Check out video game artworks and listen to a Japanese daxophonist at an experimental media arts festival that comes to the city
Antariksha Sanchar
Keen to listen to the percussion-like rhythms of the wooden daxophone or check out how video games work as art? Drop by EyeMyth, a three-day media arts festival organised by the Delhi-based UnBox festival, a venture by the multi-disciplinary consultancy, Quicksand.
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After its debut in Mumbai in 2013, the second edition will feature a collection of music performances, art installations and film screenings at multiple venues, starting Friday. Besides showcasing homegrown projects like The Busride Studio’s The Bandra Dollhouse Project, and a retrospective on Indian animation, the organisers have collaborated with Japan Media Arts Festival to bring to Mumbai selected works that featured at the fest’s 2014 edition.
“We have been in conversation with the Japan Media Arts festival for over two years. The conversations opened up exciting new possibilities in sharing cutting-edge work in the new media, performance and digital arts in India.
Japan is leading the way in terms of creating new experimental work that is pushing boundaries and we wanted to bring some of this work and artists to India,” says the festival curator Avinash Kumar. Here’s what to catch at the experimental festival.
Walk through installations
A South Indian home milieu for Antariksha Sanchar adventure video game
>> Are videogames art? Check out an exhibition of video game artworks presented by Quicksand GamesLab. You can also get your hands on the gaming consoles and play demos of locally-developed content, curated by Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. “Video games have traditionally been confined to large companies within the entertainment industry but there are independent designers and gamers attempting to buck this trend via new games that explore new mediums, formats and stories. These attempts are also blurring the lines between video games and art,” shares Kumar.
Forest of Daxophone installation
>> Forest of Daxophone: A wooden musical instrument invented by late German musician Hans Reichel, daxophone includes a percussion-like rhythm and produces a variety of music.
Kazuhisa Uchihashi with the daxophone tongue
In the sound installation, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, the only daxophonist in Japan, and Reichel’s close friend, creates a performance with the instrument and multi-track composition replayed through 17-channel multi-speakers. You can also watch the artiste perform with the instrument (on February 20, 10 pm to 11 pm, Edward Cinema).
>> Handiii: It’s a myoelectric (uses faint electrical signals in the muscles) prosthetic hand designed by Genta Kondo, Konishi Tetsuya and Yamaura Hiroshi. One can choose the look of the arm to match the environment in which it is being used or the feelings of the user, just like a watch or a pair of sneakers.
From: February 19 to 21
At: Sitara Studio, National Engineering Compound, Garage Lane, Kakasaheb Gadgil Marg, Lower Parel.
Lena and Neon of Galcid
Dance to synth sound
Galcid, a two-member analogue synthesiser unit and producer Hisashi Saito will get the crowds grooving at a live improvisation act to the No Preset No PC theme. They will create unique sounds using analogue and modular synthesisers.
On: February 20, 11 pm to 12 midnight
At: Edward Cinema, 514, near Metro Adlabs, Tak Wadi, Kalbadevi.
The Mute, a single sequence video, by Israeli filmmaker Hilla Ben Ari
Watch international shorts
From a film that portrays a sick youth as a juggler to another in which time stands still, 14 experimental shorts by inter-national filmmakers are up for a watch. The films were part of the jury selection at the Japan Media Arts Festival 2014.
On: February 20, 5.30 pm to 7 pm
At: Edward Cinema For the full schedule,
Log on to: eyemyth.unboxfestival.com
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