An Evening with Takuji Kogo 27.02. MoMA

Takuji Kogo (Japanese, b. 1965), founder of “candy factory,” an alternative Yokohama gallery that operated from 1998 to 2000, exploits the Internet to explore the meanings of globalization, especially through sites left deserted when the economy of multinational companies fails. He playfully interlaces photography, animation, and sampled music, and he invites the participation of Web denizens. An Evening with Takuji Kogo is part of “out of the internet,” an international festival featuring cultural content emerging from the Asia Pacific regions. The project is realized through MAAP—Multimedia Art Asia Pacific. Program approx. 90 min.

OpenSky 2.0

HACHIYA Kazuhiko, who was born in 1966, has created an innovative group of works related to communication and realizing one's dreams. Earlier works include "Inter Dis-Communication Machine" (1993), a pair of devices that exchange points of view between two persons, so that the wearers see through each other's eyes, and "AirBoard" (1999, 2001), a jet-powered, real-life version of the hoverboard seen in the film "Back to the Future". He also proposed the "PostPet" e-mail software and provides direction for its development. His career as an artist in the inventor mode has made HACHIYA a well-known media artist.

HACHIYA launched OpenSky in 2003 as a project to create a single-person flying machine. The project is currently progressing towards its ultimate goal of achieving a feasible personal jet glider. Phase one was the basic design of the craft and experiments with a model of it; phase two was experimental production of the actual craft and trial flights at low altitudes. The project is about to enter phase 3, manned flight with the glider equipped with a jet engine.

This exhibition will focus on the OpenSky project, presenting the model and full-scale craft, its concept, and a vast collection of video recordings of experiments to date. It will also allow visitors to experience the flight simulator and the sounds of the jet engine in a multifaceted presentation that provides a comprehensive view of the project.

What seemed the dream of individual flight is, as the OpenSky project demonstrates, achievable precisely through a single person's creation of this aircraft. In doing so, the artist frees the idea of soaring through the skies at will from the realm of fantasy.

Dispatx

Dispatx is a curatorial platform that provides the tools of a socialised internet for the development and presentation of contemporary art and literature. It was created in 2004 by Oliver Luker, Vanessa Oniboni and David Stent.

The website functions both as a rigorous concept-space for the exploration of the creative method - the organisational process which translates creative vision into creative product - and as an exhibition space for concluded works.

Visitors are invited to interact with the working processes of contributing artists presented online and to create unique private collections of finished works in My Dispatx.

For each edition we publish themes for exploration that are open to the interpretation of collaborating artists. From the moment a theme is announced, the process of selection for collaborative projects and concluded works is open.

Selected projects are developed over a period of 5 months in the Studio. Their evolution can be observed in Make, where users can comment on the progress of each artist. When projects are finalised they are collated together and published in the Show section of the following edition, where the content is processed and presented by genetic algorithms.