Tuesday, July 27, 2010

ANIME NEWS: Robot impact on culture showcased in traveling exhibition

source:http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201007180307.html

Translated by The Asahi Shimbun from the website of Anime Anime Japan Ltd.
2010/07/19

An art exhibition exploring the cultural impact of robots runs July 10 to Aug. 29 at Aomori Museum of Art in Aomori Prefecture.

"Robots and the Arts: Visual Images in the 20th Century Japan" focuses on robots and their relationship to art, science and technology as well as the human body. The show will also examine the history of robots and their significance in modern culture.

The exhibition brings together industry bigwigs from at home and abroad. The exhibition features "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone," "Mobile Suit Gundam," "Hatsune Miku" (singing synthesizer application software), "Tetsujin 28-go," "Astro Boy" and "Cyber Troopers Virtual-On." Loaded with rich content, the show offers visitors the chance to look into robot culture in Japan from various angles.

Particularly worthy of mention is an original short anime to be shown. The film's story takes place in near-future Japan and revolves around vehicle-type robot "Chari" and a girl.

The anime was directed by Romanov Higa, who is known for producing three-dimensional computer graphic anime. For this project, he took a shot at making a 2-D anime for the first time.

Masaki Tanaka served as character designer, and Kenji Teraoka, mechanical designer. The music was produced by Satoru Kosaki.

The DVD of the anime is sold at the venue. It comes with the exhibition catalog, and only 150 copies will be available at each venue in the traveling exhibition.

In addition, a special exhibition featuring illustrator Shin Ueda and avant-garde artist Tetsumi Kudo, which opened on June 30, is now on at the Aomori museum. Ueda, whose works are displayed at the robot exhibition, will give a talk on Aug. 15.

The exhibition later travels to Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (Sept. 18-Nov. 7) and Iwami Art Museum in Shimane Prefecture (Nov. 20-Jan. 10).

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