~*...mariko mori...*~

i was planning on staying in tonight, work on my site and play some video games. that was until my friend kiki sent me an email about a special guest lecturer at ryerson polytechnic university. held at the new centre for computing and engineering (right across the street from isa and darryl's place), the kodak lecture series was proud to present japanese artist mariko mori. what kind of artist is she? well, its hard to describe. from video, to photographs, to sculpture, she goes beyond categories. you've probably seen her work before, but if you haven't here are a few examples.
mirror of water, 1997-1998



entropy of love, 1997-1998

pure land, 1997-1998

burning desire. 1996-1998

here is the description of mariko mori from the kodak lecture series:

005 Venice Biennale sensation Mariko Mori speaks in Toronto as part of the Kodak Lecture Series

Toronto – The Kodak Lecture Series is pleased to announce that New York-based, Japanese artist Mariko Mori will present a talk about her work on Friday, October 7, at 7:30 pm at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Born in Tokyo in 1967, Mariko Mori is an artist, a former fashion model and student of fashion design whose category-defying work –she has been described as a cross between a geisha girl and Gidget– has catapulted her to the top of the global art scene. Her highly stylized installations, videos, and photographs synthesize a myriad of connected influences from popular culture, science fiction, and Eastern spiritual practice. Mori's personal sense of spectacle and spirituality are often clad in a consumer culture slickness which creates an artistic vision capable of eliciting both ambivalence and enchantment.

Wave-UFO, the sensation of this year's Venice Biennale, is a stunning and novel three-person immersive environment that combines real-time computer graphics and brainwave sensory technology. Shaped like an extruded teardrop, Wave UFO is a 34 x 17-foot pod in which participants recline to watch a mesmerizing, electric display of colour, sound and motion projected on the domed ceiling above. Electrodes attached to each viewer gather brainwave data, which is transformed into visual imagery in real-time and projected onto the screen. This instant biofeedback thus incorporates the experience of watching the projection as well as the interaction between the viewers themselves.

Mariko Mori was educated at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and the Chelsea College of Art in London and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. She has had solo exhibitions and installations at Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Prada Foundation in Milan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Deitch Projects.
she spent most of her lecture discussing wave ufo. wow, what an incredible piece of interactive art generated by the brainwaves of the three participants. i couldn't help but think to myself that a wave ufo would probably be something i would come across on the playa at burning man...if this piece of art could survive the desert. i wonder if she's ever been to burning man. the fusion of media and technologies with art, creativity, and the imagination make wave ufo almost impossible to fully describe. the software that runs the wave ufo is just as fascinating. it analyzes and visualizes brain activity and then projects it inside the ufo in real time. pure neo-tokyo art from a jedi who rekognizes that everything in the universe is one.

the free lecture was packed. i was so glad kiki sent me the email about the lecture last minute. mariko mori is a whacked out little japanese anime artist radically expressing herself. czech out these projection captures of three people's brainwaves interacting within the wave ufo.

here are a few reviews of mariko mori's work at the tokyo museum of art and in japan's metropolis magazine.

thanks kiki for the heads up. you made my friday night way more enjoyable than i had planned.

- normurai