in the leading English language newspaper Japanese Times, which accused the team of curators of lacking any common denominators in their selection. Yet the activities of the slimmed down ICC do not look that dismal. The [ICC] was re-opened with a show of Studio Azzuro from Milan, in July Shu Lea Cheangs networked installation "baby.play" was shown, and currently [ICC] runs a retrospective of the Japanese-American artist John Maeda. The new arrangements, with a new exhibition each month, should give the curatorial team more flexibility to show a wider range of work.

We want to thank Yukiko Shikata for her contribution to this article.