Mauro Arrighi

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I am a former Professor of Media Art (theory and practice). Originally from Italy, I am now based in Japan. My research focuses mainly on techno-animism, nostalgia, escapism and retro-futurism. My contribution to "Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan: The Invisible Empire", published by Bloomsbury Academic edited by Prof. Doc. Fabio Rambelli , is among my prominent writings. I have been one of the key figures in founding the Department of the New Technologies for the Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and I was one of the artistic directors of the renowned AVGVST studio in Tokyo. My audio-visual computer-aided performances and interactive installations have been presented, among others, at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, at the International Biennials of Art and Architecture in Venice, at the New Media Fest in Cologne, at the Video and New Media Art Festival in Ljubljana and at the Netherlands Media Art Institute Amsterdam. In 2023 I became a verified/certified artist on Apple Music and Spotify. I am now transitioning from digital-interactive creations to analogue photography and instrumental music.Artistic achievements:- Ars Electronica Festival (Linz, Austria, 2008 and 2009). - 10th and 11th Biennale of Architecture (Venice, Italy, 2006 and 2008). - 49th and 52nd Biennale of Art (Venice, Italy, 2001 and 2007). Professional achievements:- Lecturer at the Hang Seng University, Hong Kong (2021/2023). - Art Director at AVGVST Tokyo, Japan (2020/2021). - Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Verona, Italy (2015/2017). - Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy (2012/2015). - Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, Italy (2001/2007). https://linktr.ee/mauro.arrighi

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Thesis Chapters by Mauro Arrighi

Reality Bonsai : Animism and science-fiction as a blueprint for media art in contemporary Japan

4. Literature Survey My literature review began by addressing the research topic in order to firs... more 4. Literature Survey My literature review began by addressing the research topic in order to first establish which were the key books, essays, exhibition catalogues and online texts that explain and critique Japan's newly evolving media-scape. This was carried with the intention of either proving or disproving that there is a relationship between Shinto, the indigenous spirituality of the Japanese people, science-fiction themes and today's Japanese Media Art. The initial limits that I placed on the Literature Survey were as follows:  Texts had to be published after 1989, because the most prominent Japanese Media Artists became active in the late 1980s.  Japanese authors writing in English or who have been translated into English  Non-Japanese authors published in English With a view to further limiting the literature search, whilst also improving its focus, I chose texts that addressed the following themes, which were chosen on the basis that the Japanese Media Artists featured in my research, were all influenced by the following: Japanese pop culture; earlier manifestations of Media Art and Japanese Media Art; Japanese spirituality in contemporary Japan; science-fiction. The texts cited below have greatly contributed to the development of my thesis. For clarities sake I will divide them in two groups even though the themes discussed are intertwined:  The interrelationship of manga & anime and Japanese society  How contemporary Japanese society is interpreted by western scholars Pertinent to the first group are the following texts. In Anne Allison's Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, University of California Press (2006), the author primarily looks at how Japan became a brand. Not only video games, manga (comic books), anime (animation), and toys designed by Japanese designers have been marketed as "cool Japan" and exported to the rest of the world with particular receptiveness in the US, but also sushi, karaoke, and martial arts have been commodified and marketed as goods 'made in Japan'. The author believes that the economic success and pervasiveness of such 'items' is due to the dream worlds they evoke. Allison proposes that these phenomena and fantasies arose in the post-industrial milieu of postwar Japan and led to what she identifies as a recurring theme: a polymorphous perversity with which the main characters in the narrative present scrambled identities that exist between

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Mauro Arrighi Japanese Spell in Electronic Art MA

The study is conducted upon Electronic Art narrowing the research to Device Art and Hybrid Art an... more The study is conducted upon Electronic Art narrowing the research to Device Art and Hybrid Art analyzing examples taken from such categories realized by Japanese authors; the survey is made both theoretically and practically. The aim of the research is to answer the following question: “Are Device Art and Hybrid Art (done by Japanese artists) a contemporary blossom of ancient Shinto belief?” Contemporary new media Japanese artists might be thought as ‘avant- garde’, westernized, secular; I show that the evidence points rather to spirituality. The development of the thesis comprises elements of aesthetic, history of religions, Japanese art history, Western art history, Interface Design and anthropology. The research is conducted on qualitative and comparative basis: artworks of the nowadays Japanese artists such as AEO, Masahiko Mizutani, and Hideaki Ogawa are analyzed in case studies alongside interviews; with particular interests I show emerging artists such as Hisako Kroiden Yamakawa, Masaru Tabei and Nobuyuki Tanahashi; an overview of authors such as Mariko Mori, Takashi Murakami, Kazuhiko Hachiya, Hiroo Iwata, Noriyuki Tanaka, Toshio Iwai, Maywa Denki (art unit by Nobumichi Tosa), Takehisa Kosugi, and Haco is given; the directors Rintaro (Shigeyuki Hayashi), Katsuhiro Otomo, Osamu Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki are taken in account; particular focus is given to the historical avant-garde ensemble The Gutai Group. The theories of the contemporary Japanese intellectuals Machiko Kusahara, Yuji Yamamoto, Hiroshi Yoshioka and Tomoe Moriyama are investigated, and the writings of Noriyuki Tanaka, Ming Tiampo, Koichiro Fujita, Inuhiko Gorky Yomota, Yoshitomo Morioka, Fumihiko Sumitomo, Norihiro Hagita, Fukuhara Tetsuro, Yukiko Shikata, Yuko Hasegawa, Joichi Ito, Itsuo Sakane, Masahiro Kobayashi, and Shigetsugu Sugiyama are taken in account. The investigation is done tracing connection back to the teachings of Japanese intellectuals of the past such as Shūzō Kuki and Kakuzō Okakura. I underline cross-references between the analysis done by contemporary Western intellectuals and the above-mentioned academic Japanese corpus of knowledge. I show the mutual influences throughout the history between Japanese and, more widely, European and Americans authors by means of presenting the results of theoretical reasoning as well as the offshoots of the artistic production. Some Contemporary Western authors are taken in account in this treatise, from the present time is Tino Sehgal, while from the past are Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt, Francis Picabia, and René Magritte. In addition to this the Shinto priests Florian Wiltschko and Nobuyuki Tanahashi are interviewed. Finally this knowledge is used for creating my own Japanese spell’s inspired artworks, which comprise the practical part of thesis.

