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Global Design Graduate Show awards film prize to 2020 grad

Michael Yoshimura (MArch 2020) is the winner of the film judges’ vote in the first Global Design Graduate Show, created by ARTSTHREADGucci, and i-D/Vice Media Group. Yoshimura’s short film, Shotengai uses the medium of the science-fiction short film to address the potential of architecture to narrate the contemporary notion of Shinto techno-animism. The film was Yoshimura’s thesis project, with Prof. Johan Voordouw serving as thesis advisor. The competition attracted more than 250 entries in the film category.

Abstract: Shinto animism, traditionally found within elements in nature, has been translated in contemporary Japanese technological culture into techno-animism. The site for this short film is in a shotengai – a local street market. Here, the shotengai urban typology becomes the architectural trope and catalyst from which the thesis explores the relationship of techno-animism’s implications on space.

“As I pursued my studies in architecture, I quickly became fascinated with not only how to construct space, but also how to visualize it through 2D and 3D renderings,” says Yoshimura (@yoshimura_mike). “My passion for film and cinematography soon lead me into the world of motion pictures and animation.”

Read the full interview: https://rb.gy/h54kug

The digital platform ARTSTHREAD, launched the show with fashion house Gucci, and i-D / Vice Media Group in response to the cancellation of end-of-year exhibitions, thus providing the class of 2020 a place to show their projects.

“We at ARTSTHREAD believe it is a time for everyone within the creative industries to pull together to help the future graduates who will be launching their career in these uncertain times,” said  Jens Laugesen, creative director of ARTSTHREAD.

The competition was open to all art and design students graduating in  2019-20 (undergraduate and postgraduate) anywhere in the world. More than 4,400 students submitted entries in all categories.

Yoshimura’s project was entered in the Digital/Visual Communication/Film category, where 14 films were shortlisted.

The judges for the Fine Art, Photography, Visual Communication, and Film specialties were:

Ben Lavender DAZN / Chantelle Purcell Artist Hive Studios/Acrylicize / Dennis Elbers Graphic Matters / Ellie Pennick Guts Gallery / Fabien Riggall Secret Cinema & Future Shorts /Ged Equi Caffeine Partnership / Giles Price  / Iona Rowland / Julian Vogel Modus BPCM / Kate Mason The Big Draw / Luc Denicke Pictoplasma / Mark Westall Fad Magazine / Maxim Young Gorilla Editors / Nancy Spector Guggenheim Museum / Nengi Omuku  / Ninette Murk Designers Against Aids / Peter Manning Prefab77 / Sacha Hackel Hackelbury Fine Art / Sasha Vidakovic SV Design / Stephen Milner Avery Dennison

“Each year, the talent emerging from art schools around the world inspires fresh hope for the future of our creative industries,” said i-D Editor in Chief Alastair McKimm. “While current circumstances might not allow for graduate exhibitions and shows in their typical formats, it’s more important than ever that we use the resources at our disposal to share their work with the world.”