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ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Nina Horisaki-Christens
@ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
920 followers 1.1K following 840 posts
Art Historian (Lecturer, UCLA), Curator, Writer, Translator, and sometimes artist (she/her)
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ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
The image is a still from the 1980s Mississippi Public Broadcasting show "Tomes and Talismans." It features three characters: a woman standing behind two boys, all of whom are looking at a small electronic device one of the boys is holding. The boys are wearing matching pink, maroon, and gray tracksuits with headbands. The woman is wearing a blue long-sleeved top and khaki vest. In the background, there are library bookshelves filled with books
July 12, 2025 at 3:53 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
...often more accessible (I try to make sure some of my research is in such more accessible platforms like exhibition catalogues and paywall-free publications) but he seems to be exploiting accessibility as a means to promote himself. Like with the "Startup News" article that came out yesterday.
Small screenshot of a website featuring and article published July 4, 2025 entitled "Jordan Lasker Texas Tech: The Brilliant Mind Bridging Bioinformatics and Psychology." The article is from a source called "Startup News.fyi" and the screenshot includes the url of the article in case you want to read more: https://startupnews.fyi/2025/07/04/jordan-lasker-texas-tech-the-brilliant-mind-bridging-bioinformatics-and-psychology/ The screenshot does not include the text of the article or an image since the lead photo in the article does not include a caption to explain its relation to the rest of the article.
July 6, 2025 at 4:45 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
I figured there'd be some Stephen Miller callouts at No Kings Santa Monica and I was not disappointed.

Guy next to me said his kid disliked Miller in high school. One sign said Santa Monica High rescinds Miller's affiliation. The sign shown here was the only one I managed to remember to photograph.
Photo of No Kings protest crowd in Santa Monica. Apartments and palm trees in the background, crowd in middle ground, sign in foreground reads "TrumpStephen PTSD Collective Trauma Emotional Scars Chronic Stress Fueled by Cruelty"
June 14, 2025 at 10:22 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Screening in LA! "Asia is One" Directed by Nihon Documentarist Union, Japan, 1973, 16mm transferred to digital format, 96 minutes

Fri June 6 2025, 6:30 pm
Dodd 147, UCLA, Open to the Public

In Japanese, Chinese, and Atayal with English Subtitles by Keung Yoon Bae, Kimberley Sanders, and Mayako Liu
Poster advertising a screening of "Asia is One," Directed by Nihon Documentarist Union, Japan, 1973, 16mm transferred to digital format, 96 minutes Friday June 6 2025, 6:30 pm, Dodd 147, UCLA, Open to the Public In Japanese, Chinese, and Atayal with English Subtitles by Keung Yoon Bae, Kimberley Sanders, and Mayako Liu Sponsored by the Yanai Initiative, affiliated with UCLA Art History, and distributed by Kobe Planet Film Archive Design features three stills from the film: a black and white image of people in light colored indigenous dress with headbands dancing with arms and legs raised on one side, a black and white image of people in kimono and haori carrying things on their heads marching in three rows and a color image of a child outside a faux-stone building with American and Japanese flags flying above her.
May 31, 2025 at 7:43 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
This has got to be the funniest product photo I've seen yet: kids 12-color painting set supposedly being used to create a thick impressionist-style en plein air landscape.
Suitecase-style easel is open and holding an impressionist-style painting of a ricer-side cityscape with docked boats in the foreground and thick impasto brushstrokes. In the background is a corresponding blurred-out landscape, and the shoulder and arm of a painter are visible in the bottom left corner. On the ledge that the easel rests on to the right of the easel is a set of kids paint pots in twelve colors photoshopped to sit on the ledge.
April 8, 2025 at 4:12 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
God almighty what absolute BS is this?! Forgot to turn off AI Overview on one of my browsers and a search for "Nauru" and "Transfield" rendered the following "analysis" that stretches all possible euphemistic meanings of "welfare" far beyond any ties to reality:
White text on black background reads: "AI Overview Transfield Services was a company that provided welfare services to asylum seekers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The company's involvement in these services was controversial. How Transfield was involved In 2015, Transfield became the sole provider of welfare services to asylum seekers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The company's involvement was criticized by refugee advocacy groups. In 2014, the criticism led to calls for a boycott of the 19th Biennale of Sydney, which Transfield supported."
February 20, 2025 at 4:17 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
For anyone at #CAA113 I am co-chairing a 2:30 pm workshop on Censorship, Precarity, and Diversity! Come join!
"Censorship, Precarity, and Diversity: A Workshop"  Sponsored by the Committee on Diversity Practices Saturday Feb 15, 2:30-4pm 2nd Fl, Sutton Center Co-Chairs: Katie Anania, Nina Horisaki-Christens, SaeHim Park Featuring presentations by CPD Committee Members, as well as Natilee Harren, Herb Fondevilla, Michelle Sunset, and Niuniu Sun alongside group brainstorming and conversation toward a goal of identifying future collaborative actions. Over the past three decades, the adjunctification of higher education and the casualization of museum labor has led to a generalized state of precarity in the arts field. Intersecting with these conditions, we have seen increasing censorship in the wake of new governmental and institutional policies that employ rhetorics of inclusivity to shut down public discussion of the complexities of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. Yet it is explicitly through increased attention to diversity within and beyond institutional spaces that art has claimed a greater relevance to non-conventional art publics, whether by inviting new publics into museum and academic spaces or bringing art into communities that have not historically had access to cultural resources. The intersection of precarity and censorship presents a crisis for the art field: how to continue the vital work of diversifying our field when labor and political conditions are inhospitable to open discussion. This workshop is a call for strategic connection and group thinking about the intersection of precarity and censorship in the fields represented by CAA membership: education, artistic practice, museums, non-profits, and publications. During the workshop short presentations will be followed by a moderated public discussion toward a goal of outlining possible actions we (participants) could undertake, ideally in further collaborations beyond the workshop, to shift the state of the field.
February 15, 2025 at 4:32 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
I'm so grateful to Helena and the editors at Leonardo journal for making my article (and this issue!) a reality!

