An urban technology art festival where tomorrow’s ideas and technologies meet

MEDIA AMBITION TOKYO 2017

February 11 (Sat) - March 12 (Sun) , 2017

Feb. 13, 2017

ABOUT MEDIA AMBITION TOKYO 2017

2017 will be MEDIA AMBITION TOKYO (MAT)’s 5th year in running.  To fans and the curious, the event is a real-life showcase of top-notch technological culture that takes an experimental approach to urban implementation.  With its headquarters  situated in Roppongi, venues have further multiplied to Shibuya,Harajyuku,Daikanyama, Ginza, Iidabashi, Ochanomizu, Suidobashi and Odaiba, at which super-edgy artwork, video, music, performances, and talk shows will be hosted.  

Programs have organically increased, expanded and connected simultaneously with the number of domestic and international participants by way of innovators, organizations and events, allowing MAT to mature as an active body.

With 2020 and beyond in mind, and not omitting the largely evolving systematic designs of transportation, communication and information, the event addresses the potential of technology in creating the city’s future.  MAT aims to substantialize the reformative movement in technology art through experimental validations unbound by genre or category.

Dates

February 11(Sat)-March 12(Sun), 2017

*Event Calendar will vary according to venue. 

Venues

01. Roppongi Hills (Roppongi)

02. ART & SCIENCE GALLERY LAB AXIOM (Roppongi)

03. Institut français du Japon – Tokyo (Iidabashi)

04. Shibuya Hikarie(Shibuya)

05. Digital Hollywood University (Ochanomizu)

06. teamLab (Suidobashi)

07. LAFORET MUSEUM HARAJUKU(Harajyuku)

08. National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Odaiba)

09. Apple Store, Ginza (Ginza)

10. DAIKANYAMA T-SITE

Highlight of MAT 2017

• Hot and front-line artists of techonolgy Art

The leading artists in various fields including Rhizomatiks, teamLab, and WOW have participated in the past MATs.   This year, we welcomed new participants – Yoichi Ochiai, the advocate of digital nature, Takram, the boundary crosser of design and engineering, and Rei Wakita and Tetsuya Komuro who have participated in Ars Electronica to name a few. 

• Introducing up-and-coming artists to play key roles in the next generation

If we want Tokyo to keep creating new cultures, we have to nurture artists of next generation and show them to the world.  MAT continues its tradition to introduce another group of the choicest up-and-coming artists. 

Additionally, teamLab that has produced hot exhibits all over the world will hold the workshop for children to cultivate the technological culture for the future.  

• Technological arts meet “humor”!  

Having “SmileTech” to merge technology and humor as our slogan,  MAT 2017 covers several pieces of laughter-inducing works.  We believe that “humor” will be an essential element to activate our communication with technology and arts.  We have nominated art pieces you can instinctively enjoy that capture laughable elements hidden in our daily lives with the technological arts.  

• Brand new visual experience

While technology advances day by day, the improvement of functional specs alone is no longer of any significance.  Only when artists and designers add the cultural significance, it becomes the truly new value.  MAT 2017 offers the new visual experience such as the spherical projection screen to give the sense of immersion and Colloidal Display that projects images over the soap bubble. 

• Barrier free of the future and OMOTENASHI utilizing technology 

In light of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, we present how technology can influence communication and its potential under the slogan of “OMOTENASHI”. 

We use “UD TALK” to support the universal design of communication for the panel discussions in this event. What are being discussed will be shown in the subtitle by the voice recognition + voice synthesis functions in real time.  Also implementing multi-language translation function, we help to eliminate the auditory and language barriers.  With the support of technology, we investigate and experiment on opportunities everybody can take advantage of without exception. 

Also, we humorously show “OMOTENASHI” in the ordinary conversation between “a taxi driver and a foreign tourist” by the facial exchange algorithm and the read aloud function as a project to investigate the potential of cross-cultural communication.