Jun Takita, born in 1966 in Tokyo, graduated in 1988 from Nihon University, majoring in arts. He received a Masters from Paris Ecole National d’Art in 1992, having received a scholarship from the French government.

He draws heavily from concepts of traditional gardens and their careful and respected arts. Each of his works immerses the audience in the process clocked by the cyclical rhythms of biological and ecological phenomena. Life and death are simultaneously presented and aesthetically represented in the artist’s procedural work around the relationship between man and nature in the era of biotechnology.
He collaborates with numerous scientific teams as the Centre for Plant sciences at the University of Leeds (UK), Plant Biotechnology of Faculty of Biology University of Freiburg (DE), CNRS - Université Paris-Sud, MRI Medical and Multi-Methodes(FR), and the Royal Observatory of Belgium Seismology-Gravimetry (BE).

lundi 5 mars 2012

Sense of Balance



Installed at Le Garage, Béthune, France



Material: Plasticized human left ear, Model of the artist’s right ear, Level of the air bubble, Steel, open-source microcontroller, Step motor, PC
Approximately 3m high, 4m wide.



Finding the center of the Earth

The law of universal attraction (*1) explains the circular motion and equilibrium of rotation of the stars, the Earth, the sun, the moon, and the planets of our solar system and galaxies.

On Earth, our planet, the attraction of the moon and the sun generate another phenomenon: the tides. This phenomenon is made visible by the daily variation of sea level. The Earth’s crust, which appears so hard and stable, is also under its influence and is continuously deformed like a rubber ball.

All living things are governed by the law of universal attraction, but most do not perceive the pull of planetary attraction. Sensing the deformation of the Earth’s crust seems impossible for our own biosensors because the variation of movement is incredibly small compared to the size of the planet. For example, at the North Pole and South Pole where this movement is most accentuated, the variation is about 1.5 meters and represents only 0.0000002% of the radius of the Earth’s pole (which is about 6357 km).

To measure the change in the Earth’s crust, the center of the Earth must be established as an anchor point. Geologists have determined its position almost exactly, which exposes possibilities from a plastic as well as an artistic point of view. Everyone knows that the Earth is round but only a few astronauts able to observe its roundness from space satellites have experienced it.

To draw a circle one must first determine its center, it’s in determining the center of the Earth that it becomes possible to draw its circumference; unlike the astronauts, this metaphor makes it possible to prove the roundness of the Earth without, unlike the astronauts, leaving it.

The concept of my sculpture consists of “sculpting” the Earth at a one-to-one scale. The first step will be to find the center of this Earth and give it a concrete form.


A example of a graphic that shows the variation of the ground
during the 
month of December 2011 in Paris.
                                           


Concept and composition of the sculpture: “Sense of Balance”

Water and a small air bubble are sealed inside a 2 m long, 12 mm diameter tube. This tube is suspended horizontally in the air. The two ends are set in the auditory canals, the center of the inner ear (*2), of each of the human ears, right and left.

The ear on the right (in the drawing) is an exact copy, in resin, of my right ear. This ear was created by “printing” the data points from an MRI scan (*3) using stereo lithography (*4). The left side of the tube is connected to a plasticized human left ear (*5).

The copy of my right ear is kept at a fixed distance with respect to the center of the Earth as if it was permanently physically attached. The surface of the Earth (in the case of this exhibition, it will be represented by the floor of the space where the sculpture is installed) moves closer or farther depending on the variation of the gravitational forces imposed on the Earth. While this copy moves continually on the vertical plane, in reality it is absolutely still relative to the center of the Earth. Meanwhile, the plasticized ear installed on a base, which appears at first glance to be immobile, shifts following the movement of the tides. In other words, it is in constant movement depending on fluctuation of the Earth’s crust.

The air bubble inside the glass tube goes back and forth as height of the plasticized ear varies, a variation that is imperceptible to the spectators who are also moving with the coming and going of the tides.