#arthistory #videoart #imageprocessing #Japaneseart #mediatheory #mandala #1980sart #konakajima #2024inReview
Screenshot of the cover of the current December 2024 issue of Leonardo journal. In black text on white in the upper right corner: "Volume 57 Number 6 2024, Leonardo, The MIT Press, $22." Below is a black image featuring a grid of four blue faces distorted in a wave-like form. The image is by Derek Holzer, 'Isolation Portraits: Nicolina,' 2020. "An artistic example of scan processing’s signature video raster displacement effect. (© Derek Holzer)"
December 29, 2024 at 9:37 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
I wrote about Nakajima Kō and his Animaker and Aniputer, & there are amazing articles by Lia Robinson, Liz Kim, Helen Koh, and an interview by @gregzinman.bsky.social of the always fabulous @lovidlovid.bsky.social among many other fascinating contributions to this must-read issue!

#imageprocessing
Screenshot of the first page of an article in Leonardo journal 57 issue 6, written in black text on white background. Header reads: Image Processing Part II: Case Studies. Video as world Mandala: The Role of Nakajima Kō's Animaker and Aniputer in Defining a Cosmic Vision of Video. By Nina Horisaki-Christens." The Abstract reads: Early video processing tools present a compelling perspective through which to reconsider the integrated practice of Tokyo-based early video artist Nakajima Kō. The author examines Nakajima's practice through his concepts of animation, the development of his Animaker (1979) and Aniputer (1982), and his perspective on how video connects to Esoteric Buddhist thought. Concluding with Nakajima's 1986 video Mt. Fuji, the author illustrates how the work is representative of the hybrid, analog-digital view of video that leads Nakajima to posit video as a cosmic medium circa 1986." The rest of the text can be found in the article located at https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02587
December 29, 2024 at 9:37 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Day 7 of my 2024 year in review!

Today's post is as much an announcement as a roundup!
I'm so excited that my first peer-reviewed article to come out is part of this issue December 2024 issue of Leonardo, organized by Helena Shaskevich to focus on image processing!

