about
eons between documents the work of emma ota, a researcher and curator based in Tokyo, Japan. This website provides an overview of projects which she has initiated and helped to realize, along with detailed research documentation and samples of recent essays.
emma ota has focused much of her activity upon international exchange and the impact of media technologies in society, while pursuing an interest in the wider contemporary arts. A key area of investigation has been the transformation of place through its mediation, whereby the convergence of space is experienced as we encounter simultaneously numerous points of locality and also find the ability to create our own spaces which overlap between the physical and virtual world.
This has led to a number of practical and theoretical explorations which question the definitions of place and how we may utilize media technology in the pursuit of strengthening our engagement with our surroundings or as an opportunity to escape from them.
emma has been particularly researching developments of media arts in Asia including Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. In these contexts emma has interviewed a wide range of artists, curators, organizers and theorists involved in instigating and developing activity in the field, investigating the motivations, direction and relevance of such practices and questioning what relationship is built with place and locality in their progress.
Aware of the great importance of cross-cultural dialogue and the sharing of different contexts, experiences and perspectives emma has initiated a number of projects which bring together creative people from different countries and backgrounds in various forms of collaboration and debate. Many of these projects have promoted artistic engagement between Japan and the UK but have also contributed to wider international discourses.
