Written/Compiled and Reported by Wei Ruyu
Will 2012 unveil the great changes prophesied by seers? Or will it usher in a brand-new, reborn cosmic era? The "Ultra Journey – 2012 Future Media Art Festival", spanning technology, art, social research, and global cultural issues, will officially open on January 1 at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts on the campus of National Taipei University of the Arts.
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"Ultra Journey" not only brings together artworks but also stimulates local creative momentum. The image shows Zeng Weihao's "In the Sound", where electric current flows from the body to the screen in the form of a soul, bringing the entire wall to life. (Image provided by National Taipei University of the Arts)
On the first day of the opening ceremony, "Ultra Journey" will grandly host a live performance combining digital imagery and music. Canadian artist Herman Kolgen, winner of the top prize at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, who received an enthusiastic response during his visit to Taiwan years ago, will collaborate with the Taipei National University of the Arts student percussion ensemble and a mystery guest to present an excerpt of their work "Collage Landscape". The full performance will also be restaged on January 6–7 at the Dance Theatre of Taipei National University of the Arts.
This exhibition is Taiwan’s first "Future Media Art Festival", with an overall program that includes an international forum, digital art works, interactive application creations, an animation zone, workshops, and multimedia and music performances. Participants invited span renowned creators from both home and abroad, outstanding talents in applied design, and academic research institutions, featuring a total of over forty works.
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Italian artists Mattia Casalegno and Enzo Viglione's "Uneasy Empathy 1.0" uses brainwave device programming to transform participants' real-time facial expressions and brainwave activity into a new form of communication language. (Image provided by National Taipei University of the Arts)
In addition, for those who wish to delve deeper into or personally experience art-tech creation, the festival has also invited Manu Park, Director of the Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, and Taro Amano, Chief Curator of the Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan, to Taiwan to participate in the "Future Media Art Vision Forum". During this one-day event, they will discuss Taiwan’s future direction in industrialization, technologization, and artification with scholars from Taiwan’s new media art academia and industry. Those who enjoy close interaction with artists can also choose to attend artist Mattia Casalegno’s "Artist Workshop" to experience the real joy of creating art with a brainwave device.
The "Ultra Journey – 2012 Future Media Art Festival" will run until February 19. For more exciting details, please visit the official Ultra Journey website at 2012fmf.cat.tnua.edu.tw