#arthistory #2024inReview
Upper left corner features a black rectangular tag reading "Color Plate B." In black text on white at the top of the image: "Color Plate B: Video as World Mandala: The Role of Nakajima Kō's Animaker and Aniputer in defining a cosmic vision of video." Below this is a rectangular color illustration featuring a photograph of Mt. Fuji superimposed with a glowing reddish orange lava explosion positioned near its peak, further overlaid with a green, brown, and white 1980s computer rendering of the topography of Mt Fuji with a ragged geometric edge floating just below the photographic version of Mt. Fuji. Below the color image is a caption reading: "Nakajima Kō, still from 'Mt Fuji PART 2 Gunshin,' 1985, color video with sound. (Image courtesy Keio University Art Center. © Nakajima Kō.) (See the article in this issue by Nina Horisaki-Christens.)"
December 29, 2024 at 9:37 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
I'm grateful to the Art History Graduate Student Association at UCR, & especially the primary conference organizers, Ashley McNelis and Alexandre Saden, for all their hard work bringing together a great slate of speakers and making sure the day went smoothly!

#arthistory #UCRiverside #2024inReview
A closeup of pincer pliers and industrial nail heads in a warm grayscale is overlaid with a University of California Riverside logo in the upper left, "The UCR AHGSA Presents: Saturday, May 18th, 2024 9am to 5pm UCR ARTS 3834 Main St. Riverside CA 92501" in white in the upper right, and along the bottom, also in white text, "Keynote Speaker: Dr. Nina Horisaki-Christens 'Agains Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo,' Tools for Working, Tools for Thinking, https://ahgsaconference.ucr.edu."
December 29, 2024 at 12:08 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
The other presenters had such an amazing range of projects that really engaged with the theme of "Tools for Working, Tools for Thinking." It was a great opportunity to think through the ways labor and technology shape artmaking!

#arthistory #UCRiverside #gradconference #2024inReview
A closeup of pincer pliers and industrial nail heads in a warm grayscale is overlaid with a University of California Riverside logo in the upper left, "The UCR AHGSA Presents: Saturday, May 18th, 2024 9am to 5pm UCR ARTS 3834 Main St. Riverside CA 92501" in white in the upper right, and along the bottom, also in white text, "Keynote Speaker: Dr. Nina Horisaki-Christens 'Agains Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo,' Tools for Working, Tools for Thinking, https://ahgsaconference.ucr.edu."
December 29, 2024 at 12:08 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Day 6 of my 2024 year in Review!

Last spring, I was honored to receive an invitation from the University of California, Riverside's Art History Graduate Student Association to deliver the keynote address for the 2024 iteration of their annual graduate student conference!

