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Japanese artist Noboru Tsubaki named
2006 Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at MIT

Cambridge, MA...Japanese media artist Noboru Tsubaki, whose work has included robotic sculpture and large-scale outdoor installation addressing social and political issues, has been named the 2006 Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). On Monday, October 30, at 7 p.m Tsubaki will give a public presentation titled, "Prosthetic Restoration of Your Soul: The Art of Noboru Tsusbaki" in MIT Room 32-141 of MIT's Stata Center (32 Vassar St., Cambridge). While in residence at MIT from October 30 through November 9 he will work with students and faculty in Media Arts & Sciences, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Sustainable Energy, and the Technology Culture Forum.

The October 30 event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited; no tickets or reservations are necessary. Info: (617) 253-2787 (ARTS).

Born in Tokyo, Tsubaki has worked in a number of media, including large-scale outdoor installation, interactive networked media, robotic sculpture, and community cultural projects. Originally a practitioner of minimal art, he faced the fall of modernism in the 1980s and began to work on huge objects, which have included a 110 foot long locust hanging off the side of the Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel, a giant teddy bear being fed depleted uranium, and a physical embodiment of a computer virus.

Tsubaki first realized that he could use his artwork to propose solutions to the world's problems after being involved in a devastating earthquake in Japan in 1996. After the 9/11 attacks on America, he expanded that idea into the "UN Application Project," which includes several installations such as "Penta," a large scale five legged robotic vehicle designed and programmed under Tsubaki's direction, to traverse terrain and clear land mines.

"My aim is to provide solutions for some of the world's problems through my art. I object to the way the United Nations has lost sight of its main goal since September 11, 2001," he said on his unboy.org web site in March 2004. "I believe that if governments and corporations refuse to address issues relating to politics and religion then art projects must be the ones to say something constructive."

"Tsubaki presents his version of an ideal U.N. force in the style of Grimm's fairy tales--but with sarcasm, dirty realism and lessons we humans need to learn," wrote Asami Nagai for the Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) when the Contemporary Art Center in Mito, Japan exhibited "UN Boy."

Tsubaki is the head of the Space Design Section at Kyoto University of Art and Design.

The Ida Ely Rubin Artists-in-Residence Fund was established in 1998 by MIT benefactor Margaret McDermott in honor of veteran Council for the Arts member Ida Ely Rubin to support Artists-in-Residence programs in Visual Arts.

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