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Ko Nakajima

Ko Nakajima

Birth : 1941-01-01, Kumamoto, Japan

History

Nakajima Ko began his career in experimental animation with the creation of works such as Seizoki (1964). At his solo exhibition at the Sogetsu Art Center, a space for avant-garde art in 1960s Tokyo, he produced Seizoki by painting directly on the film between screenings. His perennial interest in integrating new technologies, exploring the potential of film, video, and eventually computer animation, joined his desire to explore human intersections with nature, as seen in his Biological Cycle series (1971-); he created the first work in the series, Biological Life (1971-), by copying manipulated film footage onto video, then further manipulating the work with a video synthesizer. In 1971, Nakajima established Video Earth Tokyo, the pioneering video-art collective. Nakajima used one of the earliest available portable video recorders to document Video Earth Tokyo performance pieces and teach the new technology. Video Earth Tokyo members created works, broadcast works on cable television, and participated in international exhibitions and emergent CG (computer graphics) conferences. In 1982, Nakajima introduced his Aniputer. Aniputer technology allowed wide access to creation of video animation, as this personal portable computer integrated with a video camera, developed in collaboration with Japan Victor Company (JVC), allowed any user to directly manipulate video and images on a screen, creating animations in real time. Nakajima used his expertise manipulating film, photography, and video with computer technology to create what is perhaps his best known work, Mt. Fuji (1984), a ninety-minute rhythmic meditation on nature, spirituality, and perspective. Nakajima has produced works in France, Canada, New Zealand, and Denmark. Representative works include Biological Cycle series (1971-), My Life series (1976-), Mt. Fuji (1984), and Dolmen (1987). His works are in permanent collections internationally, including in Centre Georges Pompidou (France), The Museum of Modern Art (U.S.), Long Beach Museum of Art Video Archive (U.S.), and the Getty Research Institute Special Collections (U.S.).

Profile

Ko Nakajima

Movies

The Rooms in the Photographs — Ko Nakajima’s Rooms

The Rooms in the Photographs — Ko Nakajima’s Rooms

Director

The Rooms in the Photographs — Ko Nakajima’s Rooms Directed by Ko Nakajima, Photography by Hitoshi Kubo and Yosuke Nakagawa. Edited by Hitoshi Kubo. Courtesy of Keio University Art Center Produced in 2019 in conjunction with the research and exhibition organized by Hitoshi Kubo of Keio University Art Center, The Rooms in the Photographs — Ko Nakajima’s Rooms strings together a series of photographs documenting his studio in Tokyo and Nakajima’s performance. Conceived in conjunction with the research into Nakajima’s 1,500 photo documentation of artist Yutaka Matsuzawa’s Psi Zashiki Room in 1969, the project is an invaluable record of Nakajima’s extraordinary work space where video equipments, films and videos, printed materials, amassed over the years function as a system for Nakajima’s memory keeping. Seemingly random and chaotic placement of objects produced an idiosyncratic formula for the artist to access certain information—the studio and his brain functioned as one.

Dance of the Dead

Dance of the Dead

Director

Made at the sites of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, this work is a collaboration with Butoh danceter Takumi Harada. The work is currently still in production.

Director

This work features the salt marshes of Montpellier France, and uses computer graphics to create fantastical imagery.

Waveforms: Video/Japan

Waveforms: Video/Japan

Director

Art Com Video #2. A collection of video and performance art mostly from Japan (one is from a Canadian Artist and the piece is about Japan) and includes these pieces: Mt. Fuji - Ko Nakajima, Flow (3) Part 2 - Sinsuke Ina, Koto Buki - Tetsuo Sekimoto, Listen the Body - Yoshiomi Yamaguchi, My Gaijin Tengoku - Byron Black, Alley of Alley - Akira Matsumoto, and Japanese Syllabary - Yoh Hayafuji

Director

A sequel to Dolmen, the work features Rangitoto, a volcano in New Zealand that resembles Mount Fuji. Produced in New Zealand, the project was funded by a local television station.

Director

A work produced in Brittany, France, with funding from the French government and employing local CG artists, the main subject is the Stonehenge.

Director

A ninety-minute rhythmic meditation on nature, spirituality, and perspective.

Biological Cycle No. 5

Biological Cycle No. 5

Director

The series, based on the first 16mm film that was shot in a studio with Nakajima’s family and birds, moves through media and processing transformations over many iterations over the years. Once transferred to video, digital effects were added using the “Animaker,” an electronic image synthesizer that he invented (also nicknamed “Ko-puter”). Total of 6 parts exist.

Director

This work was started in 1967 as a documentation of Nakajima’s life. The footage was edited into a single piece for the first time in 1974, in time to show the work to the curator Barbara London, who was visiting Japan. Generations of his family were lost and gained that year, with Nakajima's mother passing away, and then his child was born. The piece is an installation with two monitors; the left presents his mother and himself, and the right, his child and himself. Nakajima continues to work on the sequels of "My Life" with his grandchild.

Shinkansen Researching Foods

Shinkansen Researching Foods

Director

A work of Video Earth Tokyo. Carrying in the rice cooker to the Shinkansen (express train), the group cooked rice between Tokyo and Nagoya. As the train arrives, they started to have a dinner party on the platform.

A Graveyard and Beggar

A Graveyard and Beggar

Director

A work of Video Earth Tokyo, it is an interview with a homeless who lived in the Aoyama cemetery. Photography by Michael Goldberg.

Director

In this tape, Ko Nakajima and Video Earth Tokyo interview a homeless man. The subject is initially angry and frustrated, but gradually opens up and shares stories about his life. Under A Bridge was later broadcast on cable television.

Director

This work was created to commemorate the reversion of Okinawa to Japan.

Biological Cycle No. 1

Biological Cycle No. 1

Director

Biological Cycle No. 3

Biological Cycle No. 3

Director

The series, based on the first 16mm film that was shot in a studio with Nakajima’s family and birds, moves through media and processing transformations over many iterations over the years. Once transferred to video, digital effects were added using the “Animaker,” an electronic image synthesizer that he invented (also nicknamed “Ko-puter”). Total of 6 parts exist.

Biological Cycle No. 2

Biological Cycle No. 2

Director

The series, based on the first 16mm film that was shot in a studio with Nakajima’s family and birds, moves through media and processing transformations over many iterations over the years. Once transferred to video, digital effects were added using the “Animaker,” an electronic image synthesizer that he invented (also nicknamed “Ko-puter”). Total of 6 parts exist.

Director

This is an animation using the “Kaki-mation” technique. This piece can be shown as a multiscreen piece with 3 screens.

Director

After graduating from Tama University of Arts, Nakajima made this work with the intention of submitting to the Sogetsu Animation Festival. Without much funding to work with, Nakajima devised the technique “Kaki-mation,” a method of drawing directly on 35mm film. At this time, he frequented Studio Zero—the formative mainstream animation / cartoon production company of the period with members Shinichi Suzuki, Jiro Tsunoda, Fujiko Fujio, and others.