Database Project Prototype
Critical of the commercially-sponsored video event, Tokyo Video Festival, Nakajima documented the festival as a form of a commentary. In a discussion with a friend at Victor Corporation, Nakajima was the original instigator for the idea of a video festival, but the idea was taken over to become the Tokyo Video Festival. Nakajima’s original idea was closer to that of a showcase of cable television.
This 16mm film was made during university classes by the members of Video Earth Tokyo. The protagonist is a man crossdressing as a woman, a theme reminiscent of the underground films of the time.
The documentation includes the assembly event held by Shoichi Ozawa at Kinokuniya bookstore, and others. They were shot on 16mm film and video. The sound for the 16mm was not synchronically recorded, but later added asynchronously using an optical recording. Since video was not yet known as a sturdy medium, both film and video were used. This work is not well known because it is lent out only upon request.
Produced by Michael Goldberg, this is a demonstration video of the “Animaker," a video synthesizer developed by Nakajima and Sony. The Animaker automatically takes frame-by-frame shots and performs effect processing. Mr. Morita, who was the president of Sony at the time, gave money to artists like Nakajima. The Animaker became commercially available and sold about 100 units. After this, shooting frame-by-frame function became common in cameras.