ABOUT — CHIKA

GEOMETRIC MEDITATION
→ in progress

GO
→ GO04
→ GO03
→ GO02
→ GO01

SEI
→ SEI06
→ SEI05
→ SEI03
→ SEI02

EN
→ EN04
→ EN03
→ EN02

SHIKAKU
→ SHIKAKU08
→ SHIKAKU07
→ SHIKAKU05
→ SHIKAKU04

MI
→ MI02
→ MI01

GALLAXY
→ GALAXY03
→ GALAXY02
→ GALAXY01

EDUCATION
→ TEACHING
→ MAPPATHON™

COMMISSIONS
AUDIO-VISUAL
DESIGN
CONSULTING

ABOUT
CONTACT

Artist CV

CHIKA is a Japanese-born artist, researcher, technologist, and educator based in New York City.

ARTIST STATEMENT
CHIKA works with light, space and time. The medium is the act of seeing. In her ongoing projects SHIKAKU, SEI, EN, MI and GO, she works with Japanese homophones: single sounds shared by words with different meanings. The words are the blueprint: each meaning becomes an element of the work, and together they shape its form.

She works across two cultures, observing both the disparities and the harmonies between the ethereal and the concrete, the invisible and the visible. Her practice combines technology and minimalism with Zen and Taoist thought, working with light, projection mapping and augmented reality.

Complex concepts arrive as simple forms: light, geometry, and what the eye does with them. Many of her works are completed by the people inside them, through a gesture, a step or simply by looking. A shape can outlast the light that made it. Her current work, Geometric Meditation, is a kind of retrospective in a single work, gathering these series into one immersive garden of light.

SHORT BIO
CHIKA is a Japanese-born artist and educator based in New York City. Working with projection mapping, LED, augmented reality and Japanese homophones, she constructs light installations that run from the intimate to the architectural, in which a single form is never only itself. Her work has been shown at the Exploratorium and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her commission for the New York Hall of Science is a semi-permanent installation in its historic Great Hall.

BIO
CHIKA is a Japanese-born artist, researcher, technologist and educator based in New York City. She works with light, projection mapping, LED, augmented reality and custom electronics, building installations that range from small wall-mounted sculptures to works spanning twenty feet of architecture.

Her ongoing series SHIKAKU, SEI, EN, MI and GO take their structure from Japanese homophones: single sounds shared by words with different meanings. The number of words sharing a sound sets the number of elements in a work, and their meanings shape its form. EN, written as circle (円), connection (縁) and comfort (宴), yields one configuration; SEI, read as star (星), silence (静) and life (生), yields another. The resulting installations are spare, and their effects persist: in SEI03, a star of LED and metal remains in the viewer's eye after the light has gone. Her current work, Geometric Meditation, gathers these series into a single immersive garden of light.

Her work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Exploratorium, the New York Hall of Science, the Bronx Museum, the Kiewit Luminarium, the Parrish Art Museum, Pioneer Works, Arcadia Earth, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, the Mapping Festival and Mutek, among others. Her 2023 commission for the New York Hall of Science is a semi-permanent installation in its historic Great Hall. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and VICE.

She has held residencies and fellowships including Designer-in-Residence at the New York Hall of Science, Media Lab Researcher at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the IAC Teaching and Research Fellowship and ITP Research Fellowship at New York University, Eyebeam, BRIC, the Paseo Project, the Bronx Museum's AIM Program, Mana Contemporary, the SVA Visible Futures Lab, Triangle Workshop, the Made in NY Media Center by IFP and the Experimental Television Center. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, FCA Emergency Grants, City Artist Corps Grants, the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, the NYSCA Electronic Media & Film Presentation Fund and the New Mexico Art Fund.

She holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and an MPS from ITP at New York University. As an educator she focuses on projection and LED mapping, helping students bring ambitious projects to completion. She teaches projection mapping at NYU's ITP and IMA and Hunter College, and interaction design at Queens College, and will teach TouchDesigner at the School of Visual Arts in 2027. She is the co-founder of Mappathon™, a workshop series that has reached more than 1,000 participants.

RESIDENCIES
2020-24
2022
2019
2018
2017

2016


2015
2013
2009

FELLOWSHIPS
2016
2012

GRANT & FUND
2022
2021

2015
2014
2013

AWARDS
1994

RESEARCH
2016

NYSCI Designers-in-Residency, NY USA
Paseo Project, NM, USA
Visible Futures Lab Residency, NY USA
Mana Contemporary Residency, NJ, USA
Harvestworks Workspace Residency, NY, USA
Elsewhere Artist Residency, NY, USA
AIM Program, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY, USA
Laboratory Residency, WA, USA
Triangle Workshop Residency, NY, USA
Made in NY Media Center by IFP Residency, NY, USA
Eyebeam Spring/Summer Residency, NY, USA
Experimental Television Center Residency, NY, USA

BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, NY, USA
IAC Teaching and Research Fellowship, NY, USA
ITP Research Fellowship, New York University, NY, USA

National Endowment for the Arts Grant, DC, USA
FCA Emergency Grant, COVID-19 Bridge Fund, NY, USA
City Artist Corps Grants, NY, USA
New Mexico Art Fund, NM, USA
The Manhattan Community Arts Fund, NY, USA
FCA Emergency Grants, NY, USA
NYSCA Electronic Media & Film Presentation Fund, NY, USA

Rhodes Family Award, School of Visual Arts, NY, USA

Metropolitan Museum Media Lab, NY, USA

ARTIST TALK
2022

2021

2020
2019
2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2010

The Woman of the World Artist, NY, USA
Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
IDM NYU, NY USA
ITP/IMA Grad Launch, NY, USA
NowHere Galley, NY, USA
Projection Mapping Association of Japan, TKO. JP
New York Hall of Science, NY, USA
Governors Island, NY, USA
Potion Design, NY, USA
Parsons School of Design, NY, USA
Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago Chile
Harvestworks, NY, USA
Projection Mapping Association of Japan, TKO JP
Ramapo College, NJ, USA
Carrot Creative, NY, USA
Campus Party, Guadalajara, MX
Spokane WAM, WA, USA
FIMA, Morelia, MX
Projection Mapping Association of Japan, TKO JP
Pecha Kucha Taos, NM USA
Zuyd University, NY USA
Huge, NY USA
Japan Foundation, NY, USA
ITP, NYU, NY, USA,
NYU Gallatin School, NY, USA
NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, NY, USA
Mappi Festival, Museo de la ciudad, Quito, EC
The Very First Year: Pecha Kucha, Eyebeam, NY, USA
ESI Design, NY, USA
Apple Store, TKO JP
Wiki-Sprint Mapping Festival, Geneva, CH