TANIGUCHI AKIHIKO
Sandplay Therapy and Meaning Contour Gauge
Sandplay Therapy and Meaning Contour Gauge
Akihiko Taniguchi has worked with 3D computer graphics to create video and interactive works throughout his career. The meaning and function of objects of reality are appropriated and dislocated within the context of his works. He also surveys the history of internet art and video game art, the results of which are often featured in his works, and these activities are all consistently driven by his fascination toward metacognition.
“Sandplay Therapy and Meaning Contour Gauge” is another video piece that utilizes 3D computer graphics and narration. A video of an avatar shaped after Taniguchi himself accompanies an explanation of the relationship between information, meaning, and form. Toward the end of the work, the explanation on the subjects come together into one, manifesting itself as what one may call “a city constructed of meaning” or “meaning sculpture.”
1. We process or transform a certain matter as a method of temporarily storing information. For instance, both writing on a piece of paper or saving data on a storage medium, such as a hard disk, are ways of processing and transforming matter to retain information. Transformation follows an underlying set of rules, and those same rules can be used to decipher the meaning of the resulting form. In other words, when we preserve information, we let the “form” carry the meaning.
2. A city of the real world is not built in the same manner as a world set up in a sand tray by a client; however, when large scale redevelopments happen on occasions such as the Olympics, the artificiality of the following rapid changes in a landscape, to me, bears a resemblance to the process of making a sand tray world. If the result of sandplay therapy reflects the client’s inner world, what do real urban landscapes express?
3. “Meaning contour gauge” is a tool necessary to extract meaning from “form.” “Form” may not have been derived from the meaning contour gauge; nevertheless, the meaning contour gauge can extract some meaning from form.
