Kenji Kojima

I have been experimenting with the relationships between perception and cognition, technology, music and visual art since early 90's. Some of people may think I am a composer or a programmer, but I believe I am a visual artist.

Early Childhood
I was born in 1947 in Yamagata, Japan, and grew up in Tokyo, currently living in New York City. My family lived in Tokyo until the late World War II. After the great bombing of Tokyo, my family evacuated to my mother's home town Yamagata city where was one of northern prefectures in Japan. Even the World War II was ended, Tokyo was burned ruins, then only my father moved back to Tokyo and my mother and my brother had lived in Yamagata for some years. I remember few things of Yamagata's life. Rice fields, a water mill, sounds of frogs, my snow boots, the stairs of our house, the view from our window, and American soldiers of occupation. When I was before 3 years old we moved to Tokyo.

Cultural Backgrounds
I grew interested in arts. My mother liked Japanese paintings like Uemura Shoen. She displayed a replica of Japanese painting or calligraphy in a Japanese style round painting frame at the entrance of our house, and changed the paintings in seasons. I believed it made one of my aesthetics. The first Western artist whom I minded was Vincent Van Gogh. I reproduced his cypresses painting by water colors. It was around 10 years old. After that I was interested in more and more European and American Art and Cultures. I loved 60's American Arts, Dada, Conceptual Art, Earth Work. And I loved the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Blues. On the other hand I studied Japanese Noh Dancing, Singing, and Tea. I was thinking little by little the contemporary art on the Western civilization reached a dead-end. I wished I could graft an art history onto before the modern era. I was interested in early Renaissance paintings materials and techniques.

Medieval Art Materials and Techniques
I moved to New York City in 1980 summer. I had been painting egg tempera which was medieval art materials and techniques in 1980's. My first egg tempera painting series “Guardian Deities in the City” from 1980 to 86 which presented street objects of New York City. The next painting series “Waves” was created around concrete images with abstracted forms. In 1989, I had my first painting exhibition in New York City. After the show I became interested in surrounding phenomenon, or causation, more than the objects themselves. A personal computer was improved rapidly during 80s. I began to used a computer for making plans from the following series, “Stream”. Because the paintings needed careful planing and visualization. It was a requirement of the medium. It was not possible to erase, or change directions.

Encounterd with Digital Art World
Planning by a computer sent me in a new direction of my art work that were interactive and programming. Computer works were more comfortable for my mind than handling actual materials. I created digital art series “Is the Production of Garbage Materials in the 21st Century, still Art?”, “A Tender Attempt to Accomplish Something Possible in This Impossible”, and “ Throwing Stones” on my Web site. Software art “JIKANKEI” was temporal hour system. It was based on before westernized time system in Japan. The time was determined by the movement of the Sun. I became more interested in passage of time, sounds and/or data processing. “String Quartet Pi” composed a music from the constant of pi. I made other sound arts from literary works by using algorithm.

Visuals and Musics
I was thinking I could find relations between sounds and visuals. “RGB Music Project” was started in 2007. It was a composite artwork of visuals, music and technologies that converts visual data into a music in attempts to discover relations between visuals and musics. The project core was the development of algorithmic composition software RGB MusicLab. I exhibited RGB Music sound installation “Subway Synesthesia” in New York City. The following project “RGB Music RENGA: 999 Views of Skyscrapers from Great Lawn in Central Park, New York City” and “Subway Synesthesia RENGA” were continuing short improvisations like Japanese poem RENGA. The musics were converted from photographs by Web application. I made two versions of “RGB Music RENGA” which were a Web application for Web browser and a desktop for an exhibition. Exhibition versions were shown in several cites of media art festivals in the world. The latest project “RGB Music News” is what news images brought into this world visually and musically. “Composition FUKUSHIMA, 2011” was created from the project.


RGB Music Sound Installations:
2012 FILE SP 2012 HYPERSONICA, São Paulo, Brazil
2012 FILE RIO 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2011 FILE Media Art 2011, São Paulo, Brazil
2011 Live Herring Media Art Festival, Jyväskylä Art Museum, Finland
2010 Interactive Desigh Forum 2010, Wuhan University of Technology, China
2010 FAD (Festival de Arte Digital), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
2010 FILE PRIX LUX 2010 Web exhibition by nominated artists
2010 "999 Views of Skyscrapers from Great Lawn in Central Park",
    PROCESS Festival March 19+20, Ausland, Berlin, Germany
2009 "Subway Synesthesia", RE-NEW Digital Art Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2008 "Subway Synesthesia", AC Institute, New York City.

Digital Art Awards:
2010 FILE PRIX LUX 2010: Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica,
    São Paulo, Brazil. Nominated Kenji Kojima's algorithmic composition.
2009 Pixelstorm Award
    "RGB into Music" received a Honorary Mention, Basel, Switzerland
2009 36th Bourges International Competitions
    Selected in Part Electronic Arts - Section II - Category New practices of Netart
    Bourges, France
2001 Art on the Net
    Excellent Artist, Machida City Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1999 Art on the Net
    Excellent Artist, Machida City Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Digital Arts are Archived in:
Rhizome.org 1, 2 at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY

Paintings are Collected in:
Amerada Hess Corporation, New York, NY
CITIBANK, New York, NY
Milbank Tweed Hodley McCoy, New York, NY
and private collectors