URL: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC188RQ0Y2A011C2000000/
日本経済新聞 印刷画面Art Creation in Zero Gravity
Kyoto University and Toppan to create and sell NFTs
Naoko Tosa, a specific professor at Kyoto University, in collaboration with Toppan Printing, announced that they have created an artwork under weightless conditions. This is the world’s first achievement of its kind, and the paper was accepted by an American academic journal. Toppan Printing plans to sell the artwork in the form of a non-functional token (NFT).
Tosa, who is also an artist, created a video work, “Sound of Ikebana,” under microgravity. The Sound of Ikebana is a work that uses a high-speed camera that shoots 2,000 frames per second of liquid acrylic paint as it rises from the ground due to the vibration caused by sound. The work “expresses the spirit of flower arranging,” according to Tosa.
The artist used a service that allows visitors to experience weightlessness by flying a small airplane in a parabolic flight, and created 16 pieces of work. Six cameras were used, and the sound of a baby’s birth was used to make the paints fly up, “expressing the birth of life and the future” (Tosa). Because of the weightlessness of the environment, the liquid that flew up did not fall, but instead rose, creating a different type of work than on the ground.
A paper on the fusion of art and cutting-edge technology was accepted by the American academic journal Leonardo, and some of the 16 works will be sold by Toppan Printing as NFT, which uses blockchain (distributed ledger) technology to prevent reproduction. The works will also be shown on digital signage at AEON Mall.