About Us
Burton Nitta is an Anglo-Japanese, transdisciplinary art and design studio based in London. Our projects investigate the future worlds and human evolution in collaboration with science and technology.
Previous works such as Algaculture, The Algae Opera, The Republic of Salivation and The Instruments of the Afterlife are published and exhibited internationally from MoMA in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, V&A Museum to Royal Academy of Arts in London.
New areas of research are explored through a journal called After After... that invites audiences to taste the future and venture into alternative visions of the world and ourselves.
Alongside the creation of artworks, we are passionate about research and education with regular lecturing positions and speaking appointments at various universities such as the Central Saint Martins - University of Arts London and Royal College of Art.
Michael and Michiko have been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts by the Solent Universiy in 2021.
10 years of Burton Nitta
3rd January 2020 ------------------------------------------------ In recent work, we proposed Altered Ways of Being and made New Organs of Creation from living cells to imagine other versions of humanness. We invited audiences to hear and feel other worlds. Audience reactions from the full house included: “It was an entrancing experience”, “I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience” and “I want this again ”. |
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Where it started. Our early projects as Burton Nitta featured extreme visions of Algaculture to confront environmental change and consumption demands on global resources. The work created symbiotic relationships with algae and developed heightened food rituals in The Algae Opera. The pieces continue on a global tour with Algaculture currently exhibited at MAK Vienna and The Algae Opera recently tantalising the ‘sound-buds’ of VIP audiences at the Royal Academy. |
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A theory to discover possibilities. Paths divined from the Transformosphere have led to the Landscape Within where we have found global pasts, presents and futures inside the body. In response, we engineered bacteria with synthetic biologists at the University of Edinburgh to integrate into our gut flora and mine the body for useful nano-materials. |
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Evolutions in the Shadow Biosphere. |
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Where now? In the next 10 years, we will continue to develop projects that discover and uncloak overlooked relationships with the wider world and our inner self. Works will challenge and create experiences on the edges of the known. Most importantly outcomes will connect with audiences and collaborators on a journey of curiosity. |
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Reflections. |
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Futures are not enough. At the ten year marker of working together, we are still fascinated by concepts of the future. However, these ideas have been sharpened to focus attention on adaptation and transformation. Elements that are intrinsically futures focused, but, for us, more embedded in action. As a result, works and research are reflective on the past, consider the present and embrace an ‘Afterist’ approach to consider ‘what’s next?’ Far from happy to accept what’s on the horizon, we aim for artworks to inspire and envision, to reveal and reframe; and ultimately to invite along all who wish to join us on a journey of discovery to imagine other realities. |
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Please get in touch with us by sending mail to: admin@burtonnitta.co.uk
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