Posts tagged Japanese.

f-l-e-u-r-d-e-l-y-s:

Asobi by Yasutoki Kariya

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This is beautiful.

And I have something to say.

It’s easy* enough to make art with a scientific aesthetic. That’s what the above is. That’s what artists like Brendan Monroe do. I‘ve done it. I’ve even complained about it.

It’s also easy enough to make art that teaches well-known scientific principles. For example, this photograph, from Caleb Charland’s { “Demonstrations” }, quite literally demonstrating a known phenomenon in a creative way:

However, the most difficult is, often, to make art that is filled with a sense of Scientific Literacy. Meaning: not art that shows scientific concepts in some way, but that is a result of them. A result of what happens when one’s entire philosophy (the way one sees the world, therefore how one proceeds in it) changes due to an (even basic) understanding of what the world is, of how it works. It is not art that “knows everything”, but art that comes from awe, from not knowing but also not inventing filler stuff for the gaps, and from the curiosity of an explorer. 

Closer to this is work like that of Yayoi Kusama (although usually attributed to her disease rather than any deliberate scientific goal, her personal idea of the Infinite is relevant) and of Buckminster Fuller (whose works were created with a conscious understanding of natural philosophy).

I’m always thinking about this last. How can it be done? What needs to be done? Because Art is really the only arena where something so “far out” can be done.

But for now, back to studying pendulum motion for real. Sometimes the path ahead seems so impossibly long and clouded.

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*When I say easy, I don’t mean that it’s easy to create those works in a way that’s original, interesting, beautiful, powerful, etc. A way that stays with you. Monroe is a great artist, as is Charland — as simple as that magnet & nails image is, I’ve never forgotten it. That’s something, and worthy of respect.

via { f-l-e-u-r-d-e-l-y-s }

 { “Grimoire” } vintage boutique in Tokyo

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The website is beautiful!

I love the nonaligned, floating sets — especially the bit with the ships and maps! Would be great to code this (or similar) without the use of Flash; I’d imagine that the “floating” look wouldn’t be too difficult, but not sure about the drag-able interface. I’ve never attempted the latter outside of ActionScript but have always wanted to use that.

{ TOKYU AGENCY }: TAG REACTION | RECRUIT 採用サイト |

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Beautiful, simple web design & again, lovely code.
…or maybe I just like it because it looks a little { familiar }.

Thank you, { Art Served }, for featuring the { Time Immersion Cubicle } today!

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The TIC is an immersive, wearable art work inspired by a Japanese koan, ephemerality, and theories about space-time.

Olena Shmahalo, 2009.

Image: Issey Miyake

Christopher Forte: { Japan — An Ascetic Aesthetic }

There is a notion of modesty and subtlety, a respect for ceremony and procedure, an approach to duty and honor – that is unique to Japan. To the western eye these values are construed as anything from hopelessly anachronistic to downright obsessive – yet they contribute to a reverence for aesthetics that is utterly unique and exquisitely complex. This distinctive approach to all that appeals to the senses has, over centuries, imbued the Japanese with a veritable omnibus of terms that define everything from the simplest idea of placement (shibui: austerity of taste – not concealing the true nature of an object – a vase is a vase, a toaster is a toaster…) to the most esoteric concepts of shaping space (aji: where the incongruity of the object speaks of the congruity of the whole – the idea of sleeves filled with nothing, of space filled only with color…)

wildcat2030:

At this year’s Coachella music festival, slain rapper Tupac Shakur was resurrected for a performance with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Projected as a two-dimensional image, abs still ripped in the pixilated afterlife, Virtual ’Pac alternately dazzled and freaked out the crowd 15 years after his shooting. Forget keeping it real; thug life just got surreal. Kind of creepy but not exactly cutting-edge: Hologram Tupac was actually a 19th-century magic trick called Pepper’s Ghost, an image projected onto glass tilted 45 degrees. Pepper’s Gangsta, if you will, was flashed in high definition on Mylar, but it’s basically the same wizardry used by local community theaters for spectral castmembers. …

’Pac might be the baddest projection out there, but he’s neither the first nor the most audaciously futuristic. The latter distinction belongs to Japan’s virtual pop star Hatsune Miku, a digital-android pixie in aquamarine pigtails and knee-high boots. She performs via basically the same technology as Tupac, with flesh-and-blood musicians as her backup band. Since 2009, the Japanese-pop divatar has performed shows in her native land, as well as a Los Angeles debut at the Nokia Theater during the 2011 Anime Expo. In March, she sold 10,000 tickets for $76 a pop in Tokyo. Her most viewed clip on YouTube, in which she sings her megahit { “World Is Mine” } has gotten more than 15 million hits.

(via I Sing the Body Electric - LA Times Magazine)

sublime?

(via bloodmilk)

So amazing. Thanks, { Mackenzie }.

gurafiku:

Japanese Poster: D&AD: Exhibition Of Creative Awards. 2008

(via 50watts)

protrusions:

Original Japanese Geta from Tokyo: { eBay }

+ { more shoes & a tooled leather bag }

{ wangzhihong }

wildcat2030:

Japanese researchers say that they’ve discovered a simple way to make wind turbines up to three times as efficient. By placing a ‘wind lens’ around the turbine blades, they claim that wind power could become cheaper than nuclear. Kyushu University professor Yuji Ohya spoke of the merits of the 112-meter diameter structures being able to increase energy output “two or three fold”, as well as being about to reduce the dreaded noise pollution so often associated with wind turbines, and improve safety too. The futuristic design was unveiled at Yokohama Renewable Energy International Exhibition 2010. (via Japan has wind lens turbine design that generates triple the power of regular wind turbines)

Google translated as: Combat Clothing
Something to do with Vivienne Westwood and Gothic Lolita.

Anyway, the cover design is wonderful. Nice way to lay out information.

(via everythingjapanese)