Jun. 10, 1997
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Jun. 17, 1997 [special]
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Art Watch Index - Jun. 17, 1997
Resistance Against Oblivion
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<<Spilt Oil Swap Project>> Future Schedule:
Spilt Oil Swap Project http://www.flab.mag. keio.ac.jp/sosp/index.en.html
Spilt Oil Swap Project / Exhibition Traveling Schedule
Masaki Fujihata Lab. Home Page
Survey of the NAHOTOKA
Yahoo! JAPAN - News:Current_Events:Oil Spill
Oil Spill NEWS
Oil Spill of NAHOTOKA
Milford Haven Oil Spill Homepage
Recommending Anti-"escapism"
Cooperation Needed for SOSP
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Resistance Against Oblivion
Masaki FUJIHATA, known as a "CG artist" or "media artist", has started a new "movement/transference". The name (of the project) is <<Spilt Oil Swap Project>>. In January, 1997, the Russian tanker, "Nahotoka", was stranded on the coast of the Sea of Japan, spilling a large volume of heavy oil in the area, mainly near Fukui prefecture. Naturally, the mass media took this up on a full scale, and many volunteers gathered from all over Japan to remove the petroleum. Students from the university lab, where FUJIHATA teaches, also went to volunteer, and after listening to their report, FUJIHATA also went to the site. When he made the visit, he realized that this may be the "security hole" for the Japanese society. "According to the terminology used in computer networks, the words, 'security hole', indicate a method to break the security system protected by means such as a password...A security hole cannot be found unless one produces an idea beyond common sense. When I saw the oil spill accident in the Sea of Japan in January, I cried 'Ah!'; I felt 'someone did it'. I had a strange feeling as if I had seen something I should not have. In other words, I thought that that was one of the "security holes" hidden inside our social structure." (Taken from the Project Guide) The exhibit to establish a place in our "memory" While the volunteers "cleaned" the heavy oil, or continued their effort to physically "erase" the accident, FUJIHATA questioned himself of what to do as an artist, as he confronted this overwhelming reality. As a result, he decided to "leave" something instead of of "erasing". He was not trying to deny the volunteers' activity. On the contrary, he decided to challenge the fact of this incident being absorbed into the waves of society, that is becoming more and more "forgetful" with the advance of the media speed. Thus, he tried to leave a mark in our "memory". The way he decided to "leave" a memory was to take pictures of the places where the oil spilled, print them on 40 pieces of fabric (1.3m x 1.3m), and "exhibit" them by laying them out on a different beach every weekend. This is a grand project, aiming to exhibit the work in as many Japanese beaches as possible until February, 1998, leading to an exhibit on the Welsh beach where a similar incident happened. As I wrote before on the Network Museum & Magazine Project, in a society where everything competes for "high speed" in terms of technology and media, "being slow" may have more "power" as "speed". This project, which proceeds "gradually" along the coast of Japan every weekend, may gain that kind of "power" little by little. (This project is done on a volunteer basis mainly by the students from Masaki FUJIHATA's lab. Please contact the following office if you sympathize with this project and want to offer human or financial support. We are also looking for local municipalities that will accept this "exhibit".)
[Takaaki KUMAKURA/
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Takaaki KUMAKURA
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Jun. 10, 1997
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Jun. 17, 1997 [special]
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