The five finalist works will be exhibited at the "Study × PLAS: Asia Art Fair" venue (Grand Cube Osaka) from Monday, July 21st to Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025.

The Osaka Kansai International Art Festival Executive Committee's "Study: Science Art Award Supported by ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd." is an award that aims to explore new creativity born from the fusion of science and art. The winners of the Grand Prix and ROHTO Prize will be announced at 5:00 p.m. on July 20, 2025, and the award ceremony will be held by the final judges Hiromi Kurosawa, Akira Tatehata, Juichi Yamagiwa, Daisuke Suzuki, and Kunio Yamada, Chairman and CEO of ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., the sponsor of the festival.
In addition, the finalists' works will be exhibited as "Study: Science Art Award Supported by ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. Finalist Exhibition" on the 10th floor of Grand Cube Osaka (Osaka International Convention Center) from Monday, July 21st to Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025.

 

About "Study: Science Art Award Supported by ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd."

The Study: Science Art Award Supported by ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd., is an open competition that challenges the world to creative expressions that utilize cutting-edge fields such as AI, biotechnology, video, audio, programming, and ecosystems, with the theme of the fusion of science, technology, and artistic expression. The five finalists will exhibit their new plans at the art fair venue, and the final judging will determine whether they will be awarded the Grand Prix or the Rohto Pharmaceutical Special Award. The total prize money is 1 million yen (including exhibition, production, and travel expenses). With the theme of "Creating the future through the fusion of science and art," the aim is to present a new perspective on social issues by bringing art and science together, and to contribute to the creation of the future society.
https://osaka-kansai.art/pages/science-art-award

 

[About the five finalists]

KADOTA Yu

Yu Tsunoda《Moya》2023

The main theme of my work is the visualization of invisible physical phenomena. I have tried to visualize phenomena such as radiation, heat, and chaos. For example, one of my works that attempts to visualize heat is a video work that uses a technique called the Schlieren method, which captures changes in gas density, to record the state of air fluctuating due to heat. Here, I dealt with the heat of small movements we make in our daily lives, such as reading a book, writing a sentence, and having a conversation. There is surprisingly a lot of heat radiated from the body, and this video work makes you feel dramatic invisible movements even in everyday scenes that seem quiet. Through my work, I aim to make invisible phenomena visible, giving you a vague but tangible sense of materiality, and a sense that it is clearly there, even though it is not clear. I then consider the appearance of this materiality to be sculpture and create it.

 

KUMO (Yuki Morita, Ryudai Misawa, and deriba)

KUMO (Yuki Morita & Ryudai Misawa) 《Mist》2025

KUMO formed in 2025
KUMO members: YUKI MORITA, RYUDAI MISAWA & deriba
Current affiliation: YUKI MORITA (Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Media and New Media), RYUDAI MISAWA (Keio University, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Department of Environment and Information Studies, Wakita Rei Laboratory), deriba (Keio University, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Doctoral Program)
Activities: KUMO was formed in 2025 by YUKI MORITA and RYUDAI MISAWA, and aims to play with the world through art and build new relationships.
The members are dynamically organized for each project as they go about their production.

 

NAGATA Kazuki

I think about "new scenery seen before," which is a sense of mediocrity and déjà vu brought about by the development of information technology. Editable and boring scenery spreads out in the suburbs and cyberspace (AI that has learned it), and the development of information technology has deprived us of the "outside" of the world, such as newness and surprise. I explore such banal and boring scenery by traveling back and forth between real space and information space.
Using AI and family restaurants as specific methods and motifs, he creates new or previously seen scenery from the mundane scenery in our daily lives and media environment. As output formats, he uses various media and methods such as installation, video, photography, text, the Internet, and SEA.
Notable awards he has received include being selected for a student CG contest, the bronze prize at the Japan Television Maginarium Awards, and the Audience Award at the Terrace Art Shonan Awards 2024. He has also presented at international conferences such as SIGGRAPH AISA, and is actively involved in academia.

 

MANTLE (ISAKA Shu + NAKAMURA Soushi)

MANTLE (ISAKA Shu + NAKAMURA Soushi) "simulation #4 -The Thunderbolt Odyssey-" 2023 (Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, 2023) Installation view ©Kenji Agata

An art collective formed in 2022 by ISAKA Shu and NAKAMURA Soushi. They access all kinds of site specificity and simulate phenomena that cannot be seen directly, as well as long-term and short-term events that transcend the human timeline. They incorporate even the coincidences and errors that occur in the process into their works, using a playful approach to find points of contact between the present and unseen space-time. Their works include "DXP - Towards the Next Interface" (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2023-2024) and "PINEAL GLAND SASHIMI" (Gou Museum of Contemporary Art, China, 2024).
https://www.mantle.works
https://www.instagram.com/mantle2022/

 

MORI Koichi + MASHITA Takehisa

MORI Koichi + MASHITA Takehisa, "Breathing Sky" 2025

MORI Koichi and MASHITA Takehisa began joint research on media art around 2002. Since then, they have been presenting experimental media art works using data based on the viewer's physiological phenomena, such as brain waves, cerebral blood flow, posture control, and breathing. From Horizontal/Vertical in 2007 to Rendezvous in 2014, they presented many bite-feedback works incorporating the viewer's brain wave analysis (measurement of brain wave patterns by EEG), and in 2010 they presented Light, Sound, and the Brain, a biofeedback work of emotional responses based on the viewer's brain blood flow analysis (measurement of hemoglobin concentration by fNIRS). At the between exhibition in 2018, they presented a work in which two viewers jointly generate scents, music, and light patterns based on the viewer's posture control (measurement of head position and movement by glasses-type sensors). Since 2020, we have aimed to realize an experience that touches the origin of life nurtured by the earth by connecting with oneself, others (plants), and the environment (atmosphere) through breathing, mainly based on the viewer's breathing (measurement of breathing with a depth camera). For example, in the 2024 "breathing garden", the viewer's breathing was converted into light and irradiated on eight types of plants to promote photosynthesis, and the change in CO2 concentration around the plants was converted into eight types of sound. In addition, the viewer's breathing was converted into sound, creating an acoustic space where the sounds of both parties blend together. The ensemble of the sounds of people who need oxygen and plants who need carbon dioxide became an overlap of the "rhythms of life" between people and plants, demonstrating a new relationship in which the two parties mutually penetrate each other. Our goal is to show new relationships between the diverse life forms that have been born on earth, including humans, or between life and the environment through the intervention of technology as art.

 

About ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has the purpose of "energizing people, society, and the world of tomorrow" and is engaged in business that supports people's health and happiness through research, development, manufacturing, and sales in a wide range of fields, from eye health to skin care, oral medications, and regenerative medicine. We will continue to face social issues and constantly create new value in order to realize better well-being for people all over the world.

 

About "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025"

Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival is an art festival that studies the relationship between art, people and society. With the theme of "social impact," we aim to revitalize the economy and visualize social issues through culture and the arts. With an eye on the Osaka-Kansai Expo, we have been conducting research three times since 2022 in Osaka. This year marks the year of the Expo, and 93 artists from 24 countries and regions will participate (as of June 8th), and the festival will be held during the Expo as an art festival that plays a role in connecting the Osaka-Kansai Expo with the entire Osaka area. The venue will be spread out inside and outside the Expo site on Yumeshima, and will be held in various places that symbolize Osaka, such as the Osaka Culturarium, Tempozan designed by Tadao Ando, ​​the Umekita area, Nishinari area, Semba area, Matsubara City, the National Museum of Ethnology in Expo Commemoration Park where the 1970 Expo was held, and the Osaka Prefectural International Convention Center (all built by Kisho Kurokawa), the venue of "Study × PLAS: Asia Art Fair". This art festival is supported and supported by embassies and consulates from 18 countries, and will create a place for new dialogue and discovery on a global scale by developing art projects in collaboration with international organizations such as Germany, South Korea, and the EU (European Union). Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Osaka-Kansai Expo, which will see the participation of 158 countries and regions and nine international organizations, we aim to promote culture and art from Kansai to the world, and to use culture and art to revitalize the economy and make social issues visible.


■Company Profile
ARTLOGUE Inc.
- Representative: ARTLOGUE Inc. CEO Daisuke Suzuki
- Head office location: Kita-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
- Established: July 7, 2017
- Business operations: Planning and management of "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival" / Planning and management of web media "ARTLOGUE" and "Art Tourism"