Papers by Nobuhiro Masuda
Leonardo, 2024
In this article, the authors reveal a new significance for the phrase “deliberately maladjusted” ... more In this article, the authors reveal a new significance for the phrase “deliberately maladjusted” (borrowed from video art of the 1970s and its critical interventions) in the act of microbial image processing using two artworks by the authors: A Medium for Images or Luminous Bacteria and ‘イ’ (1926) by BioLuminescent Bacteria. In contrast to early video experimentations, contemporary computational image processing simulates and manipulates various visual media in a manner well-adjusted for digital computation and display. The authors reconsider the historical process of image processing with living entities and microorganisms as they attempt to extend the possibility of works being deliberately maladjusted.
Front. Commun. vol.9, Communicating with Non-humans: A New Visual Language, Sep 16, 2024
In the current media environment, John Durham Peters emphasizes the importance of non-verbal comm... more In the current media environment, John Durham Peters emphasizes the importance of non-verbal communication and notes that underpinned by digital technology, "media" is returning to its original meaning as the milieu that surrounds living beings. To concretize and critically discuss this idea, this paper examines the artworks created by the authors, which incorporate microorganisms into digital technology. These works applied luminous bacteria as ink to digitally screen print text and images. The first work, A Medium for Images or Luminous Bacteria (2022), prints Japanese text with luminous bacteria ink. The second work, 'イ(I)' (1926) by BioLuminescent Bacteria (2024), recreates the first image in the history of Japanese television, 'イ(I)', with luminous bacteria. This paper compares and analyzes these practices in light of classical media theory, including the work of William Ivins Jr. and Marshall McLuhan. The paper introduces another work, Grow.|Glow. (2023), to further expand the discussion to contemporary digital media. Finally, drawing on the recent arguments of Anna Tsing and Antonio Damasio, we elucidate the critical implications that the works of luminous bacteria bring to the current media environment.
RE:SOURCE the 10th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology. Proceedings,, 2024
The history of modern media has been one of resisting nature’s decomposing forces. Durable materi... more The history of modern media has been one of resisting nature’s decomposing forces. Durable materials have been chosen to permanently “embalm” sounds and images while pursuing the constant innovation of new media. Such contradictory attempts have led to a sharp increase in non-degradable and harmful waste. This paper argues that re-evaluating the decomposition for media art is crucial in the age of crisis. What then does
“decomposition” mean for media art? How can it address the problem of resources and circulation on a planetary scale? How can artwork incorporate and digest these issues, rather than simply presenting a glorification of nature or a critique of technology? We will undertake a critical examination and devise strategies to surmount such predicaments through three media artworks: A record without prior acoustic information, Chromatophony, and Making Soil. These works respectively seek to decompose the infrastructure of the recording industry, the regime of digital media through biological tissues, and the ideal model of circulation between the natural and the artificial. This paper elucidates how these works induce the action of decomposition on a conceptual and material level and make us experience or embody its dynamic process through sensibility. We conclude that the possibilities of media art specific to the post-anthropocentric era are actualized through the entanglement between human and nonhuman.
WDO Research and Education Forum 2023 Proceedings / Design Beyond, 2024
This paper aims to present the significance of decentring the human being in design practice thro... more This paper aims to present the significance of decentring the human being in design practice through an approach called Human-decentred Design (HDD) for overcoming ecological and economic problems mainly caused by Human-centred Design (HCD). We argue that the fundamental cause of these problems lies in the preservation of anthropocentric standardizations at the core of technology under capitalist imperatives. From this critical perspective, this paper introduces two projects, A Record without Prior Acoustic Information by Kazuhiro Jo and Chromatophony by Juppo Yokokawa, which are designed respectively corresponding with alternative materials or living tissues for challenging the established standards of audiovisual media, such as high/ low-fidelity sound, frame rate, and resolution. In doing so, we demonstrate that HDD, which aims to be entangled with brute and living materials, serves as a means of repositioning technology within an ecology of life and matter, an energy flow beyond the human realm.
ISEA2022 Proceedings, 2022
This panel presents three case studies aimed at reinventing phonography, a technology for inscrib... more This panel presents three case studies aimed at reinventing phonography, a technology for inscribing sound, and examines the validity of applying the concept of “transduction” and “attunement” to media artworks.