#arthistory #2024inReview
A closeup of pincer pliers and industrial nail heads in a warm grayscale is overlaid with a University of California Riverside logo in the upper left, "The UCR AHGSA Presents: Saturday, May 18th, 2024 9am to 5pm UCR ARTS 3834 Main St. Riverside CA 92501" in white in the upper right, and along the bottom, also in white text, "Keynote Speaker: Dr. Nina Horisaki-Christens 'Agains Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo,' Tools for Working, Tools for Thinking, https://ahgsaconference.ucr.edu." In black text on a white background, "Program Schedule Tools for Working/Tools for Thinking | Saturday, May 18th at UCR ARTS | Schedule: 2024 Art History Graduate Student Association Conference, Department of Art History, UC Riverside; 9:00–9:30AM PT Coffee & Check-In | UCR ARTS Lobby; 9:30–9:45AM PT Remarks | Screening Room; 9:45–10:45AM PT Panel 1: Technique & Relation | Moderated by Dr. Fatima Quraishi | Screening Room, Courtney Thomas, 'Beyond Cut and Paste: Technique, Material, Gesture, and (de)constructing Identity in Contemporary U.S. American Collage Art [in-person],' Teddy Perkins, 'Meaning as a Function of Temporospatial Precarities in John Baldessari’s Nine Feet (of Victim and Crowd) Arranged by Position in Scene (1976) [virtual],' Alexis White, 'Hand as tool, handmade as ideological tool in the work of Henry Chapman Mercer [virtual].'" In black text on a white background, "10:45–11:00AM PT Break; 11:00AM–12:00PM PT Panel 2: Rule & Method | Moderated by Dr. Johannes Endres | Screening Room, Ehsan Behbahani-Nia, ‘Dating Ancient Buildings Using Tool Marks [virtual],’ Xiaoyan Bi, ‘Materiality, Sociality and Agency: A Study of Tool Making and Utilization in Traditional Handicrafts [virtual],’ Sam Shin, ‘Harmonizing Innovation and Ethics: Navigating the AI Revolution in Music Creation and Production [in-person]’; 12:00–1:30PM PT Lunch | UCR ARTS Second Floor; 1:30–2:30PM PT Panel 3: Lens & Matter | Moderated by Dr. Kris Neville | Screening Room, Alicia Gallant, ‘The City as Site: Wendy Red Star’s Travels Pretty (2022) [virtual],’ Colton Klein, ‘Tools for Reconstruction: Recast Metal and Civil War Memory [virtual],’ Christina Marks, ‘Eye Of The Storm: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson’s use of the camera in constructing the natural [in-person].’" In black text on a white background, “2:30–2:45PM PT Break; 2:45–3:45PM PT Panel 4: Space & Labor | Moderated by Dr. Yong Cho | Screening Room, Carla Burkert, ‘Like Clockwork: Art History’s Institutionalization Through Standardized Time [virtual],’ Yixin (Star) Song, ‘Utilizing the Pavilion as a Tool: A case study on the function of an architectural structure in Fang Congyi’s High, High Pavilion [in-person],’ Michael VanHartingsveldt, ‘Sacred Labor in Retrospect: A Fourteenth-Century Reimagining of Seventh-Century Buddhist Image Production in Japan [in-person]’; 3:45–4:00PM PT Break; 4:00–4:45PM PT Against Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo Keynote Address by Dr. Nina Horisaki-Christens | Screening Room; 4:45–5:00 PM PT Closing Remarks | Screening Room; 5:00–6:00PM PT UCR ARTS Opening (Optional).”
December 29, 2024 at 12:08 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
& in 2024, I finished my 3rd translation with APJ: a 1965 text by art critic Miyakawa Atsushi. With help from editor Matsuyama Naoki and coordination by a great team in & beyond NCAR, I'm very happy with how this short, challenging translation turned out.

#ArtPlatformJapan #modernart #translation
Screenshot of a portion of a website that reads "Art Platform Japan: Research Portal by NCAR. Home>Irruption of Shadows. 'Irruption of Shadows' by Miyakawa Atsushi." This is followed by a thumbnail of the openeing page of the PDF for the aforementioned text, and a portion (chopped off) of an intro to the text. This full text can be found at https://artplatform.go.jp/readings/R202304. Portion of a screenshot of a website that reads "Databases" and "Research Guides" at the top, followed by a portion of an intro that reads "and expresses this as the “irruption of shadows.” Furthermore, he distinguished between painting as convention and art as value. With this in mind, as expressed in the words “art is the shadow of painting,” voiced in the article “Painting and Its Shadows” (Eye [Me], November 1965) published around the same time, for Miyakawa, “shadow” is what made painting into art. After this, Miyakawa advocated for the inextinguishability of art and turned his attention to “the act of looking” itself, but he passed away in 1977 at the age of 44. This article was republished in The Collected Works of Miyakawa Atsushi, Volume 2 (Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1980) and Painting and Its Shadows (Mizusu Shobo, 2007)." Below this is a table listing details of the translation of this text: "Title: Irruption of Shadows; Author: Miyakawa Atsushi; First published 1965; Translation: Nina Horisaki-Christens; Editing: Matsuyama Naoki; Design: Ian Lynam; Theme: Critic; First posted online and last modified 2024-07-09."
December 28, 2024 at 7:25 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
It was such a pleasure to have the chance to talk with such an engaged crowd, and consider the ways we can place teamLab's work within Japanese art history, contemporary art history, and media art history!

@sama_art #teamLab #arthistory #mediaart #japaneseart #contemporaryart #2024inReview
A dark grey gradiant background with black dots serves as a backdrop for an image of white text over a detail of teamLab's "World of Irreversible Change" featuring architectural draft-like outlines of details of a pre-modern Japanese cityscape—including streets, a river, bridges, figures, trees, stores, mansions, etc.—in glowing yellow against a dark background. White snow lines much of the flat surface of the cityscape. Glowing gold cloud forms that replicate the look of gold leaf frame and interrupt the image. Below the image of the work is white text that reads "teamLab, The World of Irreversible Change, Interactive Digital Work, 6 channels ©teamLab, Courtesy Pace Gallery." In the lower right is an insert featuring a white woman in a pink blazer at a podium in front of a black curtain.
December 27, 2024 at 6:02 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Forgot to post yesterday, so I'll be posting twice today.