The movement of the bubble then renders the fluctuation of the Earth’s crust visible in real time and translates a certain idea of the sense of balance in humans, whom we may think are definitively attached to the Earth.  






The following notes are taken from definitions given by the Encyclopedia Universalis. 

(*1)
Newton's law of universal gravitation states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. 

(*2)
The inner ear is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in the temporal bone of the skull with a system of passages comprising two main functional parts: The cochlea, dedicating to hearing, and the vestibular system, dedicated to balance. That is responsible for the sensations of balance and motion.

 (*3)
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures. MRI makes use of the property of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to image nuclei of atoms inside the body.

(*4)
Stereolithography (SLA) is an additive manufacturing process using a vat of liquid UV-curablephotopolymer "resin" and a UV laser to build parts a layer at a time. On each layer, the laser beam traces a part cross-section pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures, solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and adheres it to the layer below.

(*5)
Plastination is a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample.






Exhibition where this work has been exposed:
Corps, Prothèses et Bio-Objets : Le Garage, Béthune, France, 2011
Monad-isme :Cité internationale des Arts, Paris, France 2011

As far as the creases




Aquatic algae, water, resin, scan of the artist’s brain.
Approximately 13cm in diameter.


Here, a human organ constitutes the landscape: a brain is covered in a fine film of aquatic algae. The alga deposits itself by taking its time and continues to grow at its own rhythm.  

I provide regular modest help: I change the water twice a month. In this way, the entropy accumulated in the aquarium is reduced. Refreshment of the environment favors the maintenance of order, of life. 

It seems to me that the speed of light in this landscape actually slows because of the specific way its energy is consumed: it contributes generously to the process of photosynthesis (the essence of material construction for this closed world) while traversing the large and unusual surface of the algae covered brain. To render the full depth of this filament landscape visible to us, the light must graze all its folds and creases ambling with us like a fellow traveler. 




Installation seen during the day and at night: 
Installation, Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz.



Installation, Château d’Oiron


Exhibition where this work has been exposed:
L’Homme-Paysage : Château d’OIRON, Oiron, France, 2007
UN CABINET DE CURIOSITÉ CONTEMPORAIN :
Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz, Nogent-sur-Marne, France 2007




dimanche 4 mars 2012

Light, only light

Image taken on February 2010,  in Freiburg, Germany.

Genetically modified moss, Luciferine, resin model of artist brain, scanning by IRM, Gel medium (Agar) 
23 X 17 X 18 cm

Except for a few species like the Dinoflagellata, which belongs to both the plant and animal kingdoms, bioluminescence is only found in a few animal species. According to biological evolution, a single organism cannot both consume light as energy and use that energy to create its own light. Over the last few years however genetic manipulation has made it possible to create bioluminescent plants. Acting simultaneously as plants and non plants, these artificial organisms transgress the laws of nature.
In traditional gardens the landscape is organized around the viewer’s perception; his reality and the world around him are brought together as one. By placing these technological plants in a garden, the viewer is seeing the light he has himself created. This is a display of the utopia of our era; a technique of man’s own invention allows him to create a luminous other. This is the expression of man’s impossible desire to possess light. Here, a sculpture in the shape of a luminous brain represents the light-emitting man superposed with the light-receiving man.
The transgenic moss in this work emits its light when sprayed with a luciferine solution. In an ealier version of Light, only light, the light can be seen in complete darkness using an ultra sensitive digital video camera. Emitting time varies according to the quantity of moss and luciferine. For the Sk-interfaces exhibition in 2008, a new moss with superior visibility qualities of luminescence is being specially developed at Leeds University’s center for Plant Sciences, by Dr. Andrew C.Cuming with help of Prof. Setsuyuki Aoki of Nagoya University in Japan. Currently the team of Prof. Ralf Reski, University of Freiburg (DE) cooperates the development of this projects.

