Tokyo, Japan – STYLY, Inc. (Shinjuku, Tokyo), PARCO Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Shibuya, Tokyo), and Loftwork Inc. (Shibuya, Tokyo) have jointly launched the “NEWVIEW” project, a global creative award for XR (VR/AR/MR) content. The “NEWVIEW AWARDS 2024″ is now open for submissions as of August 21, 2024.
This year’s awards introduce the new “Spatial Computing” category, specifically inviting content developed for the Apple Vision Pro.
Additionally, the “Site-specific AR” category seeks AR works that leverage the significance of place.
The judging panel features renowned global artists, including Naohiro Ukawa (DOMMUNE), Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica), KEIKEN, David OReilly, Lu Yang, and Saeborg.
The NewView Awards aims to discover and promote the next generation of artists and creators who will lead the “design of hyper-experiences” by exploring new forms of expression, culture, and lifestyles, in anticipation of a near future where all artists and creators will have access to three-dimensional spatial expression.
Over the past six years, the competition has received a total of 841 entries from 26 countries worldwide, contributing to the emergence of talent that is now active in the XR scene.
This year, we have established the new “Spatial Computing Category,” seeking content for the Apple Vision Pro, to pioneer use cases for the upcoming era of spatial computing, driven by the collective intelligence of the next generation of artists and creators.
◆ Submission Periods:
- Spatial Computing Category
Wednesday, August 21, 2024, to Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 12:00 PM (UTC) - Site-specific AR Category
Wednesday, August 21, 2024, to Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 12:00 PM (UTC)
◆ Entry Forms:
- Spatial Computing Category: https://awrd.com/award/newview2024-spatial-computing
- Site-specific AR Category: https://awrd.com/award/newview2024-sitespecific-ar
◆ Submission Requirements:
Works must be created using “STYLY” (https://styly.inc/en/product/ ), a spatial computing platform that provides a space for spatial expression to artists from all creative fields.
◆ PRIZES of The NEWVIEW AWARDS 2024 :
GOLD (1 per category) – Prize: $5,000 USD
PARCO PRIZE (1 work, across categories) – collaboration rights with PARCO.
AWE PRIZE (1 work, across categories) – Opportunity to exhibit at AWE USA 2025, including a complimentary AWE ticket and support for Auggie Awards submission.
Additional collaboration prizes with sponsors and media partners will be announced at a later date.
About NEWVIEW PROJECT
Launched in January 2018 as an experimental project/community to pioneer new creative expressions and design experiences in 3D space.
Collaborating with creators from various fields, including fashion, music, video, graphics, and illustration—who embody urban culture—we initiate experiments to design next-generation cultural and lifestyle experiences that transcend the boundaries between reality and imagination.
Through lectures and meetups held both domestically and internationally, we promote the discovery, development, and exchange of the next generation of XR creators.
Official Website: https://newview.design/
Visions that weave context.
Since the widespread adoption of smartphones, we’ve become connected to distant places and past eras, with AR technology even allowing us to rewrite our immediate reality, creating illusions within our surroundings.
This can feel like constructing alternate worlds through a kind of magic. However, this magic can also erase the connection between place and time, stripping away the context that gives meaning to information, spreading it across an endless horizon.
Yet, with the advent of spatial computing, including the Apple Vision Pro, we have an opportunity to restore this lost context.
These new perspectives and tangible information environments can help us reweave the essential relationships between humans and the narratives that define us. No story exists without context.
By placing windows freely in our reality and engaging with immersive content, we can reconnect with the vital context that shapes our existence and the stories we tell about ourselves.
The question now is: what relationships will you weave or reweave? The time to layer context-rich content beyond the vision is now.
This year, the NewView Awards have established two categories:
【Spatial Computing Category】 is dedicated to creating works for the Apple Vision Pro. Organiser are seeking projects that weave stories of the future through the concept of Spatial Computing and the reframing of the real world.
In this category, approximately 10 works will be selected for production support from the submitted entries by late October.
