Prof. Atau Tanaka - Culture Lab Newcastle CultureLab

Culture Lab Newcastle

vCardProf. Atau Tanaka

Prof. Atau Tanaka
Chair of Digital Media, Acting Director of Culture Lab

Atau Tanaka bridges the fields of media art, experimental music, and research. He worked at IRCAM, was Artistic Ambassador for Apple France, and was researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris, and was an Artistic Co-Director of STEIM in Amsterdam. Atau creates sensor-based musical instruments for performance, and is known for his work with biosignal interfaces. He seeks to harness collective musical creativity in mobile environments, seeking out the continued place of the artist in democratized digital forms. His work has been presented at Ars Electronica, SFMOMA, Eyebeam, V2, ICC, and ZKM and has been mentor at NESTA.

Research Interests

Mobile and Locative Media Art
Interactive Performance
Creative practice on Public Displays

Current Work

Recent publications include chapters in "Transdisciplinary Digital Art. Sound, Vision and the New Screen" (Springer), and "Mobile Technologies: From Telecommunications to Media" (Routledge, in press). He is co-editor with Frauke Behrendt, Lalya Gaye, and Nicolaj Kirisits of "Creative Interactions: The Mobile Music Workshops 2004-2008" (di:'Angewandte). In his practice, he has recently re-created at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary art, on a commission from the AV Festival 2008, and in collaboration with *zoviet:france*, Matt Wand, and the John Cage Trust, "Variations VII" by John Cage after the historic 1966 Armory performances of E.A.T.'s 9 Evenings.

Selected Publications

More Publications

Future Research

Presently working with the Newcastle artist group, Name, on a commission from the Great North Run cultural programme for an locative media online artwork for a large scale public participation sporting event.

Research Roles

Creating a research agenda for practice-led research in Digital Media.

Postgraduate Supervision

Co-supervisor, Adam Parkinson, PhD in Music (Culture Lab), "Listening, Playing, Moving in Free Improvisation"

External supervisor, Kevin Baird, PhD (University of Buffalo, completed 2005), "No Clergy: A Piece for Flexible Small Ensemble Generated in Real time Based on Audience Feedback"

Esteem Indicators

__Positions__
STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) – Artistic Co-director. Expanding arts research program, grant and fundraising strategies for Dutch computer music studio. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 2006-2007.

NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) – Mentor to grant awardees. London, U.K. 2004-2005.

ANR Review Committee – French National Research Agency grant review committee. Paris. 2007.

STW Review Committee – Brain Computer Interfaces grant review. Nijmegen, The Netherlands. 2006.

Transmediale Festival – Member, Interactive art jury. Berlin, Germany. 2003.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – Curator, Ju-jikan, 10 hours of Sound from Japan. 2001.

Interférences Festival – Member, performance jury. Belfort, France. 2000.

ISEA (Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) – Member, Board of Directors. 1998-2002.

MILIA – Jury member Milia d’Or multimedia prize. Cannes, France. 1996.

ada'web – Advisory Board member of the New York contemporary art web site. New York. 1996-1998.

__Commissions__
GRM/Radio France, Commission for multichannel performance for Présences Electroniques festival. 2007.

Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles / ArtZoyd, Commission for chamber orchestra and electronics piece, DSCP for Theremin, infrared sensors, and chamber orchestra. Mons. 2002.

SWR/ZKM, Commission for hoerspiel for radio and Internet by Southwest German radio (SWR). Prométhée-Numérique/Frankensteins-Netz. Production residency ZKM. Baden Baden. 2001.

NTT-ICC, Commission and premier of work with Sensorband and Granular Synthesis, Xtended Thrill. Tokyo. 1997.

Festival Exit, Commission for a large scale physical instrument with the group Sensorband, Soundnet. Paris-Creteil. 1994.

__Keynote Addresses__
AV Festival / Music & Machines VIII: Broadcast Symposium – Keynote address. Newcastle upon Tyne. 2008.

Locus Sonus Conference – Keynote address. Villa Arson, Nice. 2007.

Experimenta07 – Keynote address. Annecy France. 2007.

Digital Art Weeks – Keynote address. ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. 2006.

Interactive Futures – Keynote address. Victoria, Canada 2006.

Funding

AHRC Collaborative Research Training programme. For doctoral training in arts practice and digital curatorship, as PI and main awardee in collaboration with University of Sunderland. 2008. (GBP 10,000)

RIAM (Récherche et innovation en audiovisuel et multimédia) –French Ministry of Research & Industry grant, Mobile Social Music Software development for industry/academic consortium, 2005. (EUR 345,000)

Telecommunications Ministry (MPT), Japan – Grant for network music research at NetFIVE. 1999. (JPY 48,000,000)

Industrial Relevance

Former researcher, Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris.
Former Artistic Ambassador, Apple Europe

Honours and Awards

Prix Ars Electronica – Honorable Mention, Interactive Art, for sound-image installation Bondage. 2005.

Prix Ars Electronica – Honorable Mention, Interactive Art, for networked instrument Global String. 2001.

Fraunhofer Society – 2nd prize, Electronic Media Competition, for network sound installation architecture. 2000.

Fondation Daniel Langlois – Grant for production of Global String network musical instrument. 2000.

Cyberstar98: Shared Visions – 2nd prize, GMD/Fraunhofer IMF research center, Bonn. 1998.

Languages

French, Japanese

Postgraduate Teaching

Founder and Degree Programme Director, Master of Research (MRes) in Digital Media