INDEX
Windows 98 given to me by my parents and listening to The Drifters in my father’s car were my original experiences.
Takano: I heard that you also belong to a production company as a filmmaker. How did you come to make films in the first place?
Katsushika: Since I was a child, my parents gave me a computer that I could use freely, and I really liked making GIF animations in the manner of a flip book. As an extension of that, I found myself making proper video works.
Takano: So you were already a teenager?
Katsushika: I was using Windows 98 at the time, so it might have been before that.
Takano: When it comes to Windows 98, it was a long time ago. You are still young, aren’t you?
Katsushika: Yes, I am 25 years old.
Takano: So you started when you were in elementary school. There is a lot of nostalgia in the images, so I feel the Windows feeling of the 1990s.
Celeina: Yes, I understand.
Katsushika: It’s like something I was in contact with for a long time is my original experience, and it’s stuck in my head.
Celeina: Not only the images, but also the choice of words is sophisticated.
Katsushika: Basically, I write based on my own experiences, but I also try to open up the words to make them as easy to understand as possible. I try to write in a way that is easy to understand, but not so negative that it makes the viewer feel cheerful. It is better for my mental health if I use such words myself.
Takano: Your works remind me of the retro culture of the 1970s and 1980s.
Katsushika: It is the influence of my father. My father was of the Drifter generation and had a lot of CDs of the Drifters and Crazy Cats. When I was a passenger in my father’s car, those CDs were always playing in the car.
Takano: Family might be a big influence. Hiromi Iwasaki often appears on your SNS, doesn’t she?
Katsushika: Yes, I do. After I moved to Tokyo, all my friends around me liked the music culture from the 1970s to the beginning of the 1980s. Influenced by them, I also started listening to music, and I began to listen to Hiromi Iwasaki as well.