Image taken on June 2010, in Freiburg, Germany.
Exposure time about 1h, ASA12800



First version of Light, only light
at INRA laboraory, Versailles, France, 2004
Image made by ultra sensitive digital video
camera on 2004.




Exhibition where this work has been exposed:
Corp, Prothèses et Bio-objets: :La Garage, Béthune, France 2011
SK-Interfaces : FACT, Liverpool, UK, 2008, CASINO LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg, 2009-10
LIVING MATERIEL : PARCO ARTE VIVENTE, Torino, Italy, 2007
Biennal of Electrocic Art «Bio Difference» :The Lawrence Art gallery, Perth, Australia 2003




Blue mountain silhouette

fig.1; Front view on entering the room

3km of Bamboo, Black lamp
4 X 5 X 5,5 m 


When the visitor penetrates the room, he confronts a black silhouette in the shape of a triangle traced against a blue background (fig. 1). This could be an image from a painting of a mountain at dusk. As one approaches, one discovers that this mountain is made up of bamboo canes tied together vertically. The silhouette appears like a three dimensional mass as his vision adapts to the low ambient light in the room, (fig. 2).

I defined the size of the mass of bamboo so that the visitor cannot perceive it with a single glance. There will never be enough room to step back and observe it at a distance (except upon entering the room, the point where we see the image in fig. 1). The image of the mountain must therefore be fragmented and reconstituted by each person in their own way.  It will be born and reborn as many times as the visitor can remember it.  

fig.2; Back view


Model created before the installation

Exhibition where this work has been exposed:
KOMOREBI :ART TOWER MITO, Mito-city, JAPAN 2003

Garden of Dishes

Installed at GlassBox, Paris.
Garden of dishes is aimed at those who have given up the idea of living with a garden because of a lack of space and means, and offers to create and embody their imaginary world. 

Through a simple act such as doing the dishes, a step towards a utopia is possible.

Installed at Passage de Rez, Paris.



Exhibition where this work has been exposed:

MADE ON MARS :GlassBox, Paris France 2000
NEXT GENERATION/ ART CONTEMPORAIN D’ASIE: Passage de RETZ, Paris France 2001

Artificial bioluminescence




Material:
Plexiglas tube, green leaf, luciferine, luciferase, A.T.P., water, sugar, oxygen, etc.
15x2 cm diameter.

This sculpture transforms ambient light captured by chlorophyll pigment into another type of light: a luminous signal the same as that of the firefly. This particular phenomenon of illumination present in certain animal species is called “Bioluminescence”.  

In nature, bioluminescence establishes communication between males and females or between congeners. Here, man manipulates this communication tool in order to interpret nature. As a result, one experiences a new form of communication between man and the outside world. 







Energy conversion





Marerial:  Leaf cuttings, ethyl alcohol, black lamp, aquarium.

In the plant cell, huge numbers of chlorophyll molecules are linked one to another. When they receive light, they synchronize their activity perfectly. Each of the molecules receives and transmits photons all the way to the reaction center of the network, which in turn uses the photons to create different organic materials. For the ‘staging’ of this piece, chlorophyll molecules are detached from their network and float in alcohol lit by ultraviolet rays. By restoring some of these rays, the chlorophyll makes the fluorescent red pigment visible.      

Biological evolution marked a crucial step with the emergence of one phenomenon: certain organisms became capable of transforming energy produced by the sun. The spontaneity of this photochemical reaction was one of the motors of evolution from the rudimentary mono-cellular state to the appearance of the complex machine that is man. Photosynthesis is the ultimate energy conversion phenomenon without which humans and other species could not exist. 

Photo taken during the first test in 1991



Exhibition where this work has been exposed:

Avec Piotr KOWALSKI :Rouen, France 2011
Artissima 14 :Torino, Italy 2007
Cabinet du curiosité :Bar du Duc, France 2005
Art biotech’ : Lieu unique, Nantes France 2003