Connected Ink Still Around
Following intriguing sounds from the universe, a work by Satoru Kobayashi, an artist based in Hanamaki City, Iwate, set off and traveled around the globe in 27 hours. After going through expansive creative chaos during the journey, Connected Ink 2021 reached its end.
Leaving its audience behind with exciting impressions, perhaps feelings of void and new discoveries and wonders encountered in a quest for answers to event themes, one may assume that Connected Ink now has gone to sleep for some time.
But by all means no.
New challenges presented at Connected Ink have been steadily walking down the road to the next stage and are looking for opportunities to showcase the footsteps of their growth.
The first challenge is called “MINAMOTO”, a community founded by figure modelers and named after the Japanese word for “source” or “spring”. At Connected Ink 2021, MINAMOTO presented its collaboration with “Eshi-100 Exhibition”, a pop culture art exhibition organized by the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.
In this context, the Project “Traces and Interactions (Kiseki and Kosaku)” was launched in which a modeler and an illustrator exchange their unfinished works and each artist completes them by his or her own art technique, filling in what was left empty in the works of the other. Three pairs of artists were selected for the project and their works are well under way.
One of the modelers participating in the project has been working on an anthropomorphic figure representing a creature “developing in symbiosis”, and comments as follows:
“By looking at the figure growing better through mutual interaction, I feel drawn to the idea of a collaborative relationship between illustrators and modelers”.
“Call and Response” is another project on which Connected Ink Village, General Inc. Assn. embarked in cooperation with the experimental welfare unit “HERALBONY” and from which numerous new works have originated.
“Call and Response” is another project on which Connected Ink Village, General Inc. Assn. embarked in cooperation with the experimental welfare unit “HERALBONY” and from which numerous new works have originated. “Call and Response” is an experimental project with interactions between HERALBONY unique artists on one hand and creators on the other who seek new expressions in response (Response) to a stimulating call (Call) by the artists. Artists and creators share the same urge to express themselves which shatter our preconceived barrier between people with disabilities and those without. This project is expected to give birth to art works which embody expressions based on a completely new set of values.
Yu Takada, an artist based in Ibaraki, took part in this project with five works from the “Maze” series and presented them as inspirational input to creators in different fields. How are the things at the receiving end right now? Were the creators able to escape from the Maze to get ready to strike back in response? Or are they still caught in the middle of the Maze?
On top of that, an update will be given on the ongoing experiment “Cabin” by mui lab, a cooperation partner of Connected Ink. We will get a glimpse of a physical cabin now taking shape in Connected Ink Village Tokyo whereby stories will be told about an intriguing question on how to express “presence” or “atmosphere” with digital technologies.
“After Connected Ink” will be set in motion in Tokyo in February 2022. The same “After” series is expected to spring up all over the world. Connected Ink is now seeking to become a continuous information platform through these “After” events and steadily replenish its energy for the next big stage of “Connected Ink 2022”.
Text: Yohei Himori (Connected Ink Village)
