IID Setagaya Manufacturing School contains about 50 creative offices and shops. On its first floor are FabLab Setagaya at IID, which has the latest digital machine tools available for anybody to rent, and Hakkendo Gallery that provides a space for young artists to showcase their work.
Under the artist support program, whose goal is to help artists expand their range of expressions by using digital machine tools, five artists affiliated with Hakkendo Gallery are challenging themselves on creating digital-based artwork.
Seiji Yokoi of Hakkendo Gallery says, “We want to offer support to young artists who graduated from art schools in their artmaking endeavors.”
Koji Nunoyama, a researcher of 3D media, gives guidance to the artists as their instructor. “We started by having them gain basic knowledge about digital media, then explore which method of expression would be best suited for each individual.”

Isana Yamada is one of the students in the program. He creates art while working as an educational research assistant at the Tokyo University of the Arts.
“Right now, I can use the facilities at the school, but once my term is over, I will no longer be able to do that. Three-dimensional pieces are expensive to make yet are difficult to sell at a high price. In consideration of my future goals, I wanted to find a way to work more efficiently in a good way and expand the scope of my work, and so I decided to apply to this program.”
The program is still in its testing stage, but it headed toward becoming a huge success, driven by attentive one-on-one instructions and artists’ strong motivation. FabLab Setagaya also accepts requests for classes on any of its facilities, so don’t hesitate to give them a call.

Original text: Emi Sato
Photographs: Shu Nakagawa