Shinji Toya

Biography

Shinji Toya is an artist based in London and is a Fellow of Advance HE. He serves as an Associate Lecturer on the MA Art and Science course at Central Saint Martins College (CSM), lecturing on the course since 2019. He is also a member of the research group, Living Systems Lab at CSM.

His practice is based on digital image-making and it utilises data and algorithms and operates in the fields of digital art, in particular, participatory online critical (and cultural) generative art. Shinji’s practice often incorporates diverse methods such as computer programming (chiefly web coding and Max/MSP/Jitter), Artificial Intelligence (i.e. computer vision, in collaboration with a machine learning engineer), participation, video, image manipulation and painting.

The recent research interest of Shinji centres around the question of how visual creative practice at large and the above generative art practice can make visible the materiality of digital technology such as smartphones, and the environmental degradation associated with the technology. Previously, his practice and research delved into topics such as facial recognition surveillance and artificial life. Shinji’s research interest also includes how non-Western systems of knowledge, in particular Japanese-derived concepts, could reconfigure technologies to experimentally innovate methodologies of art practices.

The academic institutions in which he presented research and practice include the University of Westminster, Camberwell College of Arts (UAL), Goldsmiths University of London, Manchester Metropolitan University, Bristol School of Art, and the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig.

He designs academic workshops that often focus on raising technical and critical awareness around digital technologies through practical exercises and discursive engagement informed by his professional artistic practice and relevant contextual research.

In 2023, he was awarded Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice grant. He has presented his art projects at V&A South Kensington (2024), Ars Electronica (2018), Tate Britain (2019), Royal Academy of Arts (2016), arebyte Gallery (2022), Watermans (2019) and Fotomuseum Winterthur (2020).