MAT (Media Ambition Tokyo) 2018, a public media and technology art event held annually in February at various venues around Tokyo, centered around Roppongi Hills, opened on the 9th. This marks the sixth year of the event, expanding three venues from the previous one (2017) to a total of 12. The number of exhibited works at Roppongi Hills alone has grown to 29 (up from 24 last time), and the number of artists has also increased to 25 (up from 20 last time). A cross-genre program featuring art, video, music, performance, and talk shows is planned for February 25th at venues primarily in Roppongi, as well as at GYRE in Harajuku, T-SITE in Daikanyama, Tsutaya Bookstore in Ginza, the Apple Store, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Odaiba, Good Design Marunouchi in Marunouchi, and Institut Français du Japon in Iidabashi. Admission to all programs is free, but admission to the main venue, Tokyo City View on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, is required. Last year's event attracted 63,000 visitors (over 30 days), and it's gaining recognition as an event coinciding with Valentine's Day. Information is already spreading on social media. With doors open until 10 PM, the event is likely to become a popular Instagram-worthy event, offering a stunning night view. "We came here hoping to create a platform that combines America's SXSW, Austria's Ars Electronica, and Italy's Milano Salone. MAT is a cutting-edge technology art festival where artists provide ideas, companies provide knowledge, and the space is a valuable resource, but ultimately, people are drawn to the emotional impact of the exhibits. This year's exhibit featured many elaborate pieces, creating a truly high-tech battle royale," said Junji Tanigawa, president of JTQ, the MAT Executive Committee. Among the works unveiled on the 8th, Rhizomatiks' "VODY," a collaboration between Toyota Boshoku and Rhizomatiks, caught the eye at the entrance. "It was designed with the interior and space in mind in mind for the autonomous driving era," says Seiichi Saito, CEO of Rhizomatiks. The experience-based device aims to create a sense of unity between the driver and the machine, rather than a sense of unity between the horse and the driver, by allowing the driver to breathe in unison. The driver can actually enjoy the driving seat, which changes to suit the driver's body shape and posture, as well as images and music.

Other works that stood out this time included Wakita Rei and Daikin Industries' "Visualization of Air Conditioner," which visualizes the flow of wind; Goto Akinori's "ENERGY #02 [with LEXUS LC]," which projects human movement onto the shape of a Lexus; Asai Nobumichi and Honda's "CONNECTED FLOWER," which visualizes the big data of "love and peace" that is overflowing on the Internet through social media and other means, and develops it into a flower object; and Sony Design's 360°VR device, "Immersive Space Entertainment." These were among the many collaborative works between companies and creators on display this time around, and they stood out as a departure from the event's previous experimental lab approach, with highly polished works showing companies' serious approach to technology culture and its realization in society.

Works aimed at Instagrammers include "Morpho Scenery," a lens that inverts the landscape by Yoichi Ochiai, who exhibited a floating sphere here last year, and "Reflective Echo," a collaboration between WOW and Pokémon. This booth, which was also exhibited at Pitti Uomo in June last year and appeared at the Yoshiokubo show, allows visitors to enter the device and take photos with a Pokémon kaleidoscope. Other works on display include "CDPrayer," a giant Buddha statue with optical media behind it by Singapore-based Yuichiro Katsumoto, an award-winning gadget developer currently based in Singapore; "Robotype," a kinetic typography robot; "Waterfall" by Los Angeles native Gil Kuno, known for his work on UNSOUND.COM; "MONTAGNE, CENT QUATORZE MILLE POLYGONES," a visual representation of natural landscapes using algorithms by Joanie Lemercier; and "Imaginary Soundwalk" by Qosmo, in which landscape photographs and sounds are rendered by AI. From the commercial genre, TASKO's "Perfumery Organ" focuses on the "fragrance scale" of 19th-century perfumer Piès, who transformed scents into sound. This work is an extension of a previous detergent commercial project. Nor, a creative label comprised of architects, designers, and engineers, expressed "life and death" by electronically controlling the viscosity of water, ink, and chemicals. They demonstrated "dyebirth," a technique that creates organic painting patterns through chemical reactions. The AR3 Brothers, active since the early days of AR development, exhibited two interactive pieces, "Sucking Earth" and "Tangible Universe," which suggest that "we can't save the Earth, but we can suck it up." The "Sucking Earth" piece also comes with the added bonus of being blown. Also exhibiting a globe-related piece was Shinichi Takemura/ELP's "Earth Teahouse," a teahouse designed by Shigeru Uchida, complete with interior décor including a table displaying a real-time Earth image. The piece is already available for purchase.

In addition to the above venues, MAT showcases will also be held at the Institut Français du Japon until March 4th, Elektnikos Fantasticos/Electromagnetic Room at Daikanyama T-SITE Garden Gallery on February 17th and 18th, Ochanomizu Digital Hollywood University on February 24th to present works by the 13th class, mainly focusing on their final assignments, called "Monsters," and at GYRE in Harajuku from February 20th to March 31st, with Ochiai Yoichi's installation.


Text: Tatsuya Noda