Our concept for this Ideas Competition was inspired by the comic and animated versions of Akira, the design underscores the structural differences and commonalities of comic art and animation. Our gallery configuration could host any survey of comic or animated art,  but was inspired most by the prospect of monographic exhibitions for artists working in both mediums simultaneously.

Akira is a Japanese hybrid of manga and anime. The series of books was a reinvention of the comic as a medium for story telling and had a massive influence on subsequent developments within the genre and within vanguard architecture. The incredibly detailed drawings of the city and machines, complex plot and myriad of characters, are all set in a post apocalyptic world. The story is one of cyclical destruction and rebuilding where the conflict between the physical (Western scientific machine dogma) and metaphysical ( Eastern spiritual philosophy/world view  collides.