AKINORI GOTO​

後藤 映則

Artist / Associate Professor at Musashino Art University

Born in Gifu, Japan (1984), lives and works in Tokyo.

2006  BFA, Musashino Art University

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Akinori Goto works across installation, video, and sculpture to explore how time takes shape and how it forms our perception, memory, and sense of existence.
His practice begins with an engagement with early cinema and chronophotography, extending these historical methods through contemporary technologies. By moving beyond the flatness of film frames and screens, he fixes the invisible trajectories of movement within physical space, giving form to the intangible shapes of time as sculptural entities. Illuminated by light, these forms cause time, usually felt as an uninterrupted flow, to rise before us as layers or fragments.
Recent works such as Heading and In Motion are grounded in the uncertain sensibility of the post-pandemic era, in which the meaning of physical presence and mobility has been reconsidered. Reconstructing pedestrian data gathered at intersections around the world, Goto weaves multiple temporalities into his work: those of individual intention, crowd flow, and social rhythm. Through rotating structures and shifting light, he layers the impulse to move forward with the moments of pause created by encounters and frictions with others and with the world, leaving open the question of where we find ourselves heading.
For Goto, time is not merely a unit of measurement but a process through which existence briefly takes form and then recedes. What appears for an instant as a shape drawn out by light disperses in the next moment, transforming into something else. In the midst of this continual cycle of emergence and dissolution, where do we exist, and how do we experience the world? Goto’s work unfolds this question within space, offering a setting in which viewers can sense and confirm their own and their surroundings’ ever-shifting ways of being within the flow of time.

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Selected Exhibitions:

2025 "DESIGN with FOCUS Designer's Adventure" Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, Toyama

2025 "Antípodas: tão distantes, tão próximos" Sesc Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil

2025 "OUT OF CONTROL"(as part of steirischer herbst ’25) esc medien kunst labor, Graz, Austria
2025 "entangle moment - [quantum | earth | universe] × art" Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, WASSE, Osaka

2024 "Khroma" KHROMA Ausstellung, Vienna, Austria
2024 "A3 Festival" Lardner Park, Victoria, Australia

2024 "ARTBAT TOKYO ART FESTIVAL 2024" Tokyo Waterfront City, Tokyo.

2024 "Athens Digital Arts Festival: Techno(s)cene | 20 YEARS" Former Santarosa Courts, Athens, Greece

2024 "[The 4th Crosswaves in Art] Belonging: Achievements of Artists from Gifu" The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan
2024 "Sapporo International Art Festival 2024" Future Theater, Sapporo, Japan
2023 "MOT Annual 2023 : Synergies, or between creation and generation" Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo
2023 "Art Project Takasaki 2023" Takasaki City, Gunma, Japan

2023 "The Memories Film Fest" Bocchigliero, Italy

2023 "Art & Design 2023 Art Festival for Seniors" Musashino Art University Ichigaya, Tokyo
2023 "Illuminating Vacuum Media Arts Exhibition" Hong Kong Art Center, Hong Kong

2022 “The Doraemon Exhibition SINGAPORE 2022” National Museum of Singapore, Singapore

2022 "ART TAIPEI 2022" Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei

2022  "ARTBAY TOKYO ART FESTIVAL 2022" Tokyo Waterfront City, Tokyo

2022 "Akinori Goto "Heading" – phenomenal #01" nomena gallery Asakusa, Tokyo

2022 “Sense Island Sarushima Dark Museum" Sarushima, Kanagawa, Japan

2021 "2022 Taiwan International Light Festival" The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei

2021 "DIGITAL CORPOREALITY" Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei

2021 "Great Reset, Small Reboots by Artists" BankART Station, Kanagawa, Japan
2021 “Invisible Reality” Mitsukoshi Ginza, Tokyo

2021 “The Doraemon Exhibition KYOTO 2021” Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
2021 “Jack into the Noösphere” Japanese garden "Mihama-en", Chiba, Japan
2021 “The Doraemon Exhibition SAPPORO 2021” Sapporo Art Park, Hokkaido, Japan

2021 "CROSS KOBE 2021", Kobe Port Tower, Hyogo, Japan

2020 "Room and Garden The Form of Distance" Musashino Art University Museum, Tokyo

2020 "Takamatsu Contemporary Art Annual vol.09 Imagine the presence of Time" Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan

2020 “Japan Media Arts Distributed Museum” Naha Airport, Okinawa, Japan

2020 “The Doraemon Exhibition NIIGATA 2020” The Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, Japan

2020 “Japan Media Arts Festival in Otaru” Canal Plaza 3rd WareHouse, Hokkaido, Japan

2019 "Ars Electronica Shows Exhibition in Shenzhen" Design Society, Shenzhen, China

2019 “Sense Island Sarushima Dark Museum" Sarushima, Kanagawa, Japan

2019 “Ars Electronica Festival 2019” POST CITY, Linz, Austria

2019 “The Doraemon Exhibition OSAKA 2019” Osaka Culturarium at Tempozan, Osaka, Japan

2019 “Open Space 2019: Alternative Views” NTT Inter Communication Center [ICC], Tokyo

2018 “Gyoen Night Art Walk” Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo

2018 “Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition” OK Center, Linz, Austria
2018 “The Doraemon Exhibition NAGOYA 2018” Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan

2018 “The Doraemon Exhibition TAKAOKA 2018” Takaoka Art Museum, Toyama, Japan

2018 “Japan Media Arts Festival Overseas Promotion at Annecy International Animation Film Festival” Annecy, France

2018 “Media Ambition Tokyo” Roppongi Hills, Tokyo
2018 "Ars Electronica Center at the permanent exhibition" Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria

2017 “The Doraemon Exhibition TOKYO 2017” Mori Arts Center Gallery, Tokyo

2017 “GLOW SPECIAL:STOP LICHT” Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2017 “Ars Electronica Festival 2017” POST CITY, Linz, Austria

2017 “JOMON Life Festival” Togariishi Museum of Jomon Archaeology, Nagano, Japan

2017 “Ars Electronica Export 2017” DRIVE Volkswagen Group Forum, Berlin, Germany

2017 “SXSW Art Program” JW Marriott Hotel, Austin, USA

2017 “Media Ambition Tokyo 2017” Roppongi Hills, Tokyo

2016 “Roppongi Art Night 2016” Roppongi Hills, Tokyo

2016 “SICF17” Spiral, Tokyo

2016 “YouFab Global Creative Awards 2016” Fab Cafe, Tokyo

2015 “TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2015” Meiji-Jingu Gaienmae, Tokyo

2011 “Nakanojyo Biennale 2011” Gunma, Japan

2010 “The Night of the Milky Way Train” Omotesando, Tokyo

2005 “Japan Media Arts Festival 2005” Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo

2005 “Digital Art Festival Tokyo 2005” Panasonic Center, Tokyo

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Awards:

2025 Lumen Prize - Finalist

2019 Japan Media Arts Festival - Jury Selections

2018 Prix Ars Electronica - Honorary Mention

2018 STARTS PRIZE (EU) - Nomination

2017 Japan Media Arts Festival - Jury Selections

2016 SICF17 - Second Prize / Audience Prize

2015 WIRED CREATIVE HACK AWARD - 3D product Prize

2015 Japan Sign Design Award - Grand Prize

2015 MUSIC HACK DAY - Grand Prize

2012 Wedding Movie Award - Grand Prize

2005 DIGITAL ART AWARD - Special Prize

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Collection:

Takamatsu Art Museum, Japan

National Science and Media Museum, UK

Phaeno, Germany

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Teaching:

2019-   Associate Professor, Musashino Art University, Department of Visual Communication Design