Born 1956, Tokyo. Lives in Tokyo, Japan
Masaki Fujihata started his career as a digital artist for Computer Graphics and Animation in the early 80s, and he produced Computer Generated Sculpture throughout the 80s. By the early 90s he began to work with interactive systems, and one of his successful early digital art works Beyond Pages (1995-1997) is considered a classic in this genre. It is part of the permanent collection of the ZKM (Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany) where it has been on view since 1997. In 1996, Fujihata's Global Interior Project #2, a network multi-user virtual environment, was awarded the prestigious Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica competition, Linz, Austria.
"Interactivity” can change the way one experiences art, and it can also change the type of art. The function of interactivity alters the viewer’s position to that of a participant who drives the experience of art. The viewer will become an active participant, and the artist a server, a creator of an interactive system.…like a digital networking system. A system is not a static object, it is a dynamic system reacting to the participant depending on the way the artist created it. (Masaki Fujihata)
In 2000, Fujihata began to develop a series of works that focused on refining the visual system, in each exhibition. He used new various tools, like the panoramic camera, virtual mirror, and laser scanning systems to develop the installations Off-Sense (2001-2006), Morel's Panorama (2003), Unformed Symbols (2006), and Unreflective Mirror (2005-2006). These works were reconfigured and further developed in exhibitions at Art Space Kimura, Tokyo and The Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media, Yamaguchi. They were brought together in the exhibition The Conquest of Imperfection: new realities created with images and media at the CCGA (Centre for Contemporary Graphic Art), Fukushima Japan in 2006.
Reality is imperfect, as it contains events that are inherently impossible to complete (Masaki Fujihata)
His recent exhibitions include the solo show Something Unformed, Art Space Kimura (2007), and the group show Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan, Beijing, China (2007).
From the early 90s Fujihata also explored GPS technology (Global Positioning System -for measuring position by satellite) for applying this military technology into a medium of perceiving ourselves as an artistic apparatus.Field-Works, a series of project which began in 1992, is still in development, and has been included in the exhibition Future Cinema at ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (which travelled to KIASMA Finland, ICC Tokyo, the Microwave Festival, Hong Kong, between 2002 – 2004). The GPS project "Mersea Circles" was realized in Essex, England under frame work of "Coast Digital" in 2003, and it was presented at Firstsite Gallery, Colchester,UK, in 2003.
An internationally recognised media artist, Masaki Fujihata is Professor at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, at Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan.
Source: Kathy Rae Huffman. Last updated July 2008.