From March-May 2024, as part of our Community of Images series and in collaboration with Hitoshi Kubo and Keio University Art Center, we are thrilled to present a three-month feature on the early Japanese video collective, the Video Information Center (VIC). The extensive program is a comprehensive introduction to the group’s tireless documentation of underground arts and culture in Japan’s 1970s and 1980s.

From March-May 2024, as part of our Community of Images series and in collaboration with Hitoshi Kubo and Keio University Art Center, we are thrilled to present a three-month feature on the early Japanese video collective, the Video Information Center (VIC). The extensive program is a comprehensive introduction to the group’s tireless documentation of underground arts and culture in Japan’s 1970s and 1980s.

This February, as part of our Community of Images series and our Meander program, we are thrilled to present a feature on the screening collective Ground Level Cinema (グラウンドレベルシネマ). The group is comprised of members from both Japan and Taiwan, and the program features contributions from Johan Chang & Masa Kudo, Hsin-Yu Chen and Kenta Yamaguchi.

This January we present the second program in our series on image-processing in Japan and North America: a focus on the life of Ko Nakajima’s two commercial animation computers, the Animaker and the Aniputer, and their subsequent life among video artists in Canada. 

This December, we are proud to present the first in our series on image-processing on both sides of the Pacific: two works by Dan Sandin (and his collaborators), generously lent by the artist himself, alongside the 7-minute version of Nakajima's iconic Mt Fuji (1984).

This November, we present a fourth offering in our Community of Images series as part of our Meander program. In partnership with curator Elizabeth Jesse, we are thrilled to introduce the work of Kioto Aoki, an active Chicago-based artist, educator, and musician.

This October, we present our third program in the ongoing series, Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s - a selection of early works by the artist Keiji Uematsu, made during his period of residence in Düsseldorf, West Germany. The screening is accompanied by a partial translation of a 2016 interview with the artist conducted by the Japanese Oral Art History Archive.

This September, we present our second program in the ongoing series, Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s. This month’s screening features three more works from the CCJ Viewing Library: the productions of the members of Video Earth, a video collective begun in 1971 under the organization of Ko Nakajima.

For our August membership feature we are pleased to announce the first instalment of an ongoing season on CCJ: Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s. While our exhibition will focus on work created in the US or in collaboration with American artists and organisations, our August Members’ Viewing focuses on the thematics of “America” in the work of three artists, drawn from the CCJ Viewing Library.

For our July membership feature we are delighted to introduce the work of Haruka Doi, a filmmaker and musician active in the 1980s and 1990s whose introspective and lyrical diary films scatter fragments of self-reflection through the prism of everyday spaces. The program includes a rare English-subtitled screening of her Torino International Youth Film Festival award-winning work He Was Here, and You Are Here (1985), as well as A Gentle Afternoon Nap (1989), a reposeful short featuring striking time-lapse imagery.

Our June membership feature is focused on the underground filmmaker Mari Terashima, with two works from tail-ends of her career that beckon the viewer ‘through the looking glass’ into the territory of dream and desire.

For the month of May, CCJ welcomes back Akihiro Suzuki of Art Saloon to commemorate filmmaker Masanobu Nakamura, who passed away in March. An online screening will be presented in May, and in conjunction for CCJ Members, Suzuki has programmed a special viewing of works by Nakamura and his brother, Touch Me.

We are in for a treat this final month with three titles that showcase Nakajima’s varied interests in the early 1970s, from film experiments, his work with students of the Tokyo College of Photography, and collective video making. We are grateful to have access to ask Nakajima directly about these works.

In February, we dive into Nakajima’s work with technological manipulations using video synthesizers, including Scanimate and Animaker. Animaker was developed by Sony and Nakajima, and automatically takes frame-by-frame shots and performs effect processing. The Animaker became commercially available and sold about 100 units. American video artists such as Dan Sandin, Kit Fitzgerald, John Sanborn, and others are introduced in Japanese television program, alongside Ko Nakajima’s work.

In February, we dive into Nakajima’s work with technological manipulations using video synthesizers, including Scanimate and Animaker. Animaker was developed by Sony and Nakajima, and automatically takes frame-by-frame shots and performs effect processing. The Animaker became commercially available and sold about 100 units. American video artists such as Dan Sandin, Kit Fitzgerald, John Sanborn, and others are introduced in Japanese television program, alongside Ko Nakajima’s work.

Image: From The Rooms in the Photographs—Ko Nakajima’s Rooms, Photo by Yosuke Nakagawa. Courtesy of Keio University Art Center

Over the next four months, CCJ Monthly Members Viewing will focus on Ko Nakajima’s recently digitized titles, offered in partnership with Keio University Art Center. The presentations will be organized around themes: Study on My Life (January), technical experiments (February), documentary (March), and CATV work and collective Video Earth Tokyo (April).

Image: From The Rooms in the Photographs—Ko Nakajima’s Rooms, Photo by Yosuke Nakagawa. Courtesy of Keio University Art Center

We are thrilled to partner with curator Jesse Cumming and VTape to present works by Kyoko Michishita from November through January. With grant support from Japan Foundation New York, we are able to present English subtitled versions of Michishita’s Video Portraits – Men series in November and December in the Members Monthly Viewing. In January, Jesse Cumming will present an online screening program.

Image: Video Portraits – Men: Shuntaro Tanikawa (Kyoko Michishita, 1982). Courtesy of Vtape & Kyoko Michishita.

We are thrilled to partner with curator Jesse Cumming and VTape to present works by Kyoko Michishita from November through January. With grant support from Japan Foundation New York, we are able to present English subtitled versions of Michishita’s Video Portraits – Men series in November and December in the Members Monthly Viewing. In January, Jesse Cumming will present an online screening program.

Image: Video Portraits – Men: Issey Miyake (Kyoko Michishita, 1982). Courtesy of Vtape & Kyoko Michishita.