Born in Nara Prefecture in 1963, Takatani currently lives and works in Kyoto. While still involved with the group Dumb Type that he co-founded in 1984, he started producing solo work in 1998. Takatani maintains an active career internationally in a broad range of fields, from solo visual work to stage productions, as well as numerous collaborations such as his work with the musician Sakamoto Ryuichi and fog sculpture artist Nakaya Fujiko. In 2015 he was awarded the 65th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize in media art.