Norio Imai

Norio Imai

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Most Known for...

Movie Picture

ときの重奏:デイリーポートレイト 1979

Starting from May 30, 1979, Imai took a Polaroid photograph of himself every day, holding a photograph of himself taken a day before in his hand. Initially began as a simple action to replace the practice of writing a diary (which he found difficult to continue), Imai has been able to continue this daily action to this day and plans to continue it until the end of his life. In this work, Imai’s daily photographs that he had taken from 1979 to 2004 are sped up to appear like a moving image, akin to an animation.
Movie Picture

The Heart Beat 1975

A piece of white paper with “IMAI” typed on its surface is placed on top of a paper cone speaker, which emits the recorded sound of Imai’s heartbeat. As the iron coil fixed to the inner part of the speaker vibrates back and forth, the piece of white paper flips up and down, as if it has a life of its own. This work demonstrates Imai’s desire to visualize the sound created by an inner organ that one is usually not conscious of hearing.
Movie Picture

Circle 1967

Rapidly flickering circles flash and flutter across the screen, accompanied by various sound effects produced by Yamamoto Satoshi. The movement of the circles was produced as a result of Imai’s action of directly punching a hole in each frame of the film strip and projecting it at the spend of twenty-four frames a second. As each hole was punched randomly without exact measurement, the circles appear and disappear in different parts of the screen, which creates the sensation of a flicker film. This work was screened at the first Sōgetsu Experimental Film Festival in 1967 held at the Sōgetsu Art Center in Tokyo. En demonstrates Imai’s interest in foregrounding the materiality of the film celluloid as the source for moving image, as well as the impact of various sounds on the viewer’s perception of the images.