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Books by Mauro Arrighi

Identity is a self-representation’s issue

Identity issue in a mediatized world.

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Japanese Spell in Electronic Art

From the Gutai group's performances to the latest experiences in Interactive Art: this book sheds... more From the Gutai group's performances to the latest experiences in Interactive Art: this book sheds light on the origins of present-day aesthetic offshoots of Japan. There is a relationship between Shinto, the indigenous spirituality of the Japanese people, and nowadays Japanese contemporary art. This paper is alive with sympathetic insight into Electronic Art with particular focus on Hybrid Art and Device Art made in Japan. The present essay's aim is to test the hypothesis that religion influenced an avant-garde, to call into question if a form of belief is embedded in technology, and ultimately to describe how tradition and innovation are merging in contemporary Japan.

Papers by Mauro Arrighi

New Media Art In Japan. Hideaki Ogawa And The Device Art.

Hideaki Ogawa, graduated with a doctorate degree from the prestigious KEIO University of Tokyo, p... more

Urban Escapism – Part 1. The Thousand Lights Of Tokyo’s Streets.

Toshio Iwai, born in Japan in 1962, has been internationally defined as a new-media artist. In th... more

Urban Escapism – Part 2. Sound Lens, Rhabdomancy By Toshio Iwai.

As we had seen in the first part of this essay, published on the last month issue - Digimag 69, t... more

Detached From Yourself. Thus Under Control – Part 1.

The present essay is meant to clarify today’s condition of new-media art in Japan. The reader may... more

Detached from yourself. Therefore Under Control – Part 2.

One peculiar aspect concerning the use of technology formulated by Japanese artists it is shown b... more

Techno-Animism: Japanese Media Artists and their Buddhist and Shinto Legacy

Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan, 2019

Japanese spell in electronic art

New Media Art Japan

New Media Art Japan is:

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Talks by Mauro Arrighi

Too much code for me

Japanese Spell in Electronic Arts - Interview

When a Japanese artist uses technology dives into holism and reductionism at the same time: it ha... more

Reality Bonsai : Animism and science-fiction as a blueprint for media art in contemporary Japan

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Mauro Arrighi Japanese Spell in Electronic Art MA

Download

Identity is a self-representation’s issue

Identity issue in a mediatized world.

Download

Japanese Spell in Electronic Art

New Media Art In Japan. Hideaki Ogawa And The Device Art.

Hideaki Ogawa, graduated with a doctorate degree from the prestigious KEIO University of Tokyo, p... more

Urban Escapism – Part 1. The Thousand Lights Of Tokyo’s Streets.

Toshio Iwai, born in Japan in 1962, has been internationally defined as a new-media artist. In th... more

Urban Escapism – Part 2. Sound Lens, Rhabdomancy By Toshio Iwai.

As we had seen in the first part of this essay, published on the last month issue - Digimag 69, t... more

Detached From Yourself. Thus Under Control – Part 1.

The present essay is meant to clarify today’s condition of new-media art in Japan. The reader may... more

Detached from yourself. Therefore Under Control – Part 2.

One peculiar aspect concerning the use of technology formulated by Japanese artists it is shown b... more

Techno-Animism: Japanese Media Artists and their Buddhist and Shinto Legacy

Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan, 2019

Japanese spell in electronic art

New Media Art Japan

New Media Art Japan is:

Download

Too much code for me

Japanese Spell in Electronic Arts - Interview

When a Japanese artist uses technology dives into holism and reductionism at the same time: it ha... more

Mauro Arrighi

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Thesis Chapters by Mauro Arrighi

Books by Mauro Arrighi

Papers by Mauro Arrighi

Talks by Mauro Arrighi

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