Since the dawn of the 21st century, scholars in media, visual, and digital culture have increasingly redirected their focus to the screen as an object of study. Unlike their predecessors, contemporary screens—such as those of laptops, smartphones, and portable gaming consoles—are ubiquitous, unstable, and in flux. Lev Manovich, for instance, categorizes screens into three types, illustrating that modern computer screens originate from a fundamentally a different genealogy. Similarly, Erkki Huhtamo emphasizes the intricate and complex genealogy of screens, endeavoring to explore this genealogy through screenology as a media archaeology of the screen. In their discussions, both Manovich and Huhtamo point to the disappearance of the screen, referring to real-time screens, holograms, and head-mounted displays.
The collaborative art project of filmmaker Yuki Hayashi, artist Hana Sawada, and aesthetician Yosaku Matsutani seeks to conceptualize a variable screen, encompassing even the disappearance of the screen. The theoretical foundation of this project lies in thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics, which applies the principle of energy conservation to thermodynamic systems, asserts that energy can be converted into various forms, yet the total energy remains constant. Image production, in general, depends on such conversions—mechanical, thermal, electrical, and light energy. Consequently, even when a screen appears to vanish, the image persists in another form. Screen practices and research have historically been grounded in this first law.
However, what might screen practices entail if based on the second law of thermodynamics, which addresses the irreversible dissipation and degradation of energy? This project investigates this question by creating decomposable and edible screens. Since such screens could offer a novel artistic paradigm from the perspective of waste, this project would also propose an innovative form of expression in response to a planet in crisis. This paper aims to unpack the implications of this groundbreaking project.
Yosaku Matsutani is currently a professor in the Department of Sociology at Otemon Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan. He specializes in aesthetics, art and media theory, and visual culture studies. He works on problems of art practices since the aesthetic turn, the relationship between science, technology, and art, and the sensibilities common to various organisms and things. He also collaborates with artists on various art projects that seek to reconsider the entanglement of the body, science, technology, and the environment, and to explore art practice itself. Recent articles include “Encounter with the Moon: Critical Reflections on JAXA’s “Lunar Farming” from the Perspective of Post-Earth Aesthetics,” “A Study on the Overlay Images in the Japanese Contemporary Art Scene: Cases of Chikako Yamashiroʼs Your Voice Came Out Through My Throat and Nobuaki Itoʼs Dead person and Living person” and co-authored “(De)composing Media Art through Practices with Nonhuman.” Recent art projects include "Let's Ride the Waves on March 11th," a collaboration with artist Soichiro Mihara and surfer Yuko Takahashi.
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