IAMAS is currently looking for artists to participate in IAMAS-AIR 2010. The artist-in-residence program at IAMAS was stopped in 2009, but is being conducted again this year as a part of the Agency of Cultural Affairs’ effort to invite foreign media art creators to Japan.
IAMAS consists of two schools: the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences. The Institute is solely a graduate school (for obtaining a Masters Degree) and has one faculty and one course, namely Media Creations. There are 20 students in each year of the course. The Academy is a vocational college accepting 30 students each year who must have at least graduated from high school. The Academy was founded in 1996 and the Institute was opened in 2001. Both schools were established by Gifu Prefecture as part of a strategy to promote advanced information technology and the culture that develops from this. The schools’ activities are closely linked with Softopia Japan, the hub of the Prefecture’s information industry.
Until 2009, IAMAS had a continuing artist-in-residence program, where every year we invited a few artists to the school for approximately half a year. These artists actively worked together with faculty, students and other artists, sharing ideas and knowledge, and creating works for exhibitions.
In its history, the IAMAS-AIR program has invited 22 artists from 15 different countries, acquiring and expanding IAMAS’s international connections and producing impressive results.
As a part of the Agency of Cultural Affairs campaign to invite foreign media art specialists, they are currently recruiting artists to participate in IAMAS-AIR 2010.
In the IAMAS-AIR program, they invite artists with outstanding track records in the fields of media art, media design, and media product creation, and promote their interaction with IAMAS’s student body through workshops, media art creation, and research. Also, via participation in exhibitions, artists in residence display international artistic works to local creative minds and help foment cultural activity.
They are accepting three overseas media artists (or groups), namely those who create artistic devices or technical methods for products. they are able to support residences for groups no larger than two people.
The period of residency will be 3 months, and must include the below exhibition dates. Iamas is also welcome requests for dates of residency and additional need for manpower to aid in pre-exhibition creative work and surveys, as well as post-exhibition research.
The selection of artists, along with issues relating to monetary support and daily life support will be handled by the Center of Research for Industrial Culture, an auxiliary research body of IAMAS, in accordance with the IAMAS-AIR 2010 program.
Artists in residence will be required to participate in the exhibition “Product as New Art-Fresh ideas borne from the past”, September 22nd-26th, 2010.
This exhibition will run from September 22nd -26th, alongside the Ogaki Bienalle, sponsored by IAMAS. The theme of this year’s bienalle is “developing fresh ideas from the past” and there will be many activities planned along this idea.
The exhibition is designed to use past industry and technology as a base to promote proposals for new technology and ideas for new expression.
Therefore, they will be prioritizing applicants who take an approach that focuses on a novel expression of the concept “Product as New Art”. Iamas will also prepare for the artist to give a presentation or workshop to general attendees of the exhibition.
More info on www.iamas.ac.jp