Day 4 of 2024 year in review!

In July, I was invited by the San Antonio Museum of Art to give a talk on teamLab in conjunction with their exhibition of “The World of Irreversible Change,” on loan from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
"San Antonio Museum of Art, Lecture: teamLab: Collectivity, Chance, and the Fabric of Urban Japan with Nina Horisaki-Christens. July 16, 6-7pm, John L. Santikos Auditorium. Ticket Price $5, Ticket Price Members: Free. Register: In-Person or Livestream." in white text over a detail of teamLab's "World of Irreversible Change" featuring architectural draft-like outlines of a curved Edo-style bridge, lanterns, willows, a torii, and other details of a pre-modern Japanese cityscape in glowing yellow against a dark background. Pink sakura blossoms and teal water with yellow lines denoting ripples add color to the scene.
December 27, 2024 at 6:02 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Day 3 of 2024 year in review!

This really covers both 2023 and 2024, but I was fortunate to be selected as a 2023-24 Getty Postdoctoral Fellow for the Art & Technology theme. I primarily worked on new research around my book on Video Hiroba...

#GettyReserchInstitute #GettyScholars #arthistory
White woman in bright pink blazer stands behind wood podium with "Gett" written in white. To her left and taking up most of the image is a large screen with photos of a 1970s video art exhibition, primarily featuring a white table lining the walls, a shelf containing a video tape library, video decks, and video monitors. A white woman with curly salt and pepper hair wearing a pibk blazer and dark high-necked shirt stands behind a wood podium with the word "Getty" emblazoned in white.
December 26, 2024 at 3:03 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
I'm grateful to Millennium Film's editors for both the fabulous feedback and for allowing me space for a long review!

You can check out the review, along with others by Helena Shaskevich, Rachel Hutcheson, Yuka Murakami, and more in the fall issue MFJ 80 Strata!

#arthistory #2024inReview
December 24, 2024 at 4:39 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Day 2 of my 2024 year in review!

Last December Millennium Film Journal asked me to review Japan Society's "Out of Bounds: Japanese Women in Fluxus." What was a standard review somehow blossomed into a long review.

@japansociety #fluxus #womensart #film #videoart #mediaart #performanceart
December 24, 2024 at 4:39 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Thrilled to finally get the catalogue of Tate Modern's "Electric Dreams" in the mail!
I'm so grateful to curator Val Ravaglia for the chance to contribute a piece on Yamaguchi Katsuhiro, a major figure of the Japanese media art world who is under-recognized abroad.

#TateModern #arthistory #videoart
December 23, 2024 at 4:39 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Looking for something to do tomorrow? Are you in the NYC/NJ area? There's a great show of the East Asian feminist collective Tomorrow Girls Troop opening up at NJCU Galleries tomorrow evening, 4-7pm! I wish I could go, but I'm on the other coast, so go there for me!

www.njcu.edu/community/ev...
A close up of two masked people holding a banner and placards that read "Beleive," "Tomorrow Girls Troop," and "My Body My Choice" in English, Japanese, and Korean. One mask is white, in the shape of a wing, and the other is bright pink with gold eyes in the shape of a hybrid moth-bunny head. The masked individuals stand in a crowd of peaceful protestors on the streets of a major city.
November 13, 2024 at 11:26 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
November 10, 2024 at 2:08 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Looking for earthquake straps for some new furniture, and found one that comes with "sweet adjustable desire" 🫠
Picture of a black furniture anti-tipping strap with different elements marked as "durable metal plate," "sweet adjustable desire," "intimate hook & loop," and "triple stitches."
September 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
Picture of a vaguley painted-adobe-like strip mall building with a red sign reading "Chi-chi's"
August 17, 2024 at 5:07 PM
ninahorisakichr.bsky.social
I mean...
Photo of post by Yosuke Amemiya on Twitter with group of melting apples and paint knife the match the OP's image.
July 10, 2024 at 11:04 PM