山海の中町 (Nakamachi no Sankai) is a traditional Japanese town, built between the mountains and the sea; completely constructed from digital blocks in the video game Minecraft. I was able to create the town using reference images of around the feudal Japan era (1185-1868). You are able to experience the town in three ways. A video fly thru shows highlights of the town. An interactive setup allows you to take the character of the game anywhere in the town and surrounding area. The website documents the creation of the town from day one. See it at Japaneseminecraft.wordpress.com

I created this work to show my love for Japan and the beauty of their traditional architecture. I have always felt a connection with Japanese culture and lifestyles that makes me want to explore Japan more. With this work, I decided to focused on the feudal era and similar eras of Japan because modern Japan has too many similarities to western culture in their architecture. My reason for using Minecraft is to show that video games are not just interactive toys but can also be entertaining works of art. The gaming industry is growing, not just as e-sports, but also within the arts. This is my addition to gaming within the arts.

Eyes of the Beholder

Eyes of the Beholder is series of four digital images printed onto a canvas. I took pictures of different trees using my DSLR camera and choose four images to manipulate using Photoshop. The Images are 20 by 16 and mounted on a wall, side by side.

The decision to print a digital image on canvas illustrates how “art” in today’s world is very unbalanced and skewed. Canvas has long been considered a special part of art regarded by some as almost sacred — even if the image is just some splashes of paint, without any clear demonstration of skill or any sort of clear meaning.

My Eyes of the Beholder series takes a stand against this problem though the choice of material used in the creation of my images. By printing from a digital image onto canvas via an ink jet printer, addresses the effects of mass production on the value of art. If only one copy is ever printed, this makes the digital images very rare and unique.

In terms of content, The images themselves have been designed so that each viewer will see something different then the last viewer. This portrays the simple idea that everyone see’s everything around us differently. Most of what we see we connect with labels that we have been taught as a child; which allows us to understand and know what each other are seeing even if it looks slightly different. These differences don’t mean one persons view is wrong and another is right. It simply means we see differently and if we had been taught as a child that blue is red and red is blue then we wouldn’t understand what each other see and we would be put in complete chaos and confusion.