The Orwellian sounding Agency for Cultural Affairs has been behind the Tokyo Media Arts Festival since 1997. The Roppongi-based event seeks to cultivate and support emerging creators in the fields of digital art, entertainment, animation and manga. What does this mean to visitors? A whopping 2,645 works entered from over 48 countries. One award-winning work this year is the popular “IS Parade”, an interactive Twitter application with which mobile phone users enter their login to watch an animated “parade of tweets”. The generator was unveiled by AU in April 2010 and has attracted more than 13 million users. If you want to see next year’s big thing, this is the place to be.
Feb. 2 -13, 10 am-6 pm
Tickets: Free
Venue: National Art Center Tokyo
Nearest station: Roppongi (Hibiya & Oedo lines
(0120) 454-536/plaza.bunka.go.jp
