Born in Ylistaro in 1984. Based in Finland.

Graduated with an MA degree in Fine Arts and an MFA degree in Photography from the Aalto University School of Art and Design, FI, in 2013.

Jaana Maijala's works combine photography and drawing. Using the pencil as a tool for drafts, thoughts and documentation, her work begins with drawings which are intimately connected to everyday life. These drawings are often later photographed in order to polish up her ideas and experiences, and bring them into focus. At present, Maijala is fascinated by what lies behind each drawing; going beyond human intellect and peering into the real nature of the mind. This pursuit has been inspired by her Buddhist studies and practice of Dzogchen. Since 2018, she has been the other half of ‘Stump of Prometheus’, a collaboration with sound artist Ville Linna.

1981 Born in Kashihara City, Nara, Japan. Self-educated artist from an early age. 2004 Graduated from Kwansei Gakuin University with a degree in Philosophy. 2014 Resided in Berlin, Germany. Currently based in Nara.

Born in Nagano in 1988. Based in Tokyo.

Graduated with an MFA degree in Media Creation from the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) in 2013.

In recent years, Masato Tanaka has been working on the creation of installation works with a unique approach that looks at the act of seeing or appreciates appreciation itself, under the theme "Observation for the Sake of Observation". Consulting the various fields of science, medicine, philosophy and anthropology, Tanaka’s installations are the product of an intricate process that is not bound by material or technique.

Born in 1973. Lives and works in Nara Prefecture Japan. 

Graduated with an MFA in Painting from the Wimbledon College of Arts, London, UK in 2005, and then completed her Ph.D. in Media Art at the Kyoto City University of Art in 2013. Established the Kaiju in 2021.

Due to her personal experiences with hallucinations and altered levels of consciousness throughout her youth, Nakako Okamoto has been enthusiastically engaged in studies that explore the relationship between artistic creativity and the brain. Okamoto conducts scientific experiments using transcranial magnetic brain stimulation and undertakes practical fieldwork exploring different magnetic fields for her research with electromagnetism and geomagnetism. Her cross-disciplinary studies of art, cognitive neuroscience and cultural anthropology aid her in her continuing pursuit of the origins of creativity.

Born in 1991. His recent practice has been driven by composing poetry among people and collective consciousness in certain situations or environments with and without words. He has been actively collaborating with sound artists, singers, visual artists, painters, dancers, historians, and other poets to travel and listen in between harmony and dissimilation, solidarity and solitude, natives and strangers besides his individual poetry exercise as interactive facts.

Born in Helsinki in 1982. Based in Finland.

With sound as his medium of choice, Ville Linna has taken on various cultural history and environmental projects. His work is based on community perception in urban landscapes. In recent days he can often be found working in open-air spaces in an attempt to root out human connections. In addition to being a sound artist, Linna also works with poetry and the moving image. Linna is part of the art collective ‘Stump of Prometheus’ with visual artist Jaana Maijala.

Personal tree means trees with connection to human beings, in the city for example trees can be even more important when they are left to grow free.

We heard one tree was growing inside a house.

The wind that brought the seed to start growing was the idea.

Was the seed inside a bird? 

Like music

It came out and landed on earth.

We heard the tree was growing inside a house.

The house that let the tree grow in.

Trees in the city are the keys to the city

The wind carried the seed, or was it a bird?

Anyway, it came and landed on earth. 

We heard the tree was growing inside a house.

The house let the tree grow in it.

Neurodive via sensory deprivation

Extensive studies and experiments into sensory deprivation were conducted

by psychologists and scientists in the 1950s and 60s. There are a number of reports stating that a reduction of external visual and auditory stimuli induced visual hallucinations in half of the healthy participants, who experienced seeing geometric patterns or specific images. Though this enthusiasm for sensory deprivation has ceased in recent years, these hallucinatory experiences contain great possibilities, whether it’s in connecting us to spiritual experiences such as meditation and spiritual awakening, folk traditions such as ghosts and the supernatural, or on an anthropological level to cultural activities such as ancient cave art. 

The phenomenon of visual hallucinations, that is, perceiving objects in the mind in the absence of their actual existence, sits midway between perception and imagination, and gives a new perspective on reality and illusion.

Tanaka Masato has been contemplating “what seeing really is” whilst Nakako Okamoto has been studying the “origin of human creativity”. Having created their own sensory deprivation room in which they will isolate for a long duration, these two artists will present the findings of their experiments during the exhibition.