9/20 UpDate
CENTRAL EAST TOKYO 04As we’ve announced in the issue 002, CET04 (CENTRAL EAST TOKYO 04) will start from 9.17(Fri). The project will be held for 10 days until 9.26. Having started as an affiliated event with TOKYO DESIGNERS BLOCK last year, TDB-CE (TOKYO DESIGNERS BLOCK-CENTRAL EAST) has launched as an independent project called CET04 from this year. This project is intended to make a whole city an art gallery in the areas of Kanda, Higashi-Kanda, Bakuicho, Yokoyamacho, Higashi-Nihonbashi, Nihonbashi, Ninngyocho, and Hacchobori, focusing on the theme of REDESIGN that incorporates different interests of fields such as city project, architecture, or art and the theme of RECYCLE that gives new fresh meanings to them. CET04 distinguishes itself as an innovative project that proposes a new kind of incitement for the vitality of local communities. Once being the center of the city, the central East of Tokyo is quite a historical area. The project calls for an experimental approach to change the existing values, not a mere renovation project that pursues for economical interest, which follows that people in the local area that wish for re-vitalization of their neighborhood and designers and creators that take it as a chance to show their works will share the same goal to give rise to a new cultural stimulation. Not only creators but also local people, and intern college students will share the motivation.
>CET04 (CENTRAL EAST TOKYO 2004)
Date : 2004.9.17~9.26Place : Empty buildings, empty lands, stores, schools, temples, bars, and underpasses in Kanda area, Bakuicho area, and Hacchoubori areaCreators : 100 personsSponsor : Tokyo government, Chiyoda-ku, and Cyuo-kuOffice :Daichiku building 2F (REN-BASE UK01) 3-5-1 Uchikanda Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo zip 101-0047Tel : 03-3253-6355 / Fax : 03-3253-6356Contact : cet@z-pro.infoCETURL : http://www.tdb-ce.com
SAL magazine night 4.0 up on the show at CETTIMETABLEThe audiovisual party organized by graphic free magazine “SAL magazine” will be held at CET. The basement of Re-know will be filled with projection images and sound. This time, the experimental online magazine site “salmagazine.org” will be featured with writers of the articles and staffs of SAL magazine playing DJ and VJ. Those who are browsing this site, you should check this out and see it for yourself!
>Date : 9.24(Fri) 18:00~Place : Re-knowAddress : 3-3-17 Higashi Nihonbashi Chuo-ku, TokyoEntrance : 1000yen with 1 drink Performers : Shiura (TGB design) / THE POTATO (Hiroshi Iguchi and Eiji Shibagaki) / Sou Otsuki / Kurando Furuya / Nipponia Electronica / Hiroki Tsukuda (NAN) / Pre Plant / Jiro Ohashi and more.
SOUND × VISION 2004 ready to go from Osaka!On 9.11(Sat), “SOUND × VISION 2004” will start in Osaka. Also, the official package of “SOUND × VISION 2004” will be available from 9.24(Fri). The product is composed of DVD of the exhibited works and a documentary film, and CD that compiles new works and previously unreleased works of participating artists. The exhibition comes with the leading edge visual and sound. Don’t miss it!
>Place : graf media gmEntrance : freeDate : 9.11(Sat)~10.3(Sun)Open : 12:00~20:00Address : bld 1F 4-1-17 Nakanoshima Kita-ku, OsakaTel : 06-6459-2082URL : http://www.graf-d3.com/gm/
Sonar finally landed on Japan as “sonarsound tokyo 2004”SONAR is the largest advanced-music and multi-media art festival in Europe that has been prosperous for 11 years in Barcelona, Spain, which is held for 3 days every year with day and night two programs divided in a day. Imported from Barcelona, “sonarsound,” the satellite event of SONAR, will finally take place in this autumn at Yebisu Garden Place as a main commemorative event for its 10th anniversary. The keyword of the event, advanced music accounts for sound that keeps evolution around experimental electronic music such as techno, house, Hip-Hop, or post rock. Representing the keyword, the artists whose approaches to sound are innovative and rooted in various different backgrounds will show performances in the daytime program “sonar by day.” The label showcases and the exhibition of media artworks are also held during the daytime period at CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona). In the night program “sonar by night,” guest DJs and artists will perform at 3 large spaces that can contain millions of audience. Human Audio Sponge, a trio of ex YMO members, Haruomi Hosono, Yukimasa Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, will perform the first showcase in Japan. Also, Derrick May and Carl Craig, the two great inventors of Detroit Techno, will perform the DJ session. There will also be the first screening of the movie called “The Three Ages,” for which Jeff Mills provided sound tracks.
>sonarsound tokyo 2004URL : http://www.sonarsound.jp
Date : 2004.10.9(Sat)/10.10(Sun)Open/Start 22:00Close/Finish 17:00Place : Yebisu The Garden Hall & The Garden RoomURL : http://www.gardenplace.co.jp/
Line-ups : Akufen / AOKI takamasa / Atom / Benge / CARL CRAIG / Ceephax Acid Crew / Chicks on Speed / DERRICK MAY / Fonica / Guitar (Digital Jockey) / HIFANA / Hiroshi Watana.be aka Tread Kaito Quadra / KARAFUTO (FUMIYA TANAK) / I'm Not A Gun (John Tejada + Takeshi Nishimoto) / Little Creatures / nujabes / O.LAMM / Opiate / qodibop / RADIQ aka Yoshihiro HANNO / Rei Harakami / Schneider TM / Shiro Takatani (dumb type) / SKETCH SHOW + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO = Human Audio Sponge -visual: RYOICHI KUROKAWA- / T.Raumschmiere / TOWA TEI / WORLD STANDARD and more!
Ticket : Advance : 8,000 yen(one day pass) / 15,000 yen(two days pass), Door : 9,000 yenTicket Sale : 9.4(Sat)Organizing : TV ASAHI http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/J-WAVE http://www.j-wave.co.jp/Sponsor : Space Shower TV http://www.spaceshowertv.com/MUSIC ON! TV http://www.m-on.jp/MTV http://www.mtvjapan.com/Planning : Advanced Music / SST2004Planning Coordination : THIRD-EAR, daisyworld discs, PROGRESSIVE ForM, MUSIC AIRPORT, STANDARD WORKSOperation : SUNRISE CORPORATIONInvitation : CREATIVEMAN PRODUCTIONSSite Cooperation : Yebisu Garden Place
DOTMOV Festival 2004 closing entries soon!The digital film festival DOTMOV, operated by SHIFT, is closing entries for this year on 9.20. With its aim to explore fresh talented creators and provide them a platform to show their works online, DOTMOV is inviting entries for animation, graphic motions, and music clips that are made with digital technology or digital apparatus. About 100 selected works will be exhibited at SOSO café run by SHIFT in Sapporo. This year, not only will the selected works be shown at SOSO café from 2004.11.1(Mon) until 11.30(Tue), but also they will be uploaded on the web page. The guest juries are Sugar Cube, Form, Jiro Ohashi(SAL magazine), in addition to the same faces from last year such as Yoshi Sodeoka, The Designers Republic, and Motion Theory.
More Details : http://www.shift.jp.org/mov/
Also, related events and parties will be thrown during the period. Not only applicants but also those who couldn’t make it in time for the entry this time should check out the events. Visiting Sapporo in autumn is fabulous! (SAL magazine night will probably be thrown for the opening ceremony on 10.31. See more information in the next issue!.)
SHIFT 2005 CALENDAR COMPETITION closing entries here, too!The deadline for entry of SHIFT 2005 Calendar Competition, organized by the online magazine SHIFT, is just one month away from now. As we have announced the detailed information in the previous issue #004, SAL magazine is also participating in this project as a media sponsor and cooperating to call for more entries. In 2003 Calendar Competition, in spite of the short entry period, about 150 works were registered from all over the world and in the next year 2004, more than 500 entries, which were way above the number of the previous year, were registered. The competition is getting richer in contents and more selective year by year, and it is expected that many more entries will be registered this year as the entry period has postponed one month longer than the previous year.
> SHIFT2005 CALENDAR COMPETITION
SHIFT invites wide genres of works from all over the world using calendar as a medium. 12 works and 12 individuals or groups will be honored with awards. Besides being distributed throughout the world, the selected works will be exhibited and sold for a year at the “PRINT’EM” web site with support from graphic print center “PRINT’EM.” Also, the exhibition for the competition will be held for a month between 2005.1.5 and 1.31 at the gallery café SOSO run by SHIFT in Sapporo.Application Date : 2004.8.1~10.10Detail Information : http://www.shift.jp.org/2005/Announcement : 2004.11.1(at SHIFT #96)Calendar Sale Start : 2004 late NovemberExhibition and Sale Online : 2005.1.5~2006.1.5 (at PRINT’EM web site)Exhibition : 2005.1.5~1.31(at Sapporo SOSO)Producing : SHIFTURL : http://www.shift.jp.org/Sponsor:PRINT'EMURL : http://www.printem.org/
IDEE R transforms the abandoned school into a creator’s nestRenovating the buildings that were abandoned as a result of bad investment or aging, and promoting the city re-vitalization project CET04, which will start soon, IDEE R proposes unique concepts for space design. They have renovated an abandoned school, which has become an ordinary scene in Tokyo as the number of children is decreasing, into the new design institution called “Ikejiri Institute of Design.”
The city government leases the former Ikejiri junior high school, which was closed in March this year, to IDEE R for 5 years, who has embarked on innovation of the model school for the next generation. It is the first case that the private enterprise utilizes the closed school. The institution provides the media lab space for film and web in the 3rd floor and the working space for architecture, furniture, and product design in the 2nd floor. There are also a gallery, a projector room, a studio and café in the 1st floor, which are open for visitors. Exhibitions and workshops will occasionally be held in the 1st floor. On 9.30, the special preview event will be held for citizens in the Setagaya district. Please check the official homepage <http://www.r-school.net/> for more information on events.
>Ikejiri Institute of Design will be open in October 2004.Location : 2-4-5 Ikejiri Setagaya-ku, TokyoURL : http://www.r-school.net/Info : contact@r-school.net
Graphic Wave 2004 Aoshi Kudo*GRAPH * NamaikiGinza Graphic Gallery (ggg), the gallery exclusively for graphic design that offers high quality showcases every time, will hold the annual exhibition “Graphic Wave” in September. For the ninth time this year, the event will feature Aoshi Kudo, the designer who consider product, package, and space design as a media tool for communication, and Kazunari Kitagawa, the front man of GRAPH who copes with direction of graphic design, brand strategy, printing, and intellectual property besides creating visual communications. In addition to the two folks, the design unit Namaiki (David Duvall Smith and Michael Frank), who casually jumps across the borders of design, advertisement, CM, product, and architecture, will take part in the event. It is composed of both new and old works of each designer on the theme of “individuality.” The most exciting 3 creators today will have the hysterically funny talk show that would bring the chemical bio reaction. In accordance with the exhibition, the graphic book “Graphic Wave 9” that is compiled with representative works of each designers will be published.
>Date : 2004.9.3(Fri)~9.29(Thu)Open : 11:00am-7:00pm(Sat close 6:00pm)Close : Sundays and Holidays
>Gallery Talk
Date : 2003.9.17(Fri) 6:30pm~8:00pmGuest Talkers : Aoshi Kudo / GRAPH(Kazunari Kitagawa) / Namaiki (David Duvall Smith and Michael Frank)Place : Ginza Graphic Gallery(70 persons in order of arrival : requires reservation beforehand)Ginza Graphic GalleryTel : 03-3571-5206
"MASSAGE" issue #2 will be published soon!The second issue of the seasonal art paper “MASSAGE,” which delivers expressions and direct statements on art, culture, music and society, will be published in September. The issue #2 features the balearic scene, reporting the on-going crossover movement of hard core and dance culture. Besides, it zooms on interviews with Zongamin and Kid Koala and covers some exclusive art works by various creators.
Paper MASSAGE / Seasonal / Bilingual /Price : 500 yenAvailable at the large record stores and bookstores.More info : http://www.hellogas.com/massage/Δ
What I remember now from early 80s when I first encountered the ripple of Disco movement is that I was screaming "Fever! Fever!" pointing my index finger right up the sky. I was deeply influenced by the theme song of ridiculously titled soap drama "My teacher is fever" and pop songs like "Young man (Y.M.C.A)". (Maybe, the tongue twister of Japanese comedian group "Drifters," too.) I was also disappointed by the action series drama called "Battle Fever," in which 5 heroes battled the evil characters by dancing. These are the things that I can remember now, and they were sealed in various designs of things around me. The one thing that I can hardly forget about my memories in the elementary school is that, I got the assignment of making an empty box a small maze into which I put a marble, I made a fancy-looking miniature room in that maze that I named "Disco." The outlook of the box, which had a kitsch accent of metallic purple staples that a classmate girl gave me, was literally "hot disco." We exchanged the artworks and played with them, and as I had expected, everybody wanted to drop by at this disco and pull the marble into the floor by deftly moving the box. However, the box was made so that the player would get trapped in an unpredictable situation. I laid out an intrigue structure in this maze that would never get the player out! Even when I look back now, I can remember how cool it was! I can analyze now what I was fancying about then. Probably, I wanted to express "the evil path that one would never be able to track back once he steps in it." It was a desolate image of bad boys and girls who were addicted in toluene and ice and a gloomy image of discos, nests of the kids, that I wanted to express in that box. I don't know whether my teacher considered it morally acceptable or not, but he said he liked it. If my memory is correct, my grade was 4 out of 5 for that class in that semester. To tell you the truth, my average grade for the art class was 3, and I once had a terrible grade of 2! That made me hesitate from painting pictures (strictly speaking, showing them to friends), although I am doing graphic design now, which is weird. So, you can see now how important it was to me to make that " disco vibe." (I could have gotten all 5s for every assignment, god damn it.) The actual experience of disco fever came to me when I was a freshman in the high school, and that was the first and the last time that I experienced disco in my whole life. Me and my friends planned dating with girls from the private high school and after we drunk, we had nowhere else to go because we were a group of 5 boys and 5 girls, so we went to a disco. The albums that I used to listen to at that time was RUN D.M.C's "Tougher than Leather," Prince's "Love Sexy," and Bob Marley's live album and "Legend." I was into Dancehall Reggae, influenced by a mix tape that one of my friends, Suzuki, gave me. Unfortunately, the DJ in that night was playing some HI-NRG tracks, which turned me off. The most shocking event that I had in that night, however, happened not at the disco, but at the drinking bar where we had dropped by before we went to the disco. The girl in the same grade asked me "what car are you driving?" and I found myself naively telling her about my dad's car. I was so depressed that I smashed around with Business's "Smash The Disco's." Indeep dramatically depicted DJs at the disco as "Last night a DJ saved my life from a broken heart," whereas Morrissey ironically sung "It say nothing to me about my life..." In this song called "Panic," Morrissey choruses "Hang The DJ!" more than 20 times with joyous rhythm that makes everybody want to waltz to it. In addition to that, children's chorus is arranged in that song to give a touch of fairy tale to it. It makes me imagine about children in regent hairstyle, black framed glasses and The Smith T-shirt with a bunch of flower in their hip pockets, following the leading figure of Morrissey, are marching in Manchester. If I had directed the music clip for this song, I would definitely do stuffs like Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" by Spike Lee, and add some charming riot scenes in which Chipmunks and Smarf would do the voice of bugs like "Roger Rabbit."(Morrissey would definitely get nerves on me!) In reality, little kids in Manchester grew up to be saved by DJ Mike Pickering at "Hacienda." The actual PV for "Panic" was directed by Derek Jarman. There is a scene that symbolizes the lyric of the song, where a record is burning in fire, which can be confirmed to be one of Salsoul Records's. The label design of Salsoul records is a rainbow that bridges large clouds floating in a clear sky, which reminds me of the picture book that I used to read when I was little and gives me a reminiscent feeling about my childhood. If it had been the record of Prelude, Rams Horn, or West End that was used in the PV, that couldn't have grabbed my heart at all. I will ask Derek Jarman if it was part of his direction to have chosen the Salsoul Records, when I pass him on in heaven. It is truly interesting that many people share the vague image of “disco”, regardless of the diversity of experience they had. My mom, for example, or even kids in teen have no difficulty in imagining mirror balls, flashy floor where rainbow color lights are reflecting, and the confident pose of John Travolta. What I felt about "disco" such as the emotional uprise running through my nerve, or its esthetic sense that uncompromisingly pursues for the surface beauty, is different from what we can associate from "Club" today, which can't only be attributed to the historical background, the currency of the sound, or the visual design. The energy that disco brought us is clearly different from that of Summer of Love. What did we get after we reached to an ecstasy? Or, what does it mean that we get something? Is it really true that "it's all about having fun"? Disco is what it's worth to me just to make me think about things like that. Needless to say, there were DJs that presented a spiritual world and parties that created a historical moment. It should also be reminded that the concept of disco is still alive. I don't have enough vocabularies to concisely describe the disco fever, but it's more or less something like that from mid 70's until mid 80's. (Can you imagine that?) It's the movement that didn't appeal to spirituality, which made it accept diverse ideas. The first impression is rough, but it tastes like rice for Japanese people, no, I will take it back. Disco is disco. It is reasonable if Andre 3000 of Outkast is a fan of The Smith, and actually he is.
William Gibson is the mentor of the cyber punk science fiction, who first created a conceptual model of the virtual world that he called “cyber space” in his first novel “Neuromancer,” and had a critical impact on the world of view today. If one dares to say that “MATRIX” was just another rip-off of “The Ghost in the Shell,” he should not forget to refer to Gibson, the fire starter of this rat racing. Let’s not talk aloud here that the title of Harlan Ellison’s ”The Beast that shouted Love at the Heat of The World” has recently been “sampled” by a Japanese novel writer, who made a huge hit with the title “I shouted Love at the Heat of the World.” Anyway, I am excited to hear that Gibson will release his new novel for the first time in 4 years and wonder what kind of prophetic vision he will present. His 6 works in the past can be divided into “cyber space 3 series” and “desert space 3 series.” The former was written in early 80s, stories about the cyber cowboys who have their brains plugged to the cyber space, and the latter, written in 90’s, depicts more futuristic visions of the world like San Francisco or Tokyo after the big earthquake. Although the portrayals of “the future” are different in these two categories, the 6 novels were in all ”cyber punk science fictions.” However, the new novel is finally about the world today in 2002, “a cyber punk reality.” Has the time caught up with Gibson’s world? Or is it impossible that “the present world” depicts “the future world”? -The main character Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant, who has strong allergy to the brand trademarks. She gets a sudden stroke just by looking at the brand goods like Gucci or Prada, or even the Disney characters. Cayce is offered a secret assignment to investigate bits of footage that have been appearing on the Internet. That’s about the summary of the setting. Although this novel has lost the futuristic gadgets that have a direct appeal to the readers, it surely evokes inside their memory as reader’s experience the visions that predict the direction for the future. A character in the novel says, “we don’t have a future because our present world is so fluid.” Naturally, human consciousness divides the chaos of nature and puts names and meanings to it so that it can conceive the world easily and establish culture, religion and its own world of view. That is to say, it is the vision that appears by repetition of “the pattern recognition” that forms the human world, and “the future” exists on an extended line of that vision. Well, in the case of “modern citizens” in the “mature” and “developed” country, who “express their own identity” by rehearsing the cliché “Our society is boring,” as if to sing karaoke, whether their world is boring or not is largely attributed to their ability to recognize the patters of the vision. In the same way, now that the linear vision of the future, which had been based on the theory of social evolution established after the industrial revolution, collapsed, it has become a big matter for each person how he or she can see the possibility in the present phenomena. Along with the plot line where the character gets trapped in the corporate power, the Cayce’s intuitive ability that serves for the marketing strategy has already been implied in one of his previous works “Idoru” (the Japanese borrowing of the English word “idol”), prophesied by the protagonist Laney whose special sensitivities search for the “nodal point.” It prophetically implies on what Rem Koolhaas says about “shopping,” and “EURO system.” The terror on September 11th forced Gibson to revise a large part of “The pattern recognition.” In the story, Cayce’s father was missing in the incident. The novel could be one of rare examples to successfully portray the world after 9.11. In the age of capitalism and mass media where the war, the terror, sports and celebrities are all shuffled together on TV, the jungle of paranoid conspiracies that attempt to brainwash people’s mind, sets of opposite concepts such as heaven/hell, future/past, reality/fantasy, have all been crumbled down. The critic against Michael Moore, as well as Moor’s work itself, is part of media. The important thing is that you have to use your own mind to comprehend what you conceive in the reality. Otherwise, there would be no “new creation, “ “new culture,” or “new subculture.” Of course, it is dangerous to get obsessed with conspiracy in everything around you, as is shown in the word of Cayce’s father as “Apophelia.” Sealing a sticker of “FUCK BUSH” is not enough to tide your way toward “the future.”
Hi! It's September 11 (Sat.) today, and it seems like the islands of Japan are being ravaged, with all the hurricanes and the eruption of Asama-Yama. Well its getting cooler and cooler as the days pass, so I guess it's not that bad overall. In a time like this, what we need is stamina and good health. Are you all staying fit? Are you all eating right? Mr. Takamukai from Third-Ear fell ill last week because of overworking for SonarSound Tokyo 2004 and other projects. There's less than one month left before the opening of SonarSound Tokyo 2004! Deadlines for written work are also approaching. Please give me some time to sleep. (Oh no, I've got tons of things to do. I've got to keep up! Mr. Iguchi, please help me at the site!) Recently, the timetables for SonarSound Hall (@ the Garden Hall) and SonarSound Lab (@ the Garden Room) have finally been released (it was a difficult process to get up to this point). Please check <http://www.sonarsound.jp> for the information. SonarSound Tokyo 2004 is composed of four different areas. SonarSound Hall and SonarSound Lab, the live performance and DJ programs, are both October 9 (Sat.) 22:00-06:00 and October 10 (Sun.) 17:00-23:30. The visual screening program SonarSound Cinema (@ the Garden Cinema) is on October 9 (Sat.) 24:00-05:00 (I think). In addition, SonarSound Extra (@ Center Plaza and Chateau Plaza within Yebisu Garden Place), which is a venue of spatial design, multimedia art, sound art, and other contents, is going to go on for three days from October 9th (Sat.) to the 11th (Mon.), and the times are (slightly different for each day, but basically) 15:00-20:00. Please come! The whole event is (how should I explain it?) an urban festival with the keywords "electronic music" and "multimedia art," and we're planning to continue it year after year. You can surely look forward to the event. Now, I'm going to look back on the month of August. I guess I went outside of Tokyo a lot. On August 13 (Fri.), I went to Sapporo for the Rising Sun Rock Festival in Ezo (=RSRF). On the 21st (Sat.), I went to Osaka for a party called "Motivation," at a club that opened this July called Ibiza. On the 28th (Sat.), I went to Kyoto for another "Motivation," at a long-standing club called World. Mr. Karuizawa came with us to both of these events. As for Sapporo, this was my first time there since November 22 of last year, when I was there for the event hosted by PROGRESSIVE FOrM in which Takamasa Aoki and Ryoichi Kurokawa (who has recently released a new work "READ," from Daisyworld <http://www.daisyworld.co.jp>. Check it out.) were the main acts. This was held in SO SO Cafe, a cafe hosted by SHIFT <http://www.shift.jp.org>. I reached the RSRF site around 23:00 (The High-Lows were on the main stage, and I thought "Look at how thin they are!"), and it was a shame because the Boredoms had already finished their act at Moon Circus, which was the name of one of the areas. It was late at night, but the air was clean, the space was huge, and there was a nice vibe. However, my two visits to the Ramen (Chinese noodles soup) restaurants were the most memorable events on Sapporo. I went with Hiro (of Enlightenment) and Mr. Miyaji (of Tycoon Graphics), and they were both huge Ramen maniacs, so I was able to have a delicious time. For Osaka, it had been at least two months since I last visited for "Audio Forma." It was really hot and humid in Osaka! And in "Motivation," there were a lot of girls! I got jealous when I compared it to the environment I usually work in (laugh). The set-up didn't go so smoothly in the new club, but the party ended without any problems. I hadn't been to Kyoto for at least two months as well, since the last "Audio Forma." I felt that it was a little breezier this time. Kyoto is a really nice place (This is a basic principle, I feel it every time I visit). I'm not so much of an outdoors guy, so I don't usually go into the mountains. However, in Kyoto, I enjoyed viewing the mountains, there were nice stores, and I like the general feel of the city. This was actually my first time in World. We've held PROGRESSIVE FOrM events at Metro a number of times, but the spatial design of World was fresh for us. There were a lot of rooms where we could hide out, so that was nice. There were a lot of girls here too! (But I had to miss out on the rave Metamorphose because of this schedule). That night, I spun records along with my DJ mentor, Mr. Miyaji. Listening to Mr. Miyaji's smooth set, Mr. Karuizawa said "Wow, Miyaji's improved his skills." I also got to eat at the most difficult restaurant to get a reservation for in Japan, "Giro-Giro." So, this was what my weekends were like in the month of August. Today is September 11. Takamasa Aoki has returned safely from overseas, and I'm looking forward to his tour with Yoshihiro Hanno, which begins September 22 (Wed.). On October 2 (Sat.) it's going to be a party with Atom, at Metro in Kyoto! Also, Yoshihiro Hanno's new work "Graffiti & Rude Boy 67' " <http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form> is going to be released soon. Things are going to be hectic for a while.
An outline of what happened last time: We arrived at Sweden, and besides doing our two exhibitions at different locations, it was suddenly decided that we would be doing a live painting and performing as DJs as well. We didn't have much time to lose, but we had to wait for Naohiro Ukawa, who was to arrive late because of work (Take a look at " T.U.R.D. in Sweden (The First Chapter)" on SAL 004 for more details)
It was the afternoon before the day of the show. We were lounging in the lobby of the hotel, and a bus arrived. We all got ready to greet the arrival of Ukawa only to find out that he wasn't on the bus. We were all very disappointed. We talked to the staff of the hotel, and we were relieved because they told us that the next bus was also coming from the airport. The bus arrived, and there it was, the trademark Ukawa hat. He had arrived at last. We unloaded a massive load of equipment, and then drank some tea at the lobby. We went over to the site of the Sneaker Stories exhibition, and handed Ukawa's custom sneaker to the staff. It was a shoe that was wrapped in yarn, with the words "FREE SEX" written with the yarn <turd_two_1.jpg>. We left this dope work and went to the other exhibition site, Lydmar, and set up our works to be ready for exhibition <turd_two_2.jpg>. Skatething: <turd_two_3.jpg> / Fish S. Hasegawa: <turd_two_4.jpg> / Inast : <turd_two_5.jpg> / Ryuji Kamiyama : <turd_two_6.jpg> / SHiURA : <turd_two_7.jpg> / Ukawa discovered a refrigerator at the site, and he made an installation out of it right on the spot <turd_two_8.jpg>. Kamiyama and Inast put up lots of posters of the event around the hotel and in the streets <turd_two_9.jpg>. The next day, we prepared for the VJ performance that we were going to do for the exhibition and the party. There were a few problems, but we solved them, and we all headed for the Sneaker Stories site to do a live painting session, leaving Ukawa behind.
When we got there, there was a massive crowd waiting for us <turd_two_10.jpg>. We heard later that there were about 1500 people. We saw sneakers, posters, motion images created by Swedish artists, and we were amazed by the quality of their work <turd_two_11.jpg>. At 8:30 PM, we started the live painting <turd_two_12.jpg>. Around thirty minutes into the session, the four of us made eye contact. This meant that it was time for Fish S. Hasegawa to uncover the panel. He did this, and the mark of Sweden appeared <turd_two_13.jpg>! We stuck a knife into the mark, and the crowd went wild.
Fish S. Hasegawa: <turd_two_14.jpg> / Inast: <turd_two_15.jpg> / Ryuji Kamiyama: <turd_two_16.jpg> / SHiURA: <turd_two_17.jpg>
When the party was finished, we were being smooshed by the crowd and the press who were surrounding us <turd_two_18.jpg> <turd_two_19.jpg>, but we made our way back to the exhibition space at the hotel. I regret that we weren't able to see the performances by Shing02, breakdancers, and Swedish rappers.
At 10:00 PM, we arrived at the exhibition space to find Ukawa having a drink and relaxing, having finished up the preperations. We were filthy with paint and sweat, so we went back to our rooms to take a shower and rest until midnight, when the party would begin. However, at 11:00 PM, there were already about 200 people waiting for the event to begin. People were coming into the gallery space as well <turd_two_20.jpg>, so we just decided to start the party one hour ahead of schedule. I scurried into the DJ booth and after making eye contact with the VJ Naohiro Ukawa <turd_two_21.jpg>, I started streaming the music <turd_two_22.jpg>.
An hour and a half had passed, and I was a bit frantic because I couldn't see Kamiyama, who was supposed to be the next DJ, anywhere. After two hours had passed, I was beginning to run out of records to play, and Kamiyama finally appeared. It turned out that he and Inast were hanging out with the guru of the Swedish Hip Hop scene, but Kamiyama said goodbye to him and Inast because he had to get back to the event in order to DJ. Kamiyama's DJ set ended smoothly, and the crowd was getting ready to leave, when the hotel staff stopped the music. The members of T.U.R.D. were yelling "Why'd you guys stop it!?" "Not yet!" "One more track!" Inast, who was back now and heavily drunk, even started fiddling with the PA system. The hotel staff was kind of forced into starting the music again. The energy of the party reached its peak right then. Even after the party ended, the members of T.U.R.D. were still not satisfied, so we went to get Keiji Ito, who was doing an exhibition at another location, and we all went out to the city to party some more.
This "Sneaker Stories Exhibition," which T.U.R.D. participated in, is going to be held in Japan as well! This show was originally held in August of 2004, in Stockholm Sweden. There, it made a new record for the number of visitors, and now it's coming to Japan, to the gallery DEPOT.
Many brands are releasing sneakers nowadays, and a subculture that recognizes the sneaker as a work of art or even a medium for communication is arising. Why do people like sneakers so much? Who wears what kind of shoes? This is an exhibition that displays the artists' attachment to sneakers, through photos, installations, and custom sneakers. Simultaneously, we're going to hold a release party for a free magazine that is gaining attention in Sweden, called "FRESH MAG." If you come, you'll be able to experience the refined Swedish creativity, which is a bit different from that of the United States and England.
>October 6~24, 2004
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 17:00~22:00 / Sunday 15:00~22:00 / Closed on Mondays
>DEPOT (in Nakameguro) 2-43-6, Kami-meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
Tel/Fax: 03-5773-55URL: http://www.depotcrew.com/
Nowadays, everybody understands what it means to scratch a record. Away from the club scene, the common image of a "DJ" is often that of a Hip Hop style turntablist. However in actuality, there are plenty of DJs who don't use the turntable as a musical instrument. There are DJs that specialize in mixing skills, and DJs that specialize in the selection of tracks, just like the disc jockeys of the radio-dominated age. There are those that play whole tracks from start to finish, and those that generate new musical compositions on the spot by mixing. Time has passed since the DJ has become a common presence and diversified in style, both as a guru reigning over the club space, and as a servant who serves the people gathered for the party.
The CDJ machine's significance was in how it connected its function to a medium that was prevailing in the marketplace. It was quickly accepted into the club culture because of its interface, which was a faithful simulation of the turntable. We should recognize this machine's awkwardness. First of all, it doesn't have much practicality. The club culture doesn't have the potential energy needed to break through into the overground and acquire a mainstream status, due to its peculiarity as a culture and its time of activity. It was an act of madness for the developers to pour tons of development fees into a machine that would only have demand in an underground scene.
At least that's what I thought back then, butOc the situation completely changed with the release of the DVJ-X1. It turns out that development for this machine began just around the same time as the release of the first generation CDJ player. Its interface is almost identical to that of the CDJ machine, and at one look, it just seems like a new version of it, but its properties as an instrument are quite different. The CDJ machine was released only after the prevailing medium shifted from analog to compact disc, but the DVJ machine has been released before the shift in the dominant visual medium has occurred, which will go from video tape (VHS) to DVD. It has made its appearance just slightly ahead the age when the 12cm optical disc is going to be the common medium not just for audio data, but for video data as well, in living rooms across the world.
The act of scratching and mixing visual data brings a sensation that cannot be experienced in the everyday life: it's the sensation of playing with the axis of time. In the current situation, controlling video data (the time axis) is a professional activity that is limited to people who edit visual data, and it can even be described as "the realm of god." However, it's possible for anybody to record visual data, unlike creating music, which is limited to musicians. The spread of the DV camera has made it possible for anybody to record high-quality motion image, but private archives of local sports events, birthday parties, and weddings are being stacked up. A large number of these tapes will either only be viewed once every few years, or not at all. In a time like this, the concept of "editing" is arising with more significance than ever before.
We should pay close attention to the changes that professions like " film maker " and "motion image artist " are going to go through with the spread of the DVJ machine. The current generation's concept of motion image will be paralyzed, and there will be an emergence a new generation that deals with motion image with this kind of feel right from the start. It's that feeling you have when you instinctively press the rewind button on the VCR because you've missed a scene on a TV program, even though you're watching ordinary broadcasted television that's not on a video tape. Artistic expression evolves through simple changes in the individual's feel towards an interface, and not through the way or situation in which the piece is going to be used. This machine's significance lies in the fact that it was not developed with any specific purpose in mind. It's a multi-purpose instrument that has zero practicality in itself, and infinite potential.
This machine will most likely revolutionize the audio-visual culture, just as the Akai sampler did for the music scene. It's going to be much more than an innovation in the DJ scene and the VJ scene. As a personal editing tool, it's going to make a permanent impact on us, with a level of potential that hasn't been seen since the emergence of the personal computer. The release of the CDJ machine can be seen as a process of preparation that was needed to get to this starting point.
An original composition (first released in the June 2004 issue of STUDIO VOICE)Δ
For these past years, it seems that the open-air music festival is becoming one of those common events for Japanese people, in spite of the difficulty in economic aspect that it takes to organize big events. Putting aside for now whether it's "visitors," "participants," "entrance fee," or "share of the expense" that it is confronting, it's about the time to see whether it will stay on as a new cultural practice. Few people notice that it is the outdoor industry that has been keeping up business really well. In the big festival, people unexceptionally put up green and red tents of Coleman or Snow Peak right aside the huge sound system.
The dance music festival "Metamorphose" was held in Naeba Ski Park in Yuzawa-cho, Niigata from 8.28 to 8.29. Compared with last year, it was more ordinary in decorations and tricks, although the spectacular line-ups excited the audience at 3 stages including the special stage for the label showcase of !K7.
At the SOLAR STAGE for the live act performances, it was DJ Afrika Bambaataa a.k.a ZULU who rock the party most. As soon as he showed up behind the DJ booth, he shouted to the audience, “Waaaz up, Japan!” and appealed to the power of the music he invented. “Hip-Hop can unite the whole world!”<metamorphose_banbaataa.jpg> His message might sound too naive and passionate, but he and his robust crew proved it in the show by letting the audience come up on the stage and battle the break dance. Although they voluntarily climbed up on the stage, the anonymous dancers at first had a puzzled expression in their faces before a big crowd of audience. The MC agitated the shy dancers “Who’s next? Who’s next?” and they began to make moves too small for the size of the stage. Bambaata’s scratches divided the time for each competitor, with Electro Funks switching the dancers into wild animals. Behind the context where Bambaataa had changed the set from LUNAR STAGE, which was mainly for DJ acts, to SONAR STAGE, lies his intention to make this show a public revolution for the liberty in the name of Hip-Hop. MOUSE ON MARS, who played the new song “WIPE THAT SOUND,” also made a humorous arrangement to let the audience make beats to the metronome. New and familiar songs shuffled all together, the joyous and gadget-like sound made a groove. For the last song, they played “ACTIONIST RESPOKE,” and the tension of the show reached to the highest peak. At the SOLAR STAGE, where each artist was trying to show some tricks, the performance of JAMIE LIDELL was outstandingly unique. He did human beat box with two microphones, which he sampled in real time and put his own singing over that beat. Dressed in a pink pajama, he sung as soulfully as Prince. HIFANA, the genius break beats maker, did the astonishing manual rhythm session with MPC pad, turntables, and percussion. They also used the Pioneer’s DVDJ to make the perfect synchronization of scratches with motion graphics.
The Lunar Stage for DJ acts was also in a groove all night long. DJ KLOCK mesmerized the audience with the hallucinating effect on scratches and FARR a.k.a. CALM played good vibe house tracks to keep up the voltage, and EYE of BOREDOMS <metamorphose_EYE.jpg> mixed techno, garage punk, and noise, literally breaking into the state of chaos. Finally, GREEN VELVET added a final touch to it, playing his own killer tune “LA LA LAND” and the whole audience started chorusing “la la la!” to it. Also, DANI SICILIANO, a diva for Matthew Herbert, attracted the audience with her melancholic vocal. THE ORB <metamorphose_orb1.jpg> filtered all kinds of dance music into his own ethic of the sound.
After the whole show was over, however, lots of empty bottles and cigarette butts were miserably scattered around on the ground. There was also a complaint reported that the number of bathroom was not enough. It is important that both organizer and participants are conscious of making a good environment for the party, although the sobering reality shows that not every music fan is an ecologist. The more people gather, the dirtier it gets. Before the ideal vision always comes reality. Maybe, the assignment for the big outdoor festival for the future would be how it deals with the general reaction toward the environment.
Article : Dai Matsuoka
There is a mobile phone site called "SAL Yougaku Mania <http://www.elesal.com/salmania> " which SAL magazine is participating in for the production of contents. It would be catagorized as a chaku-melo (ring pattern of the mobile phone) site, but it's more of a multi-purpose site, as it has text (columns and reviews) and graphics (background images), as well as sounds (the ringing patterns).
The graphic section of this site is called "Taiga Mania." Since it's a background image corner within a ring pattern site, some people may think of it as an added-on bonus, but it has as much content as a site that specializes in background images. The participating artists are Ataque, Hiroshi Iguchi, Hideki Inaba, Kasekisaidaa, Tsuyoshi Kusano, Maho Shimao, Dainippon Type Organization, Katsuki Tanaka, TGB Design, Bal, Tsuyoshi Hirooka, etc. There are also many participants from SAL Magazine. Artists such as Kiyoshi Kuroda, So Ootsuki, and NAN are scheduled to participate starting late September.
It's worth noting that these days, there are many works that are created with the intent of being used as background images for mobile phones right from the start, compared to background images that are rearrangements of graphics that have already existed. For example, there are Dainippon Type Organization's works that are based on phone numbers we tend to forget, like "117 (time announcement)" and "106 (collect call)." Tsuyoshi Kusano and Hiroshi Iguchi have produced works that are created in black-and-white to match the cell phone. These graphics acquire meaning only when they are placed in the monitor of your phone. Mobile phones are becoming more and more advanced, and things like motion images, games, works that use Flash, and various applications are being used regularly. In a situation like this, it's going to be interesting to see what artists are going to be able to do with a "primitive" medium like the background image. You will be able to find many surprising works. The address is as written below.
URL: http://www.elesal.com/salmania
Article by Mayako Sakaino
Compiled by R. Klanten, H. Hellige, and Tom Hulan
"Sonic" <sonic_cover.jpg> is a book with 320 pages of content, which is a collection of recent CD package designs. It displays designs from the music scene (which show an outstanding range of variety), from genres like underground/indies pop, alternative, and electronica. The layout style is very interesting: they've jumbled together works that look "kind of similar," to give each page a unified feel <sonic_1.jpg> <sonic_2.jpg> <sonic_3.jpg> <sonic_4.jpg> <sonic_5.jpg> <sonic_6.jpg>. With this bold style of editing that could lead to confusion, and a sense of humor, this book lets us view the artwork of CDs through a new perspective.
Publisher: Die Gestalten Verlag / 336 pages / 24 x 28cm / Color / Hardcover / Released July, 2004 / Price: 50.00 US dollars, 39.90 euros, 26.99 pounds / ISBN : 3-89955-040-4
Article by Kurando FuruyaΔ
Publisher + Editor : Jiro OhashiEditorial Staff : Kurando Furuya / Ryutaro Uchiyama / Dai Matsuoka / Kana Satomi / Azusa Iwasaki / Azusa Hitomi / Rika Yamamoto / Ei KanekoWeb Engineering : Pre PlantContributer : Shiura / Keita Fukasawa / nik / Hiroshi Iguchi(The Bwoy) / Yusuke Shouno / Takashi NakamuraDesign Adviser : Hideki Inaba / Masanori Izumi
elesal / sim magazine / p rnd / shift / depot / beams T / tgb design / enlightement / tsuyoshi hirooka / unnon / far east recording / now on media / uplink / collider / rocket / progressive form
8/20 UpDate
SAL magazine / Hideki Inaba awarded the red dot prizeFlash news! SAL magazine (Hideki Inaba) has been awarded "best of the best prize" for communication design in the red dot award 2004. Run by German design center NRW, red dot is one of the largest design competitions worldwide. The competition is divided into two sections - communication design and product design, which are adjudicated with 9 criteria including innovation, functionality, human engineering, ecology, and long life. Only the product that is clear with all the criteria wins the prize. Included in the past awarded products are IBM Think Pad, Sony AIBO, NOKIA's design team, Nissan Primera, and APPLE iPOD. As the red dot prize is awarded to both a designer and a client, the "best of the best" prize for SAL magazine will be awarded respectively to the designer Hideki Inaba and the publisher Daiichi Kosho. The red dot prize is globally recognized among corporate companies as a certificate for the high design quality. Among 2936 entries from 27 countries, 201 works are honored with the red dot prize, and 28 works with "red dot : best of the best prize." Also, "red dot : junior prize" and the most honorable "red dot grand-prix prize" are awarded to some other works and products. Another entry from Japan for communication design, BEAMS 2004 Calendar,also designed by Hideki Inaba, won the red dot award. Inaba, double awarded, will attend award ceremony in Essen, Germany in December.
NEWS UPLINKUPLINK will open a new cultural space UPLINK X<uplink_x.jpg> near Bunkamura in Udagawa-cho, Shibuya, the third series of theater spaces subsequent to FACTORY, which is widely recognized as a small theater that distributes core and deep films and also as an event site available for many use such as talk show or workshop, and an open-air space GALLERY, which was built on the concept of "diversity." The new site is equipped with the lounge style interior and more than ten kinds of couches and chairs that serve as show room items for each furniture brand, and are available for very reasonable price. Designed by FURNITURE DESIGN AGRA, the interior decoration welcomes visitors. UPLINK X is equipped with the theater system superior in digital performance to that of FACTORY, with the projector system composed of the latest models of digital apparatus for both regular and business use. The new model of DLP projector Marantz VP12S3 is permanently set up, which enables to play the digital images saved in HD. Also hooked up with light pipe and broadband networks, it can project streaming images from Internet. Delivering live images of events through Internet, UPLINK X is intended to be a theater of reciprocal communications. From 7.31, They will show this omnibus movie "CANNE SHORT 5" consisting of 5 short stories from different genres including Anime, psychological mystery, and contemporary opera, which was highly acclaimed in Canne Film Festival. "OSAMA" and "PROMISE" will be shown from 9.11. The "X" of UPLINK X is implying the unknown possibility of movie. We'll see what's going to happen in X-links. > Place : 150-0042 Totsune Bld. 2F 37-18 Udagawa-cho Shibuya, Tokyo.TEL : 03-6821-6821FAX : 03-3485-8785E-MAIL : info@uplink.co.jpURL : http://www.uplink.co.jp
Thailand in August / Welcome to Soi SabaiThailand has recently been attracting attention not only as a tropical resort that provides good food and good massage, but also as another cultural center that delivers various genres of entertainment such as art, literature, films, music, and comics. No wonder people call it a land of creation. The exhibition "Thailand in August," which focuses on the new aspect of culture and art in Thailand, is being held at graf media gm in Kita, Osaka. Graf designs the total life condition for the basic human needs, food, clothing and shelter, with simple and strong linear compositions that remind us of Sori Yanagi. Graf organizes this exhibition on the theme of "Soi Sabai"(meaning "a pleasant alley" in Thai) and invites not only new talented artists from Thailand who have little been introduced in Japan, but also many famous artists such as Kyoichi Tsuzuki, Tadanobu Asano, and Christopher Doyle. In addition to that, the flea market will soon be open, where the items that graf staff collected in Thailand will be available. Graf intends to harmonize the traditional and the modern style in their design, whom you can trust for the uncompromising attitude toward choosing the items, which ranges from Thai traditional goods to contemporary ones. The event will let you have heavenly overdose on Thai culture in summer days in Osaka. >Date : from 2004.8.1(SUN) until 8.31(TUE) (Close on the first and the third Mondays) Place : graf media gm graf bld 1F 4-1-17 Nakanoshima Kita-ku, OsakaOpen : 12:00~20:00Entrance fee : freeTel : 06-6459-2082URL : http://www.graf-d3.com/soisabai/
DOT MOV FESTIVAL 2004 calling for entries now!The digital film festival DOTMOV is inviting entries now. The aim of the festival is to discover new talented creators and provide them with an opportunity to show their work. Last year, with 351 entries from 22 countries, 100 selected works were shown for a month at SOSO cafe, which is produced by online magazine SHIFT. This year, the selected works will be screened for one month from November 1st to 30th and shown at the web site. Included in the guest juries are Sugarcube, Form, and Jiro Ohashi(SAL magazine), in addition to the same faces from the last year Yoshi Sodeoka, The Designers Republic, and Motion Theory. The deadline is September 20th, 2004.Details of Application : http://www.shift.jp.org/mov/
SHIFT 2005 CALENDAR COMPETITIONThe online magazine SHIFT that delivers information about art, design, and culture will hold the annual CALENDAR COMPETITION in January 2005. This year, the event will be sponsored by a graphic print center operated by Mitsubishi Paper MIlls Limited. Subsequent to the past two years, the competition is intended to explore and support fresh creators, offering them a platform to showcase their works online using a calendar as a medium. SHIFT will accept 12 artworks and 12 groups of creators and the selected works will be distributed throughout the world in the format of a physical calendar for SHIFT 2005. They will also be exhibited and sold at "PRINT'EM" website for a year with support from "PRINT'EM." The exhibition will be held in another time at the gallery cafe "SOSO" in Sapporo for a month between Jan 5th and Jan 31st. The selected works from 2004 were created by Nobuyuki Kikushima, Hajime Tsunashima, Magnus Voll Mathiassen(Norway)<sc_magnus_voll_mathiassen.jpg>, Michael Moser(Germany)<sc_michael_moser.jpg>, Judy Chan(Hong Kong/New Zealand), Severine Scaglia(France), Aleksandra Nina Knezevic(Bosnia&Herzegovina), Catrin Altenbrandt(Germany), Leo Denis Norgren(Sweden), Adam Rush(USA) <sc_adam_rush.jpg>>SHIFT 2005 CALENDAR COMPETITIONEntry : 2004.8.1.~10.10Detail Information : http://www.shift.jp.org/2005/Announcement : 2004.11.1(at "SHIFT vol.96")Date of Publish : 2004 late NovemberExhibition and Sale of Selected works : 2005.1.5~on the same date in the next year (at PRINT'EM site)Exhibition Date : 2005.1.5~1.31 (at SOSO cafe in Sapporo)Organization : SHIFTURL : http://www.shift.jp.org/Sponsor : PRINT'EMURL : http://www.printem.org/
Virgin Cinemas Roppongi Hills x Mori Museum
OMODAKA appears in the monthly movie show
Equipped with the cutting-edge sound system "THX" and the online ticket distribution system "vit," the new city theater VIRGIN CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS, located in ROPPONGI HILLS, has been achieving a wide popularity with unique service for customers.
The unrealistic visual image is intensely sealed in one's mind, bringing not only mere eccentricity but also various reminiscent patterns of the origins of landscape for each viewer. The peculiarity of Tesuya Nagato's works, which conceptualize the city of Tokyo, lies in the world he's making out of the indigenous landscape of the city. We interviewed Tetsuya Nagato, the graphic artist who participated in SAL magazine Vol.7 and the latest issue Vol. 12.
Q : Please introduce yourself.
A : I was born in Tokyo in 1970. I started painting since I was little. After I graduated from high school, I went to USA. After I came back, I started out my career as a writer in 1996. Currently I provide ideas and artworks as an art director, graphic designer, and illustrator in the various fields such as music, magazine, book, or advertising industry. My latest work is the art and visual direction for UA in "2004 TOUR SUN."(with Yasunori Kinishi and Yasunori Kakegawa) I also work on art direction, graphic design and illustration for the single, the album, and the DVD of Atsushi Sakurai's (from Buck-Tick) solo project. I also cover stage design and goods design for his solo live show "Ai no wakusei."
Q : How did life in America influence your career?
A : I've started to be conscious of "seeing" things since I was exposed to the foreign culture. It also made me think about how and at what point my thinking process is oriented toward the Western culture.
Q : I would like to ask about the tools you are using such as computer, camera / scanner (digital camera) or pen tablet. How do you deal with these tools? Please tell us specifically about the tools you are using.
A : I am using Power Macintosh G4 1250 MHz and Digital camera Nikon D100. I also have a pen tablet WACOM intuos 2.
Q : I am particularly impressed with the collage piece of city landscapes. What is your motivation for incorporating these landscapes into your work? A : For me, the style of collage takes an act of integrating various points of view. The city landscapes are inevitably taken into the frame of work because we see them every day. I could say that the continuous gaze toward the city connects me with the collage technique.
Q : I am curious about the physical scale of the work. You have made a lot of works that are not framed in the conventional size for printing. Please tell us about your view toward the physical scale of the work. Is it related to the fact that you create your work in the monitor of the computer?
A : Basically, I don't pay much attention to the size. When a work needs a large-sized output, I think it is effective that it should be oblong, considering the performance ability of large-sized ink jet printer. Secondly, the size of the data has to be compromised with the quality of the work, time, stresses and strain, although I try to make it as big as possible. I always take it into account that the format of the work will later be changing. I don't know if it's possible with DVD, or with some other new media, but I assume that in the near future there will be a new means of appreciating artworks that enables us to "play in a still picture." That's why I try to make the picture data as big as possible.
Q : I would like to specifically focus on some of your works. "I Against I"< nagato_i_against_i.jpg> is the huge picture scroll on the theme of city. (Awarded Grand Prize for Interactive Arts division in Japan Media Arts Festival 2003) Weaving a tale through the flexible perspective, it gives such an amazing effect. Could you explain about this piece in detail?
A : As far as the visual arts is concerned, logic is less important than visual pleasure. This work is the device to provide different visual trips for each individual viewer. I created it based on the image of Tokyo as a home, although I felt it mildly distant from that.
Q : I would like to ask about "Kyori/Hohaba"<nagato_kyorihohaba> (Awarded Wonder Wall Prize in Tokyo Wonder Wall 2003)
A : I got commission from DUNE magazine to create a work on the theme of Kumagusu. I went to Kumano with the chief editor Hayashi, the movie director Masashi Yamamoto and Naohiro Ukawa. As soon as we started putting together materials we shot in the forest, the images suddenly formed a big chunk in my mind like the mutation of bacteria. In fact, it is a hommage piece for bacteria, rather than for the human figure of Kumagusu.
Q : One of your latest works "eye" is a Flash movie. Please tell us about your approach toward the graphic expressions other than illustration. What is the relationship between technology and your work?
A : It's basically a still picture, but I also use music, texts, or movies if necessary. For this piece "eye," as the expression at web pages is accessible to the general public, I thought it would be necessary to show both element parts and a whole picture of the corporate in a clear way. It is natural that the development of technology facilitates new forms of expression. From my standpoint, it is important to integrate perspectives and thoughts into one particular image, while there are things that come from the other way around. I think it would be wonderful to find things that surpass the relationship between technology and works.
Q : The work that you created for SAL magazine Vol.12 seems to be discontinuous in its texture from your past works. Could you describe this piece in your own words?
A : It's "a specimen of digital germs"<nagato_digitalsaibou_01.jpg> <nagato_digitalsaibou_02.jpg> I extracted specific parts from the enlarged pictures and designed them. This style enables you to pick out a particular form from any image data. I got this idea when I found out that in painted macro image, it is easier to see that form. It is very interesting that here you find things that remind you of nature, even though it's digital.
Q : For the last question, please tell us about your next project.
A : I will show a new piece at the web page of Agency for Cultural Affairs in late October. I hope I will be able to have my own exhibition in the early half of the next year.
Interview : Jiro OhashiΔ
The exhibition "About Collage" was held at Tate Liverpool in 2001, directed by Peter Blake who did the sleeve design for Beatles's "SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND." The concept of the exhibition diversified into a piece of work titled "Liverpool sound collage," for which Blake asked Paul McCartney to offer his hands. It was created with support from Youth, the ex bassist of Killing Joke and Super Furry Animals. "Liverpool Sound Collage" is a literally collage work composed of the reconstructed parts of Beatles songs and the tapes that recorded their conversations. To put it more simply, it can be conceived as a dance track based on abstract drum loops, in which fragmented parts of Beatles songs are scattered around. My favorite one is the third track "Real Gone Dub," and Youth is joining in it. This track is an over-16 minute-long dub with full of mad effects throughout the whole session, and I can imagine that Ringo Star was stoned playing Ludwig 22-inch drums in an astronaut suit. I guess that's enough for description. Although Beatles's experimental approaches are generally considered as John's part, as is symbolized in "Revolution No.9," John once said "Avant-garde is a French word that means shit" before he got together with Yoko Ono. This episode clearly indicates that it was, in fact, Paul McCartney who was in favor of Avant-garde sounds, which has recently been known. From middle 60's, Paul began to have empathy with Stockhausen, John Cage, and William Burroughs and the experiments Paul himself had repeatedly done with Brenel's tape recorder bore fruits in the album "SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND." Even before I got to know the historical background, I was strongly convinced that Paul got the humor of playing with sounds. Among Paul's works, "McCartney II" has most frequently been represented as "experimental." This album, which is described as most Paul-like in a way, includes the hit tune "Coming up" and recently I got the 7-inch vinyl of this single from JAYPEG's Ishiguro. It crosses my mind that the instrumental tune "Lunchbox-Oddsox" recorded on the B side could have been ripped off by Marley Marl in 1987, 88, but anyway, the important thing is that the later part of the tune is not something "arranged with Reggae taste," which was quite conventional among the contemporary musicians, but is "Reggae." You can see that this is not an accident when you listen to Linda McCartney's "Wide Prairie." This album contains Two Reggae tunes, for which Paul asked Lee Perry to take charge of production in 1977. Behind Linda's vocal are compiled the back tracks recorded at Black Ark Studio in Kingston. 1977 saw that The Clash released the album a bit later than Sex Pistols and Bob Marley released "Punky Reggae Party" after witnessing Don Letts making Punks go crazy with Reggae sound at Roxy. It might cross one's mind that it was also when Lee Perry was producing the heavy Roots sound such as "Revolution Dub" or Max Romeo's album. The sense of Paul that chose nothing but Lee Perry's sound and the fact that the recorded song was a cover of the good old 50's American pop tune "Mr.Sandman" by Chordettes matches very well with my personal image of Paul. In order to confirm these trivial things that I am wondering about every day, I decided to take off for my third Glastonbury Festival. They had just announced the showcase of Paul McCartney in the line-ups earlier than any other artists. On the second day of Festival, the ground being muddy due to raining from early in the morning, I was laying down in the tent until I heard from far away Black Eyed Pears that I had frequently noticed played on the radio since I arrived in England, and rose up for the stage because Paul was supposed to be playing the show after them. Although so tired to even walk straight, I rushed for the stage and managed to sneak in the crowd of audience (later reported to be 8 or 10 million people). We all waited for the guy who for the first time hooked up marijuana for Mick Jaguar, and for whom Lee Perry signed a petition to Japan for his release from the guilt of possessing marijuana, and who was repeatedly saying his favorite hello in Japanese "Ossu!" while his stay in Japan in 2002. These things were floating in my mind, when Paul and his band showed up on the stage with huge hails from the audience. The show was a 2-hour-long set full of reminiscent songs, as was later reported in the media. In the finale, the confetti that sprang out of the both edges of the stage and the flashy lightening effects covered up the night sky all white, making a spectacular scene consisting of little dark dots coming on and off in the white screen. I burst into laughter when I saw this. They were such simple effects that I didn't want to be tricked, although I was, and I guess it's what Glastonbury is about...While I was thinking about it, the band faded out in the white shower of the confetti, receiving tons of hails and claps. After the show was over, I slugged down in the muddy road back to the tent with a muddy crowd who was chorusing aloud the verse of "Hey Jude," which, if I were to describe it, was like "Apocalyptic Now," or Michael Wadleigh's "Woodstock." It was absolutely the worst and the best moment in my life. Maybe a lot of people may have heard about the news that the jet plane flew into the rain cloud and threw out dry ice to prevent from raining for his anniversary live show that would celebrate the 3000th performance in all throughout his career, which took place in Russia a week before Glastonbury Festival, although very few people know about the amazing coincidence that for the opening song Paul played "Jet."
Needless to say, the public concern toward the graphic design has been changing after the uprising of the graffitti scene. It would first remind us of the "graffitti movement" that happened on the street a few years ago, which was in fact triggered by the gaze from the fine art industry that demanded to evaluate it in their own context. It was no better than that the different levels of mass communities took the graffiti in their sight for the first time. When the public consciousness became oriented toward the graffiti that had been crawling in their subconscious realm, brought onto the surface were these phenomena such as the hoods on the street "discovered" that the graffiti gets you another means to get by, or some big writers from USA came to Japan and got lots of cash in their pockets, influencing more writers to bomb, and the mass media responded to it and bring it as one of those "social problems," and the crackdown got much harder, or people started to complain that the complacent kids who write Toy characters are nuisance. The things, however, are not as simple as they look. What is simple are the brains of those who think they comprehend the whole situation just by simplifying it as a marketing sample and feel as if they were involved in it. It would still be harmless to go out to the "luxurious" club floor and act like a poser without any sense of guilty saying "80's disco is so hot again," maybe. However, real people are not born out of the things that are "leading-edge," or "popular in teens." The things always indicate a sign of birth even before they are registered in human consciousness. Asking whether it is art or violently scribbled calligraphy is of no sense when it encompasses the ambivalence within itself in the first place. It is a piece of art if you think that way and it is just graffiti if it's bombed on the wall of your residence. The important thing is that graffitti does attract/infuriate people with certain intensity and that intensity is one of the reasons for its existence. If it were merely intended to give a visual shock as a criminal act, they might as well bomb some swearwords to damage the enemy, while graffitti possesses its original style that has gone through the intimidating evolution for itself. Moreover, it reflects the locality and the particular peculiarities of hobby and language even in this globalization age. "Stylewars" is the exact word for what it's all about. No doubt various elements of social collective unconsciousness are presented in it, considering its diversity and maturity. That's why the original Japanese garaffitti mag "KAZE MAGAZINE" continues to blow our heads off, which is composed of the graffitti pictures scavenged through the networks created by the chief editor, who is a writer himself, and purifies the visual intensity of the works issue by issue. The latest issue "issue 8", which was published in July, is attached with the poster of "The Reconstruction Project of the Legal Wall at Shibuya-kawa" that took place in this spring and the graffitti works for this project. I feel so pathetic when I find people who categorize it with such simple terms as "criminal," "psycho," "art," or "counter culture." I think that graffitti is the appellation for the physical phenomenon that is visually within our close reach. It has appeared in the modern urban space after the components of social system are dropped out of the "cause and effect" world of view, which is often represented in the marketing field, and layered onto one another, being repressed and yet transforming freely. To put it more simply, I've found the clearest example of the fact that the media culture, which is very much fond of the extreme style, has not yet grasped graffitti in the conscious level. Nobody has yet made books or TV programs about "How To be a Graffitti Writer." Most definitely, this is the extreme of the extreme, that is to say, "the extreme BOMB."
It is before noon on 2 August. I feel a lovely breeze here. I like this weather. It's been cool and chilling since it rained in the last week. With all that, the weather in Japan makes me go nuts! First of all it's been so hot compared with past years and there are lots of natural and man-made disasters. Of course, it concerns not only Japan but also many other countries in the Northern Hemisphere, which are subject to the same weather condition. I hear it is really tough in Europe as well. One of my friends in Paris e-mailed me saying, "Paris is extremely hot..." They say it's so extreme that the laptop is going to burn. I am envious of such a long vacation they have in Europe, though. They tell me "we'll have a two-week break from next week!" and I was seriously surprised saying, "Are you kidding? You haven't worked at all and yet go to the vacation?" I am kidding, still it's not fair, is it? Few people working in Japan could say to his co-workers with a big smile, "I'll have a break for the next two weeks so please take care of my stuff, bye-bye!"(if you could, you are seriously cool!) Well, it's simply a matter of cultural difference but I can't stop being jealous. In that sense, I say everything in Japan is crazy! Anyway, there is no break in Tokyo, well, to tell you the truth, I just want to lay on the couch and throw away the papers on my desk, but lots of things are in progress so I try to keep up with it. I am working on "Sonar sound Tokyo 2004 (sst'04 hereinafter)" and "GRAFFITI&RUDE BOY 67'(Yoshihiro Hanno's new album in the name of RADIQ)" I guess these are the hot issues here. "sst'04" is a satellite event of "SONAR"( The biggest festival of advanced music and multi media art in Europe, which celebrated its 11th anniversary in Barcelona this year), which I wrote about in the previous issue. We'll hold the sonar sound festival in Tokyo, which will be centered around Yebisu Garden Hall and Room on 9 (Sat), and10 (Sun) October. "Sonarsound" is taking place all over the places such as London, Rome, Hamburg, and Sao Paulo. I believe a lot of you got the temporary flyer distributed in WIRE04. As of SUMMER SONIC in the next weekend, the line-ups will be added on the new version of the flyer so that everyone can see what it's going to be like. Finally, on 23rd all the line-ups will be updated on the complete version of the flyer and the whole picture of the event will be announced. It will definitely be interesting, considering the total balance of the environment we produce. It is making me so hectic these days because it's getting way bigger than we thought it would be. The next topic to focus on is "GRAFFITI&RUDE BOY 67" (PFCD12)<PFCD12_G_RB67.jpg> As I mentioned above, Yoshihiro Hanno's brand new album will be available on 9.17.<http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form> It's such a great album that you should check it out. In this album, Hanno is featuring the French rapper BLACK CROM, whom he supports in Paris, and the female singer TERRY, who also credited her name on Lido Ensemble. It can be described as a projection of the vibe of black music underlying miscellaneous dance culture onto the on-going electronic sound. It is also proper to describe it as an opus of meticulous composition gracefully woven with the vast realm of sound arrangement that ranges from orchestra music to electronica and the functionality of electronic music and dance, which was refined in"9 modules. +." Hanno successfully avoids imitating the classic Dub or Hip Hop sound and creates a leading-edge sound that predicts the next future style. The live shows on this album will be touring several cities late September. I want you to enjoy both the album and the shows. To sum up this issue, I say Japanese people should relax and have more fun. Overall, it's going to better that way.
Those of you who read my last article T.U.R.D US TOUR 2004 in salmagazine.org003 must be aware that the T.U.R.D TOUR has just landed in Europe! I've arrived in Sweden, although I've not yet written the article and so I am writing it in Sweden. Two days after the live painting for the select shop GGPX in Harajuku<turd_0.jpg>, in spite of Skate Thing's absence, I took off for Sweden for my exhibition. Exhausted like hell, I took a 12-hour-long flight and arrived at the design hotel LYDMAR*1, one of the exhibition sites. I hurried to the Stockholm station <turd_1.jpg> <turd_2.jpg>to hand my work (custom made sneakers) to the second exhibition site Sneakerstories*2. The site was so big that we all got shocked. The site was in preparation for the opening ceremony that would take place 4 days later.<turd_3.jpg>. They've got a cool flyer for this event and I really liked it. <turd_4.jpg> There were Karin and Blanca from PARASIIT <turd_5.jpg>, the designers who made this flyer, and Teddy from SOCKTOWN<turd_6.jpg>, the producer of this exhibition. AT the exhibition, the collector's sneakers, the movies, the images and custom made sneakers will be shown. <turd_7.jpg> <turd_8.jpg> I handed my original works to Teddy and returned to the hotel. (KAMIYAMA : the camouflage pattern Adidas sneaker with arbores planted.<turd_9.jpg> INAST : INAST is doing a good job with his dope painting. <turd_10.jpg> FISH : The black light is embedded in the sole part of the painted PUMA.<turd_11.jpg> SHiURA : The graphics randomly painted on the badges on the sneakers.<turd_12.jpg> SKATE THING : no surprise at first glance, but in fact dots of 0.3 mm are painted in disguise with air holes! <turd_13.jpg>This dope one astonished Swedish. Ukawa is coming late, so he's gonna bring his sneakers on 3rd. I was sitting back in the Hotel when Teddy asked me to do the live painting show at the opening party. I was casually answered like " why not?" but later I became aware that I have to prepare for the exhibition setting, DJ, and VJ on that same day. Will I be able to make it through? Is Ukawa coming in time? To be continued.
*1 / LYDMAR : The designers from all over the world sets up each compartment. Each compartment has different interior design based on different concepts. This is where T.U.R.D is going to make a big party with exhibition, DJ, and VJ.
*2 / sneakerstories exhibition : The exhibition of collector's sneakers, which shows the history, the movies, the images, and custom sneakers. As well as T.U.R.D., shing02, Swedish break dancers and rappers will participate in this awesome event.
*T.U.R.D. stands for Tokyo Ugly Rich Designers. SKATETHING is making graphic design for the apparel brands "BAPE" and "UNDERCOVER." Fish S.Hasegawa had a blissful experience in the Venice Beach culture in his youth. His illustration can be seen in the outfits by HYTERIC GLAMOUR. Naohiro Ukawa is a multi-talented artist who crosses over fields of graphic design, music video, and VJ. SHiURA, the graphic designer, is making the character "RELAXBOY" for the magazine "relax." Ukawa and SHiURA are also making music videos and their works have been selected for RESFEST in the past. Ryuji Kamiyama and NAST, who started out their own creation from skater's perspective, also join in T.U.R.D. Kamiyama exerts influence on the art industry with his anti-commercial experimental works that ranges from graphics to engraving. INAST is senior to Kamiyama and doing live painting in parallel with graphic design. T.U.R.D. is the name of the exhibition where these folks get together to have fun. By the way, the initial letters of Tokyo Ugly Rich Designers take form of turd (a chunk of shit).
The indie movements once took place, when Factory, Rough Trade, Mute and 4AD were prosperous... It was also when people were into Telegraph, Godzilla, Pinacoteca, and Skating Pairs. Now that 24 Hour Party People become a legendary myth and avex, which started business at an small apartment in Tama, owns the building, the term "indie" is almost of no use. Here in Japan too, the ripples of the indies brought some great consequences in various aspects. Its "policy" intruded into the mass media industry and helped create (or kill) numerous magazines. As the indie agencies completely stayed fixed on the reserve seats for the major industry, these magazines inevitably sought to catch up with the ordinary commercial magazines, sometimes trying to neglect it in vain. Still, since it takes some time to change the existing values, they have ambushed for a while and seen that the indie scene itself is dying and now start to take a new action. I won't enumerate particular names here, but there are magazines that push forward their own originalities that are critically different from those of the major magazines. If, however, one believes in the spirit of the age and sees it in these magazines and tries to unfold it, it would probably never be a source of interest for the magazine makers themselves. These magazines were naturally and concurrently born out of the seeds of new sense of value each editor was once exposed to. It is absolutely nonsense to categorize these media publications into one movement, for they are totally different from one another in contents and editing style. If one dares to name it, they are "the new prototype" compound of design and editing that runs over the runner who is one lap behind, experiencing both "major" and "indie" realms. SIM is the graphic culture magazine published by Kurando Furuya. The latest issue "SIM 3" <sim3_cover.jpg>is intense in many senses. It mesmerizes readers with hard and rich book format and contents that are targeted at nurds. The obvious lite?ral mistakes lure us to interpret their implicit meaning before advise him to correct them, although they have clearly no sense at all. The intensity of SIM comes from nothing but the intensity of the personality of Kurando Furuya himself, the chief organizer of SIM magazine. I'll explain about it from my personal experience. When I met him for the first time through my friend, I instantly became interested in his big forehead and facial features. Kurando, a twenty-some-year-old college student, never shrank from talking with me, whom he met for the first time, and never tried to kiss my butt. (This is important.) The conversation that took place between him and me was about trivial things such as graphic designers and artists who would participate in "SIM 2," which was then under the production, Anime, TV games, T-shirts, and common friends or acquaintances. It was exactly what they call chatting. In later days, when "SIM 2" was published, some chats from that trivial conversation were printed on it. I was like "That shrewd kid was setting a tape recorder under the table! Of course it was only my delusion (hopefully), but the thing is that Kurando has the accurate memory and the data processing system that point out the useful pieces of information among noises in the miscellaneous environment. He manages to do this in various situations. The reason why people call him a robot is not because he looks like so. He is too fast and furious to be a robot, actually. Well, I'll leave it up to you about the contents of "SIM 3," so see it for yourself. Details of SIM magazine 3"NERD"Publisher : Asuka ShinshaFormat : B5Price : 1,470 YenISBN : 4-87031-629-3Containing Artists : Tanakakatsuki, Sou Otsuki
Publisher + Editor : Jiro OhashiEditor : Kurando FuruyaEditorial Staff : Ryutaro Uchiyama / Dai Matsuoka / Kana Satomi / Azusa Iwasaki / Azusa Hitomi / Mifumi Obata / Mayako SakainoWeb Engineering : Pre PlantContributer : Shiura / Keita Fukasawa / nik / Hiroshi Iguchi(The Bwoy)Design Adviser : Hideki Inaba / Masanori Izumi
elesal / sim magazine / p rnd / shift / depot / beams T / tgb design / enlightement / tsuyoshi hirooka / unnon / far east recording / now on media / uplink / collider / rocket / progressive form
7/20 UpDate
SAL magazine Vol. 12 to be released mid-JulySAL magazine's latest issue, vol. 12, is due to be put on the shelves of distributors around July 23. The theme for this issue is "Stereo Symmetry." Participating artists are Meikyoushisui, Tetsuya Nagato, Mark Mothersbaugh, Naohiro Ukawa, Dainippon Type Organization, Hideki Inaba, and others. However, besides the participating "artists," some unexpected, powerful images have "participated" as well. The number of copies are limited, so get them while you can. They will also be distributed on the internat at the SAL mag Shop. Link: txt.Archives
SOUND X VISION 2004Gas As Interface is going to hold "SOUND X VISION 2004," an event that will tour through four cities in Japan, in order to display the possibilities of today's leading-edge visuals and sounds. A DVD containg the works and interviews of the artists, mainly German and Japanese, will be released on Sept. 24, 2004.
A major appeal of this DVD is the never-before-seen collaborations of musicians and visual artists from Japan and overseas. The combinations of musicians and visual artists are Cornelius X Groovisions, Buffalo Daughter X Motohiko Odani, Jan Jelinek X Karl Kliem, Funkstorung X Enlightenment, Patrick Pulsinger X Marok, and Pardon Kimura X Naohiro Ukawa.
The artists who will be doing both visuals and music are SND, Rechenzentrum, Alva Noto a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai, Dextro, and TELCOSYSTEMS. This lineup of artists is enough to arouse anticipation. The official crossmedia package includes documentary footage in which we can see the artists speaking, a booklet explaining the entirety of this event, and an audio CD containing new or previously unreleased tracks by the participating artists.
SOUND X VISION 2004
>The Event
in Osaka: Sept. 11 (Sat.) to Oct. 3 (Sun.), 2004 at Graf Media GM
in Sendai: Oct. 8 (Fri.) to Oct. 17 (Sun.), 2004 at Sendai Mediatheque
in Yamaguchi: Nov. 3 (Wed.) to Nov. 23 (Tue.), 2004 at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media
in Tokyo: Dec. 3 (Fri.) to Dec. 12 (Sun.), 2004 at Laforet Museum Harajuku
>The Official Package
Retail price: 4,830 yen / Specifications: CD, DVD, and Booklet. Specialized package. / Released by: Gas As Interface corp. / Length of time: approx. 120 min. / Released by: Now On Media Corp. / URL: http://www.hellogas.com/, http://www.nowondvd.net
DANCE AND MEDIA 2004 TOKYO"DANCE AND MEDIA 2004 / TOKYO", the independent agency which pursues for mingling the digital media and the dance performance, will hold "DANCE AND MEDIA 2004 / TOKYO" on 8.1. <dance_and_media_2004_tokyo.jpg> It will present the new form of body expression, incorporating into it elements from graphic design, electronica and media art. This time DANCE AND MEDIA invited Joseph Hyde from London, a cutting-edge digital media artist. Using interactive technology, Joseph Hyde focuses on the fusion of sound and performance art. < http://www.theperiphery.com> From Japan, artists from different fields such as Teigiga / Butoh dancer ( Sal Vanilla ), Kazushin Kouchi / architect ( RE[ ] ), Kunihiko Matsuo / media artist ( CMprocess,NEST ), Shiekoku Ao / sound engineer ( Space Echo ), and salmon / musician ( W.C ) will participate in the previously unreleased work "Amplified" with Joseph Hyde. Feel the vibe from "Subliminal TV" and "Amplified", which are made up of the organic interactions between media installation and human body movements. <dance_and_media_seki.jpg>
>Date : 2004.8.1.Open 18:30Location : Spiral Hall 3Entrance Fee : 2,000 yenURL : http://www.spiral.co.jp http://www.dance-media.jp
ASUNARO NO YORUKeiji Haino, an infamous avant-garde noise artist, and noise composer Masami Akita a.k.a. Merzbow formed a new unit "kikuri". They will show their first performance in Osaka. MAKI from the French radio program "Cacophonies", which is known for "the most eerie music in the world", will also play the show for the guest live.>2004.7.19 ( Mon / holiday ) 16:00-23:30LIVE : Keiji Haino + Msasmi Akita, Keiji Haino ( solo performance ), Merzbow, MAKI ( from France ) , Ichirakugikou, Tsuyoshi KojimaDJ : taaya ( cyo ), Chou Chou Noir ( VELVET MOON )LOCATION : OSAKA NOON under the viaduct of JR Kyoto line, 3-3-8 Nakazaki Nishi, Kita-ku, OsakaTEL / FAX 06-6373-4919URL : http://www.hattrick-records.com/NOONADVANCED TICKET : 3,000 yen ( with 1drink )DOOR TICKET : 3,500 yen ( with 1drink )TICKET INFORMATION : Ticket Pia ( P code: 177-848 )NOON / VELVET MOON INFORMATION HATTRICK : http://www.hattrick-records.comVELVET MOON : http://www.velvet-moon.comKeiji Haino : http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~hainoMasami Akita : http://hatomasamune.easter.ne.jp/merzbowMAKI : http://cacophonies.maki.free.frΔ
Massage"Massage" is a quick and tasty news magazine that delivers fragments of the underground from all over the world right into your living room <massage_cover.jpg>. The first issue was released on the 7th.The title of this newspaper derives from Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Massage, which is a prophetic book from the 60's on visual culture. This usage of the word "massage" points to the vision that in the near future, technology is going to allow media to be more intuitive, more tactile. The fact that a visual magazine taking the format of a newspaper has started its release within Japan is important.
From Tokyo to London to Berlin. This is a future-style newspaper that interconnects alternative scenes from all over the globe. Artists transmit information about cultural occurrences from their respective regions, and this is delivered to living rooms worldwide. The creators of this magazine are also going to organically link the magazine with other activities, such as media production, event organization, and product production. By doing this, they aim to raise the basic quality of the scene itself, and produce a new movement. This is the transmission and sharing of information between alternative individuals. This is a newspaper with a stance of improvisational editing, that introduces the underground culture to the mass, along the lines of what is happening and what people are thinking. We should watch how they are going to display and bond scattered underground cultures. I hope "Massage" continues on for a long time, for the sake of raising the quality of culture!
Contents: What the Amendment of Copyright Laws has Left for Us: The day that we won't be able to buy imported CDs anymore. Dangerous Activities of the Middle-Aged Men / ECD - Don't go to War, but go to Battle<massage_ecd.jpg> / La Mano Fria (Beta Bodega from Miami). To Fuck American Democracy and Cast Your Vote in the Underground / Shing02 - Kosmic Rennaisance, and Freelancers Un1ted. About the Lovesong that Approached the "Distortion" of the World / Graffiti of Light / French Hip Hop, Japanese Hip Hop, and DJ Screw /
Data: Bimonthly / 32 pages / 500 yen (incl. tax) ARTICLE: Kurando FuruyaΔ
In truth, there is no reason for me to be writing. When I have something I want to say, I've always expressed it through commissioned works or personal works. The request for me to write this column (I don't even really know what a column is) originated when Mr. Ohashi of SAL magazine suddenly came up with this reckless idea while we were drinking at a pub in Shimo-Takaido. This was a plan that came up when we were drunk. I kept evading this request for a couple of months... but it seems like I have to face it now. Mr. Ohashi is sending this request to me, even though I don't have any writing skills, knowledge, or insight, so there must be some kind of unseeable intention in his mind. I try to tell myself that even in the world of porn, there's an "amateur" genre. I'm going to try to attempt this task with my own style.
I'll first explain my basic stance. For example, I love The Beatles (even though I'm not the typical maniac collector type). If I follow the path of my memory, when I was in elementary school (it was the age of Tanokin Trio and Kenji Sawada), there was a TV show called "The Top Ten" in which Masaaki Sakai and Ikue Sakakibara were the hosts. I think it was a commercial that played between this show... well I'm not really certain, but anyway, I heard "Please Please Me" for the first time on some TV commercial. This was a commercial for a gum that was divided in half, with a black side and a white side. At the end of the commercial, four look-alikes of the Beatles stood in pairs and said "please!" with gum in their hands. Around the same time, Masaaki Sakai was in a commercial for a similar gum called "Kuro Shiro Hanbun (Half Black Half White)." I remember how the room was bright when I asked, "who are these people?" to my mother who was watching TV with me, All these memories come out one after another whenever I hear "Please Please Me." Once I grow fond of something, I cannot dislike it anymore. I still often find interest in discovering past archives of the Beatles for the first time. "What you are influenced by isn't necessarily what you like" is a phrase from Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney's book that was published a few years ago, and it describes an important way of thinking for me. For example, say there was a debate between some kids whether they were for The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. If either side did some research, they would find out about the friendship between the two bands, and both sides will eventually want to know more each other's bands. Whether the order is early or late, whether you enter from the left or the right, it's all about the timing. That's what I've been thinking since childhood. Just like I've just done, I'm going to write about what I'm thinking, on topics that aren't too difficult. When I look at what I've just written, I see how Masaaki Sakai comes up twice. This is probably because I've had an interest in this man since I was a child, because of the TV show "Saiyuuki" which was on Nippon Television. At Glastonbury Festival 2004, which was held from 6/25 to 6/27 this year, I passed by this guy that was wearing a T shirt of Masaaki Sakai acting as Son Goku. I think this guy had this T-shirt because "Saiyuuki" went on air in England and became popular. When I saw this, I felt confusion and uplift, and laughed. I also had a flashback of Sanma Akashiya suddenly doing an impersonation (which isn't very good) where he goes "I am Masaaki Sakai!" It was strange, because I also remembered how I really wanted to see that gum commercial again when I was in middle school, and how I felt jealous of the celebrities who could request which old commercials they wanted to view, in a corner called "Natsuka-CM (Commercials of the Past)" of the TV program "Televi-Tanteidan (Television Investigators)." The day after this reencounter with Son Goku, I watched Paul McCartney perform at this same site.
Article: Hiroshi Iguchi
"Una cerveza, por favor!" and "Dos cervezas, por favor!"..."Tres!", "Quatro!", "Cinco!", ...Gosh, can't stop drinking San Miguel beers. Senores y Senoras, porspuesto senoritas! I just come back from Sonar Festival! Sonar is the festival of advanced music and multimedia art, which annually takes place in the third week of June in the port city of the Iberian Peninsula, Barcelona, and celebrates for its 11th anniversary this year.<http://www.sonar.es/portal/eng/home.cfm> Sonar has a wide variety of attractive contents and conditions such as good weather (it was just before the summer season and under the flaming sun it was sweltering hot as the maximum temperature reaches at 30°C but was less humid than in Japan and pretty chilling in the shade), good food, good people, and hot girls! ( Latinas son muy guapas! ) These things made me visit this festival 4 years in a raw. ( In the year of 2002 PROGRESSIVE FOrM held a label showcase and last year we had the live show of TAKAMASA AOKI with Noriko Tsujiko in Sonar. ) I guess I can be a tour guide for Sonar now. <http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form/image -page/images.02-june-sonar1.html>
<http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form/2003euro-photos/images.03-june-barca1.html>
<http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form/2003euro-photos/images.03-june-bar2-1.html>This year, I wasn't able to arrive there on the first day of the festival and unfortunately missed the special collaboration performance by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pan Sonic, Fennez and the Barcelona symphony. But I enjoyed all the other things! From the perspective of the Japanese media, the main topic of Sonar 2004 would probably be that the three parties from YMO played performance together on the stage as HUMAN AUDIO SPONGE. <sonar_HumanAusioSponge.jpg> Japanese media will cover up the show in the coming days, so check it out. In addition to that, I want you to bear in mind that the VJ performance for the HUMAN AUDIO SPONGE was done by Ryoichi Kurokawa!<sonar_schedule.jpg> Well, after Sonar 2004 is over, I should talk about the two things. 1 ) The first one is that the advanced ticket was all sold out this year! In the recent years, Sonar consists of two separate programs, with the day program being open from 14:00 till 22:00 and the all night program starting from 22:00. The former is called "sonar by day" and takes place in the modern art galleries at the center of the city. ( It contains so many contents and performances that pursue for what we call "advanced" or "experimental" elements and is held simultaneously in 6 different sites:"SONARVILLAGE","SONARDOME","SONARLAB", "SONARCOMPLEX","SONARAMA", "ESCENARIO HALL" ) The all-night program "sonar by night" is held in the 3 different sites, "SONARCLUB", "SONARPUB", "SONARPARK", located 15~20-minute-far by Taxi from the center of the city. Strictly speaking, the programs were all sold out except for the "sonar by night" on the second day. This was really amazing. It was impossible in the past 3 years and I had so much difficulty even arranging tickets for my friends this year. I was supposed to join the festival from the second day, and in addition to the hot weather that let no clouds float in the sky, there was a crowd of thousands of people... ( Is this Shibuya? ) <http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form/04sonar2004-june-18/images.04-June.18-sonar-1.html> In this tough situation, I saw some interesting things and included in them was the performance by Pan Sonic at "ESCENARIO HALL" and DABRYE at "SONARDOME". The performance by FRANCOIS.K at "SONARVILLAGE" was also amazing. PREFUSE 73 was playing laptop DJ at "SONARLAB" and he looked pretty chubby this time. In "Sonar by night", at "SONARPARK", right after the live show of HUMAN AUDIO SPONGE, GURU ( GANGSTARR ) got the microphone and did the solo performance! Sonar's artist coordination is always unpredictable and fascinating. He was so pumped up and did "Manifest". It was awesome and I thought he's keeping real. I wish I could have seen DJ premier on the stage. At the same hour, there was an amazing set case of RICHIE HAWTIN vs. RICARD VILLALOBOS at SONARCLUB. "Hey! Look at Richie! He's got a weird hairstyle again!" Richie got a really weird hair, actually, and it was like a mixture of "techno cut" and "salary man hair cut". The show was really cool. The two artists were both enjoying the show and attracted the audience of 2 million people with the stunning beats! After that, there were sets of HERBERT and 2 MANY DJS but I had no energy left so I made a quick return to the Hotel. (After all, the 12-hour-long flight between Tokyo and Europe gets you really tired and the distance itself implies in many ways things that are happening between Japan and Europe. ) 2 ) The second topic would be the sudden shower on the third day of "sonar by day"! It was also unimaginable. In fact, it was the first time that it rained in Sonar in the past 11 years. < http://www.dropcontrol.com/~p_form/04sonar2004-june-19/images.04-June.19-sonar-1.html> In Japan, it sometimes happens that rain turns on the audience, but since in Barcelona, especially in this season it was "an impossible phenomenon", the audience got split away. In this cold atmosphere, after 20:00, TO ROCOCO ROT's performance was about to begin at "SONARVILLAGE". I was looking forward to seeing them most this year and waited for a long time but the show didn't start. I was a little frustrated waiting until Robert Lippok, the front man of the band, appeared on the stage and suddenly grasped the microphone. No sooner than I thought "here they come at last!" something unpredictable happened! He shouted " it's f**king unbelievable! Why can't we f**king play? We could f**king play the gig even in this f**king rain in Germany! The organization f**king sucks and I am so f**king sick of it". ( All phrases were full of F words. ) It was a furious message against the sudden cancellation of the show. As "SONARVILLAGE" had no roof and there was no way even pitching a tent there, the show was aborted. It was really sad but I have no words for it, because nobody was more disappointed than the band members themselves were. There are tents to cover up the stage every year but I was told that these tents are for protecting the artists from the sunlight. Anyway, the live show by Carsten Nicolai at SONARCOMPLEX and Strategy ( They released a good album from CRANKY a short time ago!) at SONARLAB were really good. The main event of the "sonar by night" on the last day is the live performance by MASSIVE ATTACK! More than 2 million people were attracted with the show. To sum up, Sonar has been attractive for its artist coordination that is based on the history of a variety of sound approaches centered around the electronic music, a wide variety of arrangements of the art direction and its overall organization (except for the rain. ) The audience is great, too. They accept and enjoy these variations with no preconceptions. It has so much respect to the artist that it doesn't judge them by their name but by the quality of music or performance. Of course, organizing the party takes some more realistic approaches like finding sponsors, but more importantly, there must principally be a philosophy for the party. Many people are involved in Sonar every year and make it pretty unique, including artists, labels, distributors, promoters and media, who gather together and exchange the constructive information to put into practice the philosophy, and the audience who wants to enjoy the event. In addition to that, there is this atmosphere in Sonar where people from all over the world can share the primary feeling with each other. Every time I arrive at the Barcelona airport, I can't wait to see my friends in Barcelona and friends coming from South America, U.S.A., and Europe! This definitely is one of the most important things that motivate my ordinary life. We'll hold "sonarsound Tokyo 2004" in autumn. I promise I'll make it a great event!
Article : NIK
Taro Okamoto "Don't Kill" Fashion magazine Demo Plan!
Subsequent to the previous article, it is obvious that in no other countries than Japan and in no other times are people prevented from expressing "anger." There used to be a social system in which anyone's furious emotion could be directed at a particular aspect in the society and expressed effectively with the strong back ups from political ideology or disciplinary consciousness. Since these ground theories desperately collapsed, however, if you now make any attempt to express that sort of anger, your anger will be attributed to your personal quality, making you look like some short-temper punk kid or a gloomy looking middle-aged guy who always claims or a crazy pervert. It is highly probable that you will be placed under the category of similar proponents and swept away with a label of either right-wing or left wing. In any case, we have long been ignorant of the fact that we are living in the world where in expressing anger we must take a risk of being labeled as a crazy nuts and segregated. The scary thing about this social system is that the mass media has an initiative to superficially agitate the social circumstances by pretending to pose a question to the status quo, which makes "the common viewers" feel as if they were expressing their opinions through the media. This is a horrible disguise of hospitality that one could find at Disney Land and the reality is that it just makes individuals helpless. Thinking in this way, when you look at those Japanese Hip Hop kids who does nothing but being intoxicated with patriotism, it must not be attributed to their immaturity but it is an adaptive mode of the hype world today, isn't it? I should stop just convincing myself and start doing something about it. Evading the danger of "ism" that I mentioned above, Taro Okamoto comes across my mind as an icon that is widely known among the "common world." During 1967, when the world was in turmoil with the Vietnam War, Okamoto painted an anti-war propaganda message "Don't Kill" in Japanese and it appeared on the Washington post. Recently, that same message was re-used in Japanese newspapers or in some other media during the Iraq War as a symbol for anti-war sympathy. The "Don't Kill" badge designed by Makoto Wada is reintroduced as a contemporary version<korosuna_badge.jpg>, and now the white jacket on which the "Don't Kill" message is dyed in red is produced and put on the wax doll of Taro Okamoto. On the spread in the street fashion magazine it suddenly appeared in the name of "fashion opinion advertisement."<korosuna_demo.jpg> The brand's name is VITOACCONTI but it has nothing to do with the installation artist. This is the second special project that is subsequent to the one of printing on the garment Taro Okamoto's legendary 30-meter-wide gigantic mural painting "Ashita no Shinwa" on the theme of the tuna fishing boat Daigo Fukuryumaru exposed to the atomic radiation in the Bikini, which was discovered in Mexico in 2003 after 35 years of missing<korosuna_mythology.jpg>. The garment was worn by the Japanese pop singer Hitoto You <http://www.columbia.jp/~hitoto> in the annual NHK music award festival last year. "Ashita no Shinwa", as well as "Don't Kill", appeals to the disarmament and strongly expresses the human anger against the atrocity of war. The notable thing is that the energy from the artworks reaches at the level of universality, which has gone beyond the negative consciousness that the victims would generally hold. The emotional anger is intensively heightened, accelerated and collided with the opposing "living pleasure", so that it surpasses the dualistic structure and disgusting genre categorization in the modern society, evading the booby trap in which anger is reduced to personal quality. It finally throws light right on the political and social dimension from the most loathsome media, fashion magazine. How awful Taro Okamoto is! He is the explosion trickster who sculpted the super gigantic clay figure monument. By the way, this "Don't Kill" advert is for the free distribution of the "Don't Kill" badge for 10,000 people by Start Today. Inc., who takes charge of the web distribution of VITOACCONTI. ( You only send an empty mail to HYPERLINK mailto:stf@stty.jp and access to the URL that they return to you. It is also accessible from your mobile phone. ) The situation tells us that we've come to the point where we can express "anger" in a social and political way by wearing the "Don't kill badge." Still, even if we are appalled, there is no visible enemy in front of us. In that case, the "Don't Kill" badge is an essential item as an amulet in the contemporary society that makes visible the optic hype camouflage of the invisible authority system and reveals it right in front of us. ( Keita Fukazawa )
For the past few issues, SAL magazine has been taking up themes having to do with sound. The title of Vol. 10 was "Audiovisual," vol. 11 was "Audio," and this issue (vol. 12) has been created with the theme "Stereo Symmetry." In the world of audio, stereo sound is very common, with CD being the leading example. Monaural sound has can be found in situations that are disparate from the normal world of "audio," like in audio reference material, vocal communication on the telephone, and vocal recordings on an interview tape. Multi-channel audio, like 5.1ch, is starting to become popular with the spread of DVD, but as an environment for listening to music, stereo is undoubtedly the mainstream. It is widely recognized that the concept of stereo is based on the symmetrical structure of the human sensory organs. In the case of sight, it is only possible to cognize the directions of up, down, left, and right when one eye is closed; the dimension of depth is undeterminable.
The same basically goes for sound also. However, these sensory organs are not precisely symmetrical, (as can be seen in the complex structure of the human ear). Depth is discovered in the gap between the information that the two organs receive.
Stereo can be found anywhere in our everyday lives, but it is obvious that SAL magazine as a printed medium cannot record sound. When stereo is applied to the visual dimension, the concept of symmetry appears. Symmetry is a basic compositional archetype that is often used as a stable layout or as a design study, in a variety of fields such as painting, photography, and illustration. This issue's theme "Stereo Symmetry" is an interpretation of stereo from the point of view of a graphic magazine.
When we follow the historical path of symmetrical expression, we come upon a variety of patterns and figurative designs that have been passed down for generations in their respective regions. For example, symmetrical patterns are abundant in the visual dimension of religion, as can be seen in the design of altars. These anonymous works have been continuously produced for ages, in a context that is different from that of art. In our contemporary age, perhaps the embodiment of these anonymous works can be found in royalty-free compilations of sample images, which (ultimately) transcend the ego of the artist. Some of the images that can be found on the pages of this issue are photographic sample images. The layout, lighting, opening of the aperture, and shutter speed are all executed flawlessly with intricate craftsmanship, but the artist's ego has been completely excluded. These photos are anonymous in nature, and they are contenders against all works that are based on originality.
The graphics contributed by many artists for this issue are all remarkable. Some of the highlights of the issue are the collision between these artists' works and the anonymous graphics, and our interpretation of stereo/symmetry, which is a fundamental theme in both the audio and visual realms. Thanks to all the artists who participated in Vol.12: "Stereo Symmetry."(Jiro Ohashi)Link : NEW > oneΔ
SAL magazine Night 3.51 (photo): On June 24 (Thur.), SAL magazine Night 3.5 was held at the Apple Store in Ginza, to commemorate the release of the DVD "AUDIOVISUAL JAPAN," which was directed by SAL magazine. The main event was a talk show between Naohiro Ukawa and Towa Tei.
2 (photo): Before the event started, a very long and unexpected line of people waiting to get in formed outside the Apple Store. We apologize to the many people who came but could not get in. Sorry.
3 (photo): Before the opening, we passed out issues 10 and 11 of SAL magazine to the people who came. A middle-aged woman saw the crowd with SAL magazine in their hands on Chuou-Street of Ginza, and started calling someone on the phone. "I'm in Ginza right now, and I hear that a celebrity's going to appear." No they are not.
4 (photo): The event has finally begun! The photo shows the host for the night, who is an employee of the Apple Store. At this moment, nobody knows what he's going to go through later.
5 (photo): "Okay, next is Ohashi Jiro as DJ. Come on!" Ohashi Jiro's DJ performance begins with an introduction that seems more fit for an up and coming comedian. He was actually supposed to do both DJ and VJ, but due to system trouble, he could only DJ. It was a strange fifteen minutes, with the crowd sitting in their seats and listening to the DJ play. Some of the things he played were a countdown for the lift-off of a rocket at Tanegashima Space Station, North-European electronica, N.E.R.D., Towa Tei, artists in "AUDIOVISUAL JAPAN" like Omodaka, and for some reason, DEVO. He then passed the show on to the two speakers.
6 (photo): "Thank you Mr. Jiro Ukawa!" (said the host). What? No, you've mistaken his name. Next is the main event, the talk show between Naohiro Ukawa and Towa Tei. The two spoke about their stance towards creation, using the keywords "op-funk" and "loud minority." The crowd carefully listened to their deep conversation.
7 (photo): During the talk show, the topic of how the way the host spoke was strange (in a good way) came up. The two speakers spoke this and that about the host, and they even started talking about getting him to participate in the next album. Within this unpredictable development, we were surprised at how the host reacted in a calm manner. This is what being a professional is all about. Ohashi says that "The employees of Apple are effective on the site."
8 (photo) (photo): "Okay, thank you Mr. Towa Tei, Mr. Jiro Ukawa!" (said the host). That's not his name! The forty minute talk show went by quickly. The final program was the screening of a digest version of "AUDIOVISUALJAPAN." The crowd stared at the screen seriously when the music clip of "Audio Sex," the work that the two artists were explaining earlier, went on.
9 (photo): There were a couple of things that went wrong, but the event finished without any real trouble. This photo shows the site after the event finished. Both speakers were agreeably signing autographs for the audience. The next event is going to be SAL magazine Night 4.0. The date is uncertain, but we'll inform you when something is decided. Please come again!
Article: Mayako SakainoPhotos: Mayako Sakaino / Azusa Iwasaki / Azusa Hitomi
SAL magazine night 3.5 Movie report<sal3.5.mov> 3MB/57secondDirector : Mifumi Obata
Check out the movie from SAL magazine night 3.5 held on 6.24 at the Apple store in Ginza. Commemorating for the release of DVD "AUDIOVISUALJAPAN", SAL magazine featured the talk show of Naohiro Ukawa, who appears in the DVD, and Tei Towa. The short footages from the DVD were also shown after the DVJ performance by Jiro Ohashi, the chief editor of SAL magazine.From this salmagazine.org 003 for the next few months, we will show each time the different versions of the digest images taken at the event, where about 900 people were lining up on the street for the entry in spite of the store's capacity of 200 people.
HUMaNS BY MIKe MILLS gallery at bil-air HarajukuHUMaNS is the new project of Mike Mills, who received a wide popularity in the Graffiti scene in 90's. HUMaNS gallery is now open at bil - air in Harajuku. Focusing on the window installation that changes anew every month, the gallery sells textiles, T-shirts, scarves, bags and books, all of which are designed on the concept brought by Mike Mills. The textiles are the feature goods and have many variations in design such as HUMaNS typography, leaves pattern, graphic and geometric pattern. Since it is dealing with not only ready-made goods but also the textile itself, you are free to arrange it in anyway you like. <mills_texsture.jpg> On 6.25, Mike himself visited Japan in spare moments from the movie shooting and the gallery showed the new window installation for his visit. Creators from both USA and Japan such as Susan Cianciolo, Kime Buzzelli, ADAPTER, Schnabel Effects, Kou Chihara welcomed Mike and started the collaboration exhibition. As well as the ordinary outfits like cloths and sneakers <mills_shoe.jpg>, the items such as the face mask created by Kou Chihara <mills_chihara.jpg> and the kitty bag by ADAPER were all made up of HUMaNS textiles and it looked like he was pretty much happy with them and sharing the good time with the audience. The owner of the shop, known as a huge fun of Mike, sponsored the exhibition and made it full of Mike's air, by which Mike himself was surprised saying "this is crazy!"Article / Photo : Azusa HitomiΔ
Publisher + Editor : Jiro OhashiEditor : Kurando FuruyaEditorial Staff : Ryutaro Uchiyama / Dai Matsuoka / Kana Satomi / Azusa Iwasaki / Azusa Hitomi / Mifumi Obata / Mayako SakainoWeb Engineering : Pre PlantContributer : Shiura / Keita Fukasawa / nik / Hiroshi Iguchi(The Bwoy)Design Adviser : Hideki Inaba / Masanori Izumi
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