The selected creators will receive technical support from STYLY to help realize their concepts.
The purpose of providing this support is to assist in the creation of works for the Apple Vision Pro, as knowledge and expertise in this area are still being developed.
Creators chosen for production support will have the opportunity to refine their submitted works with STYLY assistance until Tuesday, December 17, 12:00 PM (UTC).
The production support includes the following:
● Assistance in refining concepts tied to technology
● Technical support during production (planned via text chat on Discord)
Finalist works are scheduled to be exhibited at a location in Tokyo in February 2025. Additionally, projects for the Spatial Computing Category are being developed through the NEWVIEW SCHOOL 2024 (JP / global), and works by SCHOOL participants will be eligible for finalist consideration.
【Site-specific AR Category】 which invites AR works that leverage the concept of spatiality to weave future narratives by reframing the real world. Using STYLY’s city templates or Immersal, you can create site-specific pieces. While submissions that do not utilize these features are also welcome, this year’s theme emphasizes “leveraging spatiality and exploring the relationship with the real world.”
As such, when submitting your work, please specify “the location where the experience is intended to take place.”
If selected as a finalist, your work will be exhibited at a location in Tokyo in February 2025.
Judging Criteria
The same judging criteria will apply to both the Spatial Computing Category, which seeks content for the Apple Vision Pro, and the Site-specific AR Category, which invites AR works that leverage spatiality.
- Creativity and Originality – The use of innovative ideas and approaches.
- Message and User Experience – The ability to provide new perspectives or insights through user interaction.
- Impact -The potential of the work to influence society and shape future possibilities.
Prize
The NEWVIEW AWARDS 2024 offers the following prizes:
GOLD (1 per category) – Prize: $5,000 USD
PARCO PRIZE (1 work, across categories) – collaboration rights with PARCO.
AWE PRIZE (1 work, across categories) – Opportunity to exhibit at AWE USA 2025, including a complimentary AWE ticket and support for Auggie
Awards submission.
Additional collaboration prizes with sponsors and media partners will be announced at a later date.
NAOHIRO UKAWA (Contemporary Artist | Founder of DOMMUNE)
Naohiro Ukawa (born 1968) is a contemporary Japanese artist known for blurring the lines between fine art and popular culture. He rose to prominence as a graphic designer and video artist in the late 1980s and has since participated in numerous international exhibitions.
In 2010, he launched “DOMMUNE,” Japan’s first live-streaming studio, which has gained widespread attention and has been recognized with awards. Ukawa views the act of filming and streaming at DOMMUNE as his own “contemporary art.” He has established satellite studios around the world, further exploring the concepts of ubiquity and omnipresence.
Over 14 years, DOMMUNE has broadcast over 7,000 programs, garnering over 200 million viewers. In 2020, it entered its second chapter, “SUPER DOMMUNE,” embracing cutting-edge technology.
In 2023, Ukawa’s exhibition at the Nerima Art Museum explored the role of the artist in the age of generative AI. He utilized custom-tuned generative AI and robot arms to create spatial paintings, pushing the boundaries of the traditional painting process. He received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize in 2021.
Gerfried Stocke(Media Artist | Artistic Director of Ars Electronica)
Gerfried Stocker is a media artist and telecommunications engineer based in Austria.
From 1995 to 1996, Stocker led a team of artists and engineers to develop the pioneering new exhibition strategy for the Ars Electronica Center, and he also established Ars Electronica Futurelab, the Center’s unique R&D facility.
Since 2004, he has spearheaded the planning and realization of a series of international exhibitions, and since 2005, he has been responsible for planning and redefining the themes of the newly expanded Ars Electronica Center.
Since 2015, he has overseen the expansion of the Ars Electronica Festival and in 2019, led the extensive overhaul of the content and interior of the Ars Electronica Center. Stocker also serves as a consultant for numerous companies and institutions in the fields of creativity and innovation management, and he frequently appears as a guest lecturer at international conferences and universities.
In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aalto University in Finland.
KEIKEN (Artist Collective)
Founded in 2015 by artists Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori, and Isabel Ramos, KEIKEN is an artist collective whose name, derived from the Japanese word for “experience,” reflects the core of their practice. Through diverse media like video, gaming, installations, XR, blockchain, and performance, KEIKEN creates works that challenge conventional social structures, explore new ways of being, and envision potential futures.
Recognized for their innovative work, KEIKEN has been awarded the Chanel Next Prize and has held residencies at prestigious institutions like Somerset House in London. Their work has been featured in numerous major exhibitions worldwide, including:
Exhibitions:
2024: Amos Rex (Helsinki, Finland)
2023: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa, Japan), KANAL–Centre Pompidou (Brussels, Belgium), Helsinki Biennial (Finland), HAU (Berlin, Germany), C/O Berlin (Germany), Wellcome Collection (London, UK), ARKO Art Centre (Seoul, South Korea), Julia Stoschek Collection (Düsseldorf, Germany)
2022: Onassis (Athens, Greece), Thailand Biennale (Korat, Thailand), HEK (Basel, Switzerland), 17th Venice Architecture Biennale (Venice, Italy)
2021: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan), FACT (Liverpool, UK)
2020: transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW (Berlin, Germany)
2019: ICA (London, UK), Jerwood Arts (London, UK)
David OReilly(Multidisciplinary Artist)
David OReilly, a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, has a career spanning animation, writing, and game design. He gained early recognition for his innovative short films, “Please Say Something” and “The External World.” OReilly went on to contribute his writing talents to television shows like “Adventure Time” and “South Park,” as well as create a fictional video game for Spike Jonze’s film “Her.”
He is also the creator of the widely acclaimed simulation games “Mountain” and “Everything.” His augmented reality works have achieved immense popularity, garnering over 3 billion views online.
Lu Yang: Exploring Reality through Multimedia
Lu Yang, a multimedia artist based in Shanghai, creates captivating and thought-provoking work that blends reality with fantasy. He explores themes of nature, religion, and the human condition, employing a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates elements of religion, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and technology.
Yang’s diverse artistic practice spans various mediums, including game engines, 3D animation, video game installations, holograms, motion capture performances, virtual reality, and software manipulation. He frequently collaborates with scientists, psychologists, performers, designers, composers, music producers, robotics companies, and pop stars.
Yang’s work has been exhibited extensively in major museums and institutions worldwide. He has held solo exhibitions at renowned venues such as ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Spiral, M WOODS, MOCA Cleveland, UCCA, and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.
His work has also been featured in numerous thematic exhibitions, including the 59th Venice Biennale, Asia Society Triennial, Shanghai Biennale, Athens Biennale, Liverpool Biennial, Montreal International Digital Art Biennial, the China Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, and the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale.
Yang’s significant achievements include a 2020 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the BMW Art Journey in 2019, which led to the creation of his digital work “DOKU”, and the Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year 2022” award.
Saeborg: Pushing Boundaries through Performance Art
Saeborg, a Tokyo-based artist, identifies as an “incomplete cyborg” – a hybrid of human and toy. Her artistic practice revolves around creating and wearing latex bodysuits as extensions of her own skin. Through performance, she challenges fixed identities like gender and transcends the limitations of the human body.
Driven by a desire to break free from constraints, Saeborg adorns herself with bodysuits that playfully deform and transform her into creatures like sows and pests, creating a whimsical utopian farm inhabited by the lowest members of the ecosystem.
Saeborg has exhibited extensively in major exhibitions, including the “Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2022-24 Exhibition”, “World Theatre Festival 2023”, “Ultra Unreal”, “Cycle of L”, “Aichi Triennale 2019: Taming Y/Our Passion”, “Dark Mofo”, and the 6th Athens Biennale. She has been recognized with the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA) 2022-24 and the Toshiko Okamoto Prize at the 17th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art.
Teams of the NEWVIEW project
Official Website: https://newview.design/