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Toshio Iwai, Artistic and Creative Director for SimTunes

Toshio was born in Aichi prefecture, Japan, in 1962. As a media artist, Toshio began making experimental animations in 1981 and soon moved onto working with the computer to make interactive works.

In 1987, he graduated from the Plastic Art and Mixed Media master's course of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and in 1992, he finished the Artist-Residence Program at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. His pieces, Well of Lights and Music Insects are now in the permanent collection at the Exploratorium.

He became a cult figure in Japan with his computer-generated virtual sets for the science news show, "Einstein TV" (1990-91) and his virtual sets and characters for the immensely popular daily interactive children's show for Fuji TV, "UgoUgo Lhuga" (1992-94).

He has had one-person exhibitions mounted in Tokyo, Osaka, Antwerp, Karlsruhe, Espoo and Amsterdam, and has taken part in group exhibitions mounted in Canada, Australia, France, Spain and the U.S. His recent piece, Piano•as image media, an interactive installation which combined a computer-controlled grand piano and computer-generated imagery, was shown at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.