Etsuko Ichihara & Taiki Watai 市原悅子&渡井大己

(日本，Japan)Etsuko Ichihara is a media artist and fantasy inventor. Her powerful work interprets Japanese culture, customs, and beliefs from a unique point of view and presents new, technology-based approaches. She has received extensive media attention and won the Excellence Award at the 20th Japan Media Arts Festival and Honorary Mention at PRIX Ars Electronica 2018. Recent exhibitions include “Digital Shamanism: Japanese Funeral and Festivity”, Ars Electronica Festival, and the Japan Media Arts Festival. Taiki Watai, born in 1985, works as a media artist and a researcher. He completed the Representation and Media Course at the Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University. He has created some artworks that embody an alternative world or the future brought by technology, by combining everyday materials and devices, and programming. His works were selected for the Japan Media Arts Festival and Honorary Mention in PRIX Ars Electronica 2017.