Floating Time: An Environment by Tatsuo Miyajima

In the video instillation, Floating Time V2-12 Marine Blue, Japanese Artist Tatsuo Miyajima creates a visual environment using traditional Japanese ideals, and contemporary means. This comes across with the traditional Zen Buddhist philosophy of “primitive simplicity” and the use of having no focal point. It also contains modern ideas through its multicultural understandability and its structure.

The room is kept dark with black curtains draping over the doorway and the white tiles in the center of the space contrasted the dark carpet. Numbers of different sizes and colors drifted around the screensaver like image projected onto the tiles on the floor. It is like looking into an abyss of space and depth as well as time. The piece is simple in appearance, yet complicated in concept and mathematical structure. Every element is necessary for the composition which shows a modem importance of Wibi, primitive simplicity, in contemporary Japanese art. “Buddhist ideas influence my work because it is part of my life. But art is about questions, religion is about answers. I am posing questions about life to myself and to others. Artists don't know the answers.”

There is no focal point instead the viewer’s eye moves across the platform concentrating on the different numbers as they pass by. Each number is important to itself, and towards the entirety of the composition. “Digital numbers have all ten numbers contained in one” states Miyajima, referring to the traditional idea of “the one in the many, and the many in the one.” The projector beamed the numbers from above yet they drift around below you, creating an interactive environment which engages the viewer.

The image is universal in appearance because of the globalization of modern technology. The structure of the numbers is recognizable whether you are in Japan, the United States, Europe or any other developed nation. The viewer immediately recognizes the objects as numbers and then associates it with clocks and time. We see these numbers everyday. As Tatsuo Miyajima explains, “These are numbers that if randomly processed, set up all sorts of mental associations. And they just keep going, creating changing associations.”

In Tatsuo Miyajima video instillation, Floating Time V2-12 Marine Blue, the viewer experiences a combination Japanese tradition, and modern ideas. The artist combines Ancient Buddhist beliefs with a modern outlook and a global awareness to create a unique environment.

Bibliography

Miyajima, Tatsuo. Color Structure for Floating Time (Sky Blue). 2000. Vicky and Kent Logan Collection Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO.

Miyajima, Tatsuo. Floating Time V2-12 Marine Blue. 2000. Vicky and Kent Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO.

Miyajima, Tatsuo. Home Page. Tatsuo 2003. 27 Sept. 2005.

Russell, Heather. “Japanese art from 1336 to 1868” AR 212 History of Western Art III. Colorado State University, CO. 27 Sept. 2005.