Infiltrate the back side of the Musashino Art University Art Festival! How is the first time online? Interview with the executive committee!

Mr. Yabe: Every year, we start preparations for the Art Festival around spring break, but last year we had no choice but to cancel the event due to the spread of the corona outbreak and the unpredictable situation. This year, however, we did not want to stop the history of the festival because of the corona, so we decided to hold the festival online for the first time.

Chiba: Yes, this year we used the virtual SNS "cluster" (developed by cluster, Inc.) to exhibit the works of volunteer students in a virtual space. Since Mousavi students make their living by creating artwork, I knew that everyone would want to exhibit their work, and I felt that it was something that could not be left out.
When we were discussing how to hold an online exhibition of artworks that would normally be held in lecture halls or exhibition rooms, we learned that other art universities hold exhibitions on their websites, but we were motivated to "do something newer than that. Then I learned about the " Virtual Mousavi Exhibition " organized by Mousavi alumni volunteers, and decided to give it a try.

Yabe：First of all, we urgently needed to establish the department, assign responsibilities, and recruit new members.
I was able to take over some of the tasks, but since the event was not held on site, departments such as the Security Department, which patrolled the premises on the day of the event, had to take a day off....
In addition, this year, since online content will be the main focus of the event, we have created a new " Online Department " to strengthen that aspect of the event.

Yabe: Originally, there was a "Web Team" under the "Public Relations Department," which was in charge of advertising activities, but since the main focus will be on advertising via the Web and SNS, we have made it an independent department.
In October of last year (2020), when we recruited new members for the committee for the entire university, we also recruited members for the online department at the same time. Although the number of members is not that large, the department has become a small elite group of students with insightful ideas.
The official website for the Art Festival was initially planned to be outsourced, but we used a service that allows the creation of websites with no code, and it was created by the students themselves.

Chiba: The Exhibition Department entrusted the implementation of the cluster world to a knowledgeable staff member, and the other members mainly dealt with students (participants) who wanted to exhibit. However, we had to conduct the participants' briefing sessions and applications, which had been conducted in person, in person, this year....
We used Zoom for the orientation sessions, made videos of detailed explanations of the flow, etc. and posted them on YouTube for a limited number of people to view, and used Google Forms for the application process.

Chiba: We tried to find a way to have one-on-one discussions, and I suggested using Discord chat.
That made things a lot smoother, but there were some people who didn't check their messages.... I don't know if this is unique to Mousavi students, but there were a lot of people like that (laughs).

Mr. Chiba: (laughs) Also, right before the exhibition...I had a lot of trouble submitting my work. There were problems with file extensions, file size, and so on. We realized that we had to be very detailed in our specifications since we were in a restricted space on the virtual stage.
In addition, this time, the communication among the executive committee members was always conducted online. We had to do this at limited times, such as after 9:00 p.m. after classes.
The Exhibition Department met on campus once in August to work on the exhibition, and people who had never met each other before would say, "Oh, I didn't know you looked like that....

Yabe: Even now, there are many people in the Public Relations Department who don't know the faces of the members (laughs).

Yabe: Yes, that's right. However, I don't want people to see only the negative aspects of the "online" event. I think this year's theme, "Dennou Toshi Mouryu" (The Dragon's Brain City), was born out of the circumstances of this year's event.
For example, for the first time in our history, we are using electric decorations for the objects we have installed in the studio. In past years, we have installed them at entrances and other places, but safety issues make it difficult to use electric decorations, so the neon lights are one of the things we were able to achieve only this time. We have worked hard to create an experience that is only possible because it is held online, so I hope that the participants will enjoy the event and not feel disappointed. We hope that the participants will be able to enjoy the event and not be disappointed.

Yabe: This was the first time in our history that we held the festival online, so we were not familiar with many aspects of the festival, and we had many troubles, big and small. We don't know yet what format we will use next year, whether it will be online or on-site, but we would like to make improvements in areas where we were not able to do so this year and build on them. If you were even slightly interested in this year's event, we hope you will pay attention next year as well.

Mr. Chiba: In the midst of an online exhibition, which was completely unprecedented, we forced our seniors to adjust the (offline) exhibition methods they had used in the past to make a schedule, but I still felt that there were things we needed to improve. However, I think it was great that we were able to find areas for improvement. Next year's online exhibition will be even better than this year's, so please look forward to the next one.