ARTSAT × SIAF LAB
ARTSAT: Art and Satellite Project began in 2010 as collaboration between Tama Art University and The University of Tokyo. The project motto, “Satellites are a medium” reflects the objective of engaging in experimental, creative practices relating space and culture. In February 2014 it successfully launched the world’s first art satellite “ARTSAT1: INVADER”. In December of the same year, it launched the space sculpture “ARTSAT2: DESPATCH”, as a piggy-back payload of “Hayabusa 2” into the planetary orbit, where a signal was successfully received from 4.7 million km away (12 times the distance to the moon). The team won the Award of Distinction in the Hybrid Art of the Ars Electronica 2015. Akihiro Kubota won in the Media Arts Department of the 2015 Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts. For SIAF2017, Akihiro Kubota (leader), Atsushi Horiguchi, Kento Nakazawa, Naoto Usami, and Satoshi Hashimoto will join SIAF Lab’s Kei Komachiya, Daisuke Funato, Kenichi Kanai, and Katsuya Ishida in creating a project team.