Art Harbour
Art Harbour, the site that will be hosting Momus’ “Lost Radio Found Sound” project during his stay at Hakodate’s Future University, is now up.
Jan 25, 2005
The EWOK 5MH After Party
Jan 25, 2005
Ewok 5MH
Jan 25, 2005
Universal Symbol of the Brand
The Mori Tower’s Mori Arts Center Gallery (52F) has just launched the Ando Tado designed Louis Vuitton exhibition “Universal Symbol of the Brand.”
From antique trunks dating back to 1854, the birth of “Louis Vuitton”, to topical bags created in collaboration with modern artists, the many rare items featured in this exhibition trace the roots of the legendary monogram motif. This exhibition, designed by the world renowned architect, Tadao Ando, creates the space based on the theme “My travel with Louis Vuitton”.
Until March 21.
Jan 24, 2005
The Kids Are Alright
The latest issue of BRUTUS takes a look at all things children, going as far as including a supplement entitled BRUTUS BAMBINI. They cover pretty much anything that revolves around the world of kids, from toys and clothing, to environment and literature. I was especially struck by the bold use of design in all of these supposed kiddie things. Sure, BRUTUS itself examines things from a design perspective, but it does seem to suggest that raising a child doesn’t mean that you need to crass yourself up with what we now see as the trappings of such an activity — one foot in a Toy’R'Us, and the other in a bedroom filled with things trying oh-so-hard to be adorable. I was quite attracted to the various products being featured, including the richly illustrated children’s books they chose to focus on. Being a kid never looked so enticing!
But this got me wondering: where exactly do a child’s personal tastes/wants fit into all of this? If it’s me who is being wowed by the stylish items on display in that issue of BRUTUS, is it because the makers/creators of said products are aiming their wares at me? Would kids be attracted to these things, as much as I wish they would? I don’t remember having a strong sense of design when I was busy playing with my G.I. Joe figures, creating Captain Harlock type battle ships out of Legos, or playing guns in the yard. Clothing was a non-issue.
I teach English to children, aged 2 (yes, believe it) to 12. I spend a lot of time with young kids, and I have a good idea of what they’re into, and what doesn’t really seem to cross their mind. They want what’s cool (for them), what everyone is playing with/talking about. Does a design-friendly environment really make much sense to them? I don’t really think so. Can I teach them to care? Well, honestly, is there a point to it, outside of satisfying my personal desire to spread my love of beautifully thought-out concepts and objects?
I’m currently working on packaging and promotional items for a new toy — not designing the stuff, but mostly working as an agent on the project. The object in question, although being a toy, has a certain sense of style, and could be considered to be design-friendly (something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Tokyo select shop). Talking with the client about what he saw as being his target market, he described the typical consumer as a person who appreciates good design, and would buy it for his children, or for the children of others as a present. He doesn’t feel that a child would necessarily be attracted to it in a toy shop — they’re too busy looking for the latest video games or action figures.
To be continued…
Jan 24, 2005
Tea Room Alice
Patrick makes it to Tea Room Alice, a maid-themed cafe in Nakano, and lives to blog about it. Too bad he wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside. It’s true that these sort of cafes are popping up a lot, especially in Akihabara. I saw one featured on TV a while back, and the maid outfits were more anime-like than the traditional maid outfits we’re used to seeing.
Jan 23, 2005
A Tour of Japanese Cooking Magazines
I like food, and I like magazines, and this week’s METROPOLIS (565) offers us a tour of a few Japanese food-related magazines, from the shufu (“housewife”) staples of ORANGE PAGE and LETTUCE CLUB to RYORI OUKOUKO (“Cuisine Kingdom”), aimed at people working in the food industry. As is usual with METROPOLIS (and an annoyance), the article will disappear in the archives after a week.
Jan 23, 2005
Archigram
“Archigram” is a new experimental architecture exhibition happening at Art Tower Mito‘s Contemporary Art Gallery. Looks like it’ll make for an excellent complement to the current Mori Art Museum “Archilab” exhibition, which I quite enjoyed.
Archigram is the name of a group of experimental British architects active from the 60s to the early 70s, and is also the title of a magazine they published. Peter Cook (1936-) and the five other architects who constituted Archigram crossed multiple modes of expression in proposing new types of architecture and urban design. “Walking City”, portraying intelligent legged cities, and “Plug-in-City”, featuring a plug-in system of city components, both appeared as thought experiments on their magazine.
The retrospective exhibition, “ARCHIGRAM — experimental architecture 1961-1974,” made its debut in 1994 at the Kunsthalle in Vienna, and having toured the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Design Museum in London, it has finally made its way to Japan after 11 years. 300 drawings, collages, and models will be featured in this first comprehensive exhibition of Archigram in Japan. (TAB)
It starts today, and goes until March 27.
Jan 23, 2005
Pagyaru
Huh?
Pagyaru, schoolgirls who hang out on the streets of places like Tokyo’s minor Mecca Shibuya while decked out in stuffed animal suits, are the latest “breed” of trendy teen in Japan, but their burning yearning to be accepted is also making them vulnerable conniving kid capitalists, according to Weekly Playboy (2/1).
Pagyaru derive their name from chuto hanpa, the Japanese word for “half measures,” and gyaru, the local rendition of the English “girl.”
Read the entire WaiWai article here. Link via Warren Ellis.
Jan 22, 2005
iPod x GAS
Some very nice iPod accessories from GAS. A bit pricey though. Link via Jesper.
Jan 22, 2005
How to Give a Good Presentation
In his latest OUT OF TOKYO column, Ozaki Tetsuya completely blasts the presentations made by Kaikai Kiki’s Aoshima Chiho and Takano Aya at the “What’s Good Conference” in Hong Kong. Honestly, I have to agree with what he says — if you’re not going to play the game, then best not to go and end up wasting the time of attendees.
Jan 21, 2005
Radio OK Fred in Limbo
Bad news for Radio OK Fred. As you know, the two shows that were uploaded haven’t been available for a while now, and it seems like there’s no clear solution to our problem. It’s all about the bandwidth, and the OK FRED server just can’t take it. We have a new show waiting to be uploaded, but there’s not much we can do. It’s quite unfortunate, but for now it seems that we’ll have to put the breaks on the project, at least until something happens that lets us overcome the bandwidth handicap.
Jan 21, 2005
Project the Projectors 04-05
Some Tokyo Geidai sponsored events of interest.
Did you know that the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music has a department of Inter Media Art? Professors include Fujihata Masaki (who featured in the latest issue of ART iT magazine), however this apparently doesn’t mean that “cutting-edge art” — the department’s Japanese name — is synonymous with “media art”. Anyway, instead of trying to explain the confusing names and titles, let’s focus on the faculty’s and graduate school’s two exhibitions that are open to the public right now (at two different venues and times!). While it’s typical for the faculty that they try to say it all in the title, you will certainly encounter here some unbridled young talent, including the likes of Komainu, Ishikawa Naoki and others. (REALTOKYO)
The venues are the Sakamoto Junior School (until January 27) and BankART 1929 Yokohama (January 22-30). Link to the official site.
Jan 19, 2005
Nagoya Apple Store
The 3rd Apple Store in Japan, this time in Nagoya, opens this Saturday.
The grand opening date of the Nagoya Sakae (Japan) store–Jan. 22nd –has been posted on Apple’s Japanese language Web page, but (as of 3 a.m.) isn’t mentioned on either the English language version of the store page, or Apple’s main Retail page. The grand opening event includes T-shirts for the first 1,500 persons, a music DJ, but no Lucky Bag sale. (ifo Apple Store)
The image above is from this site.
Jan 19, 2005
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
