Dr. Maria Adriana Verdaasdonk (Netherlands/Australia)

Maria Adriana Verdaasdonk (Mariana) is a performer and educator who based herself in Tokyo in the early 1990s to study aikido at Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo, and butoh with Akiko Motofuji at Asbestos-kan studio and with Yoshito and Kazuo Ohno at Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio. In the 90s, she co-founded 66b/cell as a result of work combining body movement and multimedia, and in 2007 she completed a practice-led PhD at Queensland University of Technology investigating interdependencies between performing bodies, visual and sonic media through the notion of ‘poetic felt space’. Performances, installations and presentations include Ars Electronica, ISEA, The Japan Virtual Reality Society, Seoul International Dance Festival, Brisbane Festival, Cairns Festival and World Dance Alliance Global Summit. She received an RSA Encouragement of Arts Award for visual research on the Japanese space-time concept of ‘ma’ and the Peter Elkin Drama Prize for Faust II Project. Mariana holds a teacher's licence in the Sogetsu School of Japanese Ikebana floral art. She is based in Cairns, Tropical Far North Queensland, Australia, where she practices and teaches Ikebana under the name "Mirei Floral Art". 

Tetsutoshi Tabata (Japan/Australia)
Tetsutoshi Tabata is a visual installation artist who studied the Japanese dance-theatre butoh with Yoshito Ohno and Akiko Motofuji from 1992-1996 and became deeply involved with dance performance and projected scenography. In 1994 he co-founded 66b/cell, a collective using real time and pre-recorded computer graphics and animation to create different textures, lighting and kinetic effects. Performances and presentations include Ars Electronica 2002, The Japan Virtual Reality Society, the Seoul International Dance Festival, the Adelaide Festival, the Brisbane Festival, Cairns Festival, as well as performances and installations in NYC, Europe and Asia. Tetsutoshi has also been an invited researcher at Rikkyo Amusement Research Center (Rikkyo University) investigating sound and visual environments for performance. His work involves 3D building projection mapping to animate buildings and performance spaces: 3D objects and effects are mapped to a two-dimensional plane to create illusions such as changing structures, textures and lighting effects. Tetsu is based in Cairns, Far North Queensland, where he continues to be inspired by the beauty of a place where the rainforest meets the sea and where he continues to work on 3D modelling and scanning, and silver jewellery design and casting.

Dr. Michiaki Katsumoto (Japan)

Michiaki Katsumoto received his PhD from Toyo University in 1996. His research is in the area of ultra-realistic 3D audio systems. He has worked at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and also established a venture company to promote the spread of new ultra-realistic acoustic environments. He is a member of IPSJ, ASJ, IEEE Computer Society and ACM. Along with his research activities, he is also involved in creating multi-channel sound and sound for film and dance. 

Dr. Junji Watanabe (Japan)

Junji Watanabe received his PhD in Information Science and Technology from the University of Tokyo in 2005. He studies cognitive science and communication devices with applied perception. His fields of interest are visual and haptic perception and communications. He twice received an honorary mention at Ars Electronica, and has had his works exhibited at the Ars Electronica Center. He also works in the area of stage design and dance with media performance unit 66b/cell.