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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Photos of PROTOTYPE 03

PROTOTYPE 03

The “PROTOTYPE 03” exhibition may be over, but the show’s website has been updated with a beautiful gallery of photos by Takumi Ota.

Dec 17, 2009

Happening in Tokyo

  • Some good news if you haven’t yet had a chance to catch the “PROTOTYPE 03” exhibition, as it’s been extended until December 13. Some of the designers will also be on hand on both December 6 and 13 (Sundays).
  • PangeaSeed is collaborating with Parties 4 Peace on a winter fundraising at Favela in Aoyama on December 11. Expect an international mix of activism, art, music, and fashion.
  • Artist Tanya Tanaka is having a “Tokyo Taping” installation project in two parts, first on Wednesday (December 2) during PechaKucha Night Vol. 67 at SuperDeluxe, and then the installation proper at SinDen in Aoyama, with the opening happening on Friday (December 4, 19:00-21:30).

Nov 30, 2009

PROTOTYPE 03 Opening Party

PROTOTYPE 03

Just a reminder that the opening party for the “PROTOTYPE 03” exhibition happens tomorrow night (November 12, 19:00-22:00) at Tokyo Midtown Design Hub — for more details see my previous post. You’ll definitely want to catch this.

Nov 11, 2009

PROTOTYPE 03

PROTOTYPE 03

I’m very happy to note that the PROTOTYPE exhibition series — originally conceived by Keiji Ashizawa — is back this year for a third edition. “PROTOTYPE 03″ will be held at the Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, November 13-24, with the opening party — which you won’t want to miss, I know I won’t — happening November 12 (19:00-22:00).

An exhibition of prototype works from product designers, furniture designers, architects, and other creatives.This collection of prototypes and in-process design work illustrates the discovery, frustration and serendipity of the design process and highlights how prototypes are used as vehicles for solving problems and generating new ideas.

The list of participants is an absolute who’s who of the new generation bringing life to the current Japanese design scene — visit the exhibition’s official website for the full list, as well as info on what will be shown.

Nov 1, 2009

Touch Wood

Touch Wood

DoCoMo, Sharp, Olympus, and “reforestation group” More Trees have collaborated on a new mobile phone, the “Touch Wood,” using “excess materials collected during forest thinning.” No word on any official release just yet, but it’ll show up at this week’s CREATEC JAPAN 2009 at Makuhari Messe (October 6-10). Via PSFK.

Oct 4, 2009

PauseTalk

PauseTalk is a regular series of events that take place at Cafe Pause on the first Monday of every month, with a start time of 20:00. The idea is to create a forum where Tokyo-based creatives can get together and discuss their own projects, as well as cultural currents of the city. The next edition is March 5.

We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.

Codex is a weekly music podcast hosted by Jean Snow, recorded in Tokyo. Playlists for all episodes are posted on the site, and you can subscribe to RSS feeds of posts and episodes.

Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.

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PechaKucha Global Cities Week

Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.

A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.

You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.

Neojaponisme

He serves as editor-at-large at Néojaponisme, a web journal covering social and cultural aspects of Japan. Read the manifesto, by founder and chief editor W. David Marx.

He also writes a monthly column covering Japanese product design for The Japan Times, called "On Design." It appears on the last Tuesday of every month, in both the print edition and online.

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The "Jean Snow" logo is written using the free Kirimomi Swash typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.

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