Report: SMF Workshop 2009
On June 20th and 21st, the Sapporo Media Art Forum (SMF) Workshop 2009 took place on the 4th floor hall of ICC.
SMF aims at nurturing media art personnel through the cooperation of government, industry, and academia. They have been active since 2005.
The workshop featured 16 Sapporo artists on the rise giving advice to 70 college students while they design and create T-shirts within the theme of "City".
Chairman of SMF Tomohiko Ohira
The venue during the event
Artists in charge of providing input
Check, creator's namaes.
Split into ten teams, the students each began designing their interpretation of Sapporo, and later made presentations with their teams.
One of the great things about SMF is that students can ask questions directly to artists in the industry. 
When the design is complete, they iron print them on T-shirts.
Awesome!
Each team made their own unique presentations
After the presentations, students voted on the best piece and best group. An awards ceremony took place, and the artists also voted on their favorite.
The four recipients of the Best Works Award. From the left, Ai Maeno, Tomoko Iwase, Komei Tanaka, and Erika Iyama
The Best Group Award went to Group F led by Kazuhiro Kikuchi
Awards were given form the artists, as well. T-shirts instead of trophies!
The next SMF event will be a competition between schools called "Trial" in September.
An introduction to the groups, clockwise from left: Yamamoto/Ishii Group, Sasaki/Takahashi Group, Hikichi/Okada Group, and Fujida/Oguro Group.
Osanai Group, Kikuchi Group, Kobayashi/Fukuda Group, Maeda/Yano Group.
Meya Group, and Tokuda Group.