The first case study is a historical survey that reconsiders the original invention of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison. The second one presents a media archaeological practice inspired by printing technologies and electromagnetic induction to actuate sound. The last is an attempt to redefine the phonograph through living materials such as the colorful surfaces of squid’s chromatophores.
Through these cases, we will demonstrate that attunement plays an integral role for making transduction sensible between human and nonhuman beings. As a result, this panel will indicate that the material process of sound art exemplified by the reinvention of phonography would be a theoretical contribution for exploring the possibilities of media art.
Leonardo, 2022
Squids can rapidly change their body color using chromatophores that are controlled by electrical... more Squids can rapidly change their body color using chromatophores that are controlled by electrical signals transmitted through nerves. The authors transform a squid’s skin into an audio visualizer called Chromatophony. This is accomplished by sending an electric tone signal composed as music to the skin. Although Chromatophony’s appearance is similar to that of computer-generated images, it is based on a natural phenomenon with a colorful mosaic display. By comparing chromatophores with pixels, the authors propose Living Images to expand the potential of visual expression from the perspective of bio-art theory.
Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science 2020 , 2022
Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary licences for the images that are subject to c... more Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary licences for the images that are subject to copyright. The editors shall thus not be held responsible for any obligation or legal action that may derive from the work submitted in terms of violation of third parties' rights, whether intellectual property, trade secret or any other right.
Dark Eden Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference 2020, 2021
Arts. His research interests include the visual expression using living phenomena.
Proceedings of the International Display Workshops, 2020
Uploads
Papers by Nobuhiro Masuda
“decomposition” mean for media art? How can it address the problem of resources and circulation on a planetary scale? How can artwork incorporate and digest these issues, rather than simply presenting a glorification of nature or a critique of technology? We will undertake a critical examination and devise strategies to surmount such predicaments through three media artworks: A record without prior acoustic information, Chromatophony, and Making Soil. These works respectively seek to decompose the infrastructure of the recording industry, the regime of digital media through biological tissues, and the ideal model of circulation between the natural and the artificial. This paper elucidates how these works induce the action of decomposition on a conceptual and material level and make us experience or embody its dynamic process through sensibility. We conclude that the possibilities of media art specific to the post-anthropocentric era are actualized through the entanglement between human and nonhuman.
The first case study is a historical survey that reconsiders the original invention of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison. The second one presents a media archaeological practice inspired by printing technologies and electromagnetic induction to actuate sound. The last is an attempt to redefine the phonograph through living materials such as the colorful surfaces of squid’s chromatophores.
Through these cases, we will demonstrate that attunement plays an integral role for making transduction sensible between human and nonhuman beings. As a result, this panel will indicate that the material process of sound art exemplified by the reinvention of phonography would be a theoretical contribution for exploring the possibilities of media art.
“decomposition” mean for media art? How can it address the problem of resources and circulation on a planetary scale? How can artwork incorporate and digest these issues, rather than simply presenting a glorification of nature or a critique of technology? We will undertake a critical examination and devise strategies to surmount such predicaments through three media artworks: A record without prior acoustic information, Chromatophony, and Making Soil. These works respectively seek to decompose the infrastructure of the recording industry, the regime of digital media through biological tissues, and the ideal model of circulation between the natural and the artificial. This paper elucidates how these works induce the action of decomposition on a conceptual and material level and make us experience or embody its dynamic process through sensibility. We conclude that the possibilities of media art specific to the post-anthropocentric era are actualized through the entanglement between human and nonhuman.
The first case study is a historical survey that reconsiders the original invention of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison. The second one presents a media archaeological practice inspired by printing technologies and electromagnetic induction to actuate sound. The last is an attempt to redefine the phonograph through living materials such as the colorful surfaces of squid’s chromatophores.
Through these cases, we will demonstrate that attunement plays an integral role for making transduction sensible between human and nonhuman beings. As a result, this panel will indicate that the material process of sound art exemplified by the reinvention of phonography would be a theoretical contribution for exploring the possibilities